[News] Calgary, Alberta, & CSEC agree in principle to $1.223bn Event Centre + infrastructure

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Was the Corral ever used much in its later years?

I graduated from high school there.

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

I probably missed it somewhere, but when will the new event center break ground and when it will open?

Thought I heard nothing will be shown or discussed until everything is officially signed off on, and that would have to wait until after the election

[getbak]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

I probably missed it somewhere, but when will the new event center break ground and when it will open?

That's it! You're off John Bean's Christmas Card list.

[GioforPM]

Notley's gonna have comments today she says.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

I graduated from high school there.

There's just gotta be a Superdogs joke here somewhere.

[t0rrent98]

One positive thing that's come out of this horrific season 🤣

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by IamNotKenKing

Thanks for calling me (usually) pretty fair. I try to be.

I think wording is important, though, as one can easily say "double the price of the last arena deal", as one of my partners did this morning having only seen a headline, and I called him out on that.

Speaking frankly, I have no idea how other municipalities spend their money (and kinda don't care) but someone did comment on the Titans receiving $1.2B in Public Financing earlier today. That only gets you 9 home games...
Is that worse?

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...blic-financing

According to Stephenson and Wegner, financing for the project includes the largest public subsidy for a stadium in United States history of at least $1.26 billion.

Fair enough. As for the Titans, that deal also sucks, but I see it as being in the same kind of category. Of course a worse way to spend that kind of money is to spend more of it on the same kind of thing, but I don’t know if it’s in the spirit of what I’m thinking. I’m just genuinely curious what these “worse ways” Calgary could reasonably spend this money are.

We know there are better ways, many of which have been listed in the thread. But you’ve got around $1b to spend on a major project in Calgary… how much worse could it get?

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Was the Corral ever used much in its later years?

Last time I was there I saw the TNG reunion. Before that it was the SuperDogs.

[CF84]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-a...rict-1.6370698


Not to nitpick of details, but how does a parkade cost $235.4 million, and what is the public benefit of that? This fancy repurposable parkade with 503 spots cost $80 million:


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...cmlc-1.6041589


Is this new one encased in gold?

I would assume that a parkade for the event center would need have more spots than 503. A parkade of 500 spots would only provide parking for around 10% of an arena if there were 4 people per vehicle.

Rogers Arena has a parkade with 792 spots and I would guess that Calgary's will be even larger. The parkade you posted isn't heated and is open to the elements, and an enclosed and heated parkade will greatly increase the cost.
...not encased in gold, but likely larger and far more convenient during cold winter events.


Edit: Nevermind. Now I can see the real total of the parkade, and it makes the cost of an $80 million parkade look really bad. That was built during the pandemic though so I can only imagine that the cost of materials was far greater.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Jordan!

What lawsuit?

Is this a serious question?

Or did I miss some breaking news that Tempe and Phoenix have settled their differences.

Obviously I’m kidding about $4 billion actually being spent by anyone but using Tempe as a template for a fair deal seems disingenuous considering it is mired in conflict and threatened litigation.

[Elkyiv]

with the cost being this high, why not have a local referendum and see where Calgarians stand on the issue? Wasn't that the case for the 26 Olympic bid?

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Elkyiv

with the cost being this high, why not have a local referendum and see where Calgarians stand on the issue? Wasn't that the case for the 26 Olympic bid?

We already elected the council to figure out the arena deal.

And we ####ed up the Olympic referendum too - how good would that extra $5B in federal/provincial investment look now, eh?

Just build the frickin thing before a piece of the Saddledome roof falls off and kills Elton John.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Elkyiv

with the cost being this high, why not have a local referendum and see where Calgarians stand on the issue? Wasn't that the case for the 26 Olympic bid?

They know it would fail

[Funkhouser]

As far as the City’s expenditure, I don’t see this as an excessive or burdensome amount. Honestly, a few hundred million doesn’t go very far when it comes to major facilities these days.

What grinds my gears is the pittance that the Flames are paying. $40M plus rent in the form of a loan.

Why didn’t the city just finance the entire thing at this point? At least then the City could get revenues for the naming fees and non sport events while charging the Flames a market rent (tied to inflation) for every sporting event. Just not clear what the Flames are bringing to the table here. Will they be responsible for building maintenance?

[Jbo]

I swear to god, you tax police take all the fun out of everything

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

I can *sort of* buy the idea that a new venue does keep some entertainment dollars in Calgary (and by extension Edmonton). Because folks would be less inclined to fly to Vancouver or Seattle or wherever for acts that as John Bean said see it being worth flying over the Rockies because they can hit up both cities.

But there is something to be said for local dollars being spent locally, but just differently.

Calgary has already prioritized spending locally and differently for decades. We're 1.5-2.0 million people in this metro area and have the sports venue quality of a city of 250,000 to 500,000. We have a crumbling arena from the early 80s and a 1960s era concrete slab football stadium. We have literally overprioritized 'differently' all over the place forever. It's time to do this and get it done.

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by Funkhouser

As far as the City’s expenditure, I don’t see this as an excessive or burdensome amount. Honestly, a few hundred million doesn’t go very far when it comes to major facilities these days.

What grinds my gears is the pittance that the Flames are paying. $40M plus rent in the form of a loan.

Why didn’t the city just finance the entire thing at this point? At least then the City could get revenues for the naming fees and non sport events while charging the Flames a market rent (tied to inflation) for every sporting event. Just not clear what the Flames are bringing to the table here. Will they be responsible for building maintenance?

Higher season ticket prices for sure!

[Demzy84]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

We already elected the council to figure out the arena deal.

And we ####ed up the Olympic referendum too - how good would that extra $5B in federal/provincial investment look now, eh?

Just build the frickin thing before a piece of the Saddledome roof falls off and kills Elton John.

Everyone I know who voted no on the 2026 Olympics were worried about cost overruns and that the $330M the city had estimated to pay would turn into $1B or more

And now, here we are spending $1.2B on an entertainment district instead of getting a new arena, a revamped WinSport/Oval/McMahon Stadium, and a 5000 person arena next to McMahon

[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by Bonded

They know it would fail

To be fair, I'm pretty sure the $230 million for the Central Library would have failed as well. That's why you can't put all these things Tina referendum, as then you end up living in a Soviet style concrete city.

I think we need to see what is included in the spend beyond "infrastructure" and what the public spaces will look like. Then we can Jude the cost/benefit to the city.

[bizaro86]

I haven't seen this asked and think I covered the whole thread.

Does this deal include any commitment to the Flames remaining in Calgary for a certain period of time? Publicly financed stadium deals in other cities have often had a minimum year commitment to not move the team...