Flames Seek New Stadium

[radoran]

http://www.si.com/nhl/2015/08/18/calgary-flames-new-arena-fieldhouse-stadium-proposal

 

As Calgary’s neighbors in Edmonton continue to build their privately funded $480 million Rogers Place, which is expected to open for the Oilers in plenty of time for the 2016-17 season, the Flames offered up a solution to replace their 32-year-old Scotiabank Saddledome along with the city’s 55-year-old McMahon Stadium.

The entire project will be paid for with contributions of $200 million from the Flames’ ownership group, $250 million in ticket taxes, $240 million from a community revitalization levy, and $200 million from the city to fund the community fieldhouse. King said it will take three years to build once the planning, permitting and site contamination remediation activities—which could take up to two years—wrap up. Once the complex is built, the city would own it.

 

A plan to tax Flames fans $250M, another "levy" of $240M and have the City pony up an additional $200M. And then, no doubt, pay the Flames to run the place.

 

I am simply not a fan of publicly-funded stadiums.

 

What thinks the forum?

[JR Ewing]

Random thoughts

-That thing looks hideous.

-I do NOT like publicly-funded stadiums either. Not one little bit.

-I actually LOL'd at the part in this article which referred to the Edmonton arena deal as "privately funded". Of the nearly $700M in costs to build the arena, owner Daryl Katz is on the hook for annual payments of $6.5M which go towards construction bills. But... Katz claws back that money because he gets $10M in naming rights as well as an extra $2M in advertising the city does around the arena. This arena is 100% publicly funded, but as usual, is passed off as privately funded. What a joke.

-The site which King proposed requires creosote contamination cleanup, which could cost upwards of $350M. No word on who will pay that or how that money will materialize. Bank on this, though: the Flames intend to put $0 towards that.

-I like how they mention that city will put in $200M to fund the field house, and then mention a $240M "community revitalization levy", which is just another way of saying that the city will re-direct a whack of civic tax money to the arena deal. This is a way of trying to pass a $440M bill into a $200M expense.