Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Actually they do avoid Calgary because of the arena.
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How many towns of a million people get world class musical acts. It is not like the biggest acts in the world will show up in Quebec City just because they got a new arena. I bet you are at most missing out on 10 concerts a year, that is the additional revenue that a new building would raise in Calgary, probably even less in Edmonton because truly big acts will play at Commonwealth.
600 million dollars the government will be putting into this and what will the people get out of it? Virtually nothing, limited economic growth and a shiny white elephant they can call their own.
In 2009 300,000 kids played minor hockey in Canada. If you assume that Alberta has 10% of that, reflecting their percentage of the population, that would be 30,000 kids. Average registration fees are around 700 bucks.
It costs 21 million dollars a year in registration fees. The government gift that Katz is being given could literally pay for 29 years of minor hockey registration fees in Alberta. But this seems like a much better use of the money.