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Originally Posted by Thunderball
Tell me what museum or library generates tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue per year, creates as much spin off commercial benefit and creates strong international awareness of a region.
As for Post Secondary, that education only makes society better when its in a field that helps society, otherwise, its extremely expensive to fund "leisure degrees". Someone going to school to get a master's in Canadian Studies or Film Studies is a poor investment for society compared to someone getting a B.Ed or MD or B.Eng. or BN or LLB. If we only subsidizied programs that result in "beneficial" programs and degrees, then that argument might float. Otherwise, its simply paying people to pursue their interests, that, if we're lucky, will benefit society.
Back on point, Professional sports teams add a dynamic to a city that is extremely beneficial. Every major city on earth has at least one or two major sports teams that the local governments support with tax deals, land deals and stadium deals.
You simply can't think of it as poor taxpayers sponsoring rich athletes. When you break it down, its really spending about 20 million per year on a venue that can attract top tier athletics, concerts and other shows. 20m x 25 years (facilitiy lifetime)= $500 million. It looks daunting because governments don't plan for it. Pretty sure the AB income tax (10% of ~65m) of the Flames players and ownership alone over that time would cover the provincial share.
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It's not like Edmonton and Calgary do not have venues for these events. They may be a little old but Rexall Place and the Saddledome are both adequate to the task. The city isn't being asked to subsidize a venue to improve the city because one doesn't exist. They are being asked because the current one doesn't have enough luxury boxes, because other cities have newer ones so we need to also, because it has capped it's revenue generating ability. So it's not like they can't place hockey in these buildings, it's that they won't because they want to make more money.
When the teams were in danger of having no attendence and moving because of it I could understand the municipality stepping up to keep it here, but to pay half on a new building that in multiple research will not contribute any negligible should not be a priority of government.
Your math is nice, but when the city is attracting the likes of U2 and Paul McCartney already and the new building will add maybe 1000 seats or more the revenue increase will be no where near what you project.
The owners are local business people aren't going to be up and moving because the city doesn't build an arena, most of their real money is tied up in the province or they wouldn't be here in the first place.