[Senator Clay Davis]

The city should be willing to provide support infrastructure and that should be the extent of it. Build a new train station right at the arena? Great. Build a new overpass or a new road or two for the arena? Fine.

But a new arena itself is designed for one purpose, to maximize revenue for the owners. These are almost undisputed facts about new arenas: There will be fewer seats than the current arena in order for there to be more luxury boxes, and tickets will cost more, usually starting around 10% more and going up over time.

If this city or province for instance had no issues, contributing to an arena is more tolerable. With the debt growing, infrastrucute projects badly needed (particularly for a rapidly growing population), and the rising age of the population (and subsequent skyrocketing health care costs), contributing significant dollars to making billionaires richer is an utterly impossible sell.