Quote:
Originally Posted by Major Major
The partnership has never been disputed. The city agreed to put in substantial cash. Katz agreed then renegged to get essentially the entirety of the bill payed for. Then when they said no, Katz made wild and irresponsible threats that were also ridiculous. Then once both parties cooled down, they put another deal in place, it just happens to be missing a bunch of money. The city has been a willing partner the entire time. That is not the problem here.
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I'd agree that the city of Edmonton has been doing everything it can to get the deal done. The problem appears to be that Katz wants the thing for free. He seems to expect that the city and/or provinical government will put up virtually all of the funds to build the arena, and he gets to collect all the profits. Pretty sweet deal if you can get it I suppose.
If I'm not mistaken, the only money Katz is actually putting up is offset by the advertising deal that the City of Edmonton has committed to inside the new facility, right? And wasn't their a "management fee" or something that they were going to pay to Katz? Anything else can likely be offset by the naming rights - so basically Katz doesn't put any money in, and gets all the concessions, parking and other advertising monies, not to mention the tickets, luxery boxes, etc.
Edmonton citizens are morons if the agree to that deal.