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Old 11-27-2014, 09:57 AM   #2852
Enoch Root
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis View Post
If the Flames leave Calgary tomorrow, the city will live on believe it or not. If all the O&G companies left town tomorrow, the city would collapse and the population would flee. The Flames are not an essential component of life, being gainfully employed is (or how else do you expect to attend a game?). Those companies are more valuable than the Flames to Calgary without question, not even close. The Flames bring you entertainment and as such are no different than a movie theatre. You'll find other forms of entertainment if the Flames leave. If there's no good employment here? You're either moving or having a crappy quality of life.

O&G and many more corporations are here because of the tax structure of Alberta (namely, it's low). If the tax structure sucked they'd simply have their head offices somewhere else but still have operations in the Oil Sands. Having a NHL team around has little to nothing to do with it. If tomorrow Nova Scotia said it was lowering its corporate tax rate to 1%, many corporations would be setting up shop there. Happens all the time in America where over half of all publicly traded companies are incorporated in Delaware. Companies go where the taxes are cheap, and Alberta is the cheapest in Canada.
Of course jobs are more important than a hockey team - thanks tips!

But that does not change the fact that sports franchises are in fact important to the community.

A perfect example currently sits 280 kms to the north. If the Oilers didn't matter, would people really pay money to put up billboards?

It is part of the human condition. It's our tribe against their tribe (and yes, I know that the players aren't actually from the tribe, but that doesn't seem to matter to us humans - as long as they're wearing our paint, they are us!).

There is no question that sports teams are part of the fabric of what makes a city a community.

Simple observation proves this unequivocally.

Pulling out the 'the city would live on without them' argument is emotional rhetoric.

What this conversation needs is sensibility. There is a solution. Trying to help find it is far more useful than emotionally charged, extreme-point-of-view, soap-box speaches.

Last edited by Enoch Root; 11-27-2014 at 10:02 AM.
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