Some members of the Calgary Flames organization do not appear happy that Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi won a third-consecutive term on Monday.
The City of Calgary and the NHL's Flames had been involved in talks to replace the 34-year-old Saddledome, but those discussions broke off weeks ago.
With Nenshi leading those talks, the possibility of a new mayor at the helm of city coffers seemed enticing to the hockey team, with Gordon Norrie, vice president of the Flames' parent company, even publicly lending his support to another mayoral candidate.
A great day for change! Cast your vote today for change! @TeamBillSmith pic.twitter.com/k75RnYvo3X
— Gordon Norrie (@CalgaryFlamesVP) October 16, 2017
Nenshi ended up winning his re-election campaign, and shortly thereafter a tweet from Flames director of communications and media relations Sean Kelso was posted comparing Nenshi to U.S. president Donald Trump.
Kelso's tweet was quickly deleted, but a screenshot made the rounds on Twitter.
Flames communications director tweets some ungoodwill about Nenshi. h/t @CarrieTait pic.twitter.com/SHQkllRMBK
— Jason Markusoff (@markusoff) October 17, 2017
The Flames released a statement on Tuesday defending Kelso's deleted tweet as a "personal opinion" that does not reflect the team's position.
"We feel very strongly that our staff are entitled to their own personal opinions on political issues and otherwise, and, in fact, is their democratic right," the Flames' statement read.
"We would not interfere with that right. Notwithstanding the above, those individuals and opinions are not to be misinterpreted as representing the corporate position of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC)."
When asked about Kelso's tweet, Nenshi was quick to condemn the message.
"I have no idea who this person this is, I've never met him, and boy, what an out-of-touch tweet to send," Nenshi said during an appearance on the Calgary Eyeopener, adding that Norrie had also been openly supporting his opposition. "If you really want to have some fun, check out one of the senior VPs of CSEC's twitter feed for the last several weeks. Nasty personal attacks on me, retweeting weird, right-wing websites, making no secret of the fact they wanted to get rid of me."
Nenshi admitted that relations between himself and the Flames — and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman — could continue to be strained for the foreseaeable future, but that he is still keeping the door open on revisiting discussions for a new arena in the city.
"I don't anticipate I'm going to get any phone calls from Bettman or [CSEC president Ken] King today or next week or the week after. But maybe some months from now they'll find that they're ready to come back and have a conversation with us."