Quote:
Originally Posted by belsarius
Ya and in those 13 years the minimum price of an Oiler ticket has gone from $20 to $50, the games have gone from having huge empty holes to packed every night, and now the owner, who spends maybe 2 months a year actually in Edmonton wants the taxpayer to shell out for a building to make him even richer?
This isn't about not wanting to be a top tier city, if the city put up half the costs and got half of the revenues then I'm cool with it. I am not cool with lining the pockets of a billionaire who is too busy flying around to other cities on his private jets then actually fronting the money for a venture that will undoubtly pay off in the long run.
The government is not supposed to be in the business of subsidizing private industry, so until Katz is willing share the profits I'm not willing to share my income to make him richer.
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you are missing the bigger picture dude, it's not about how much money Katz will or won't make/spend. he's rich now he will be rich later.
it's about how much money the rest of us can make because of the growth downtown, more development means more businesses which means more money overall...tax revenue, wages, opportunity for advancement, raising the proifile of the city which drives even more investment and drags more money in.
look at how many new develpments are already proposed for downtown...the arena is driving that development.
in the end we all benefit. besides, I'd much rather go to a game or concert downtown than way out in the northeast...that area is a dump