Quote:
Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard
I didn't realize that there were people in Edmonton who were starving to survive under the authoritarian rule of a King or a Czar. Fact is that Edmonton needs a new arena, Rexall Place is just too damn old and I doubt that Katz has the assets to go it alone on a new arena, especially when there are positive effects for the city of Edmonton and the province of Alberta that need to be recognized.
Fact is that if Edmonton doesn't get a new arena I wouldn't be surprised to see them leave in the next 5-10 years, which hurts both Edmonton and Alberta from a financial and from a civic pride standpoint. At the end of the day the province will likely chip something in indirectly from a top up of some fund that will be put towards the arena by the city.
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Are you seriously telling me the Edmonton Oilers, whose estimated value is 225 million, owned by man whose net worth is estimated at two billion dollars, a man who is the majority share holder of a company whose worth is billions more, cannot take out a line of credit and build a rink?
Are you telling me it is the city of Edmonton's responsibility to run a deficit, or cut public spending, so it can give out an interest free loan to the Oilers ownership group.
And for that matter, why would anybody want to help a man who is negotiating with the government and says: "I can justify the subsidization of this hockey arena because it is good for the community." At the same time, he is threatening to relocate the team if he doesn't get a government hand out, and is a member of a board who has shut down the game of hockey.
Professional hockey is a business, and this arena stands to make an already extremely wealthy man, even wealthier. The Oilers ownership group has the resources and the credit to build an arena. But why would anybody take out a massive line of credit from a bank and deal with interest charges, when the city of Edmonton will take all the risk for you.
In some ways this is like asking your parents to help you out in buying a house. But when the parents are struggling to get by, and the child has billions of dollars, most people would be completely disgusted by the audacity of the child, and tell him to build his own freakin' house.