Essentially all that the Flames have done, is theorize where they want the building to go, had a few high level renderings done, and come up with a proposed method of paying for the building (for marketting to the public only). Really, that's only a couple of weeks work, at most. I think calling the idea "half baked" is being quite kind.
The Flames saw that the city had a plan for the future for the west village. Then they plunked there building down on the prime land of the area, and assumed that the city would be all supportive of the idea, and would have no issues with how the area works. Really, they did less than that, since the city's plan has roads moving, and the Flames have left roads unmoved.
The Flames want $200 million from a CRL - however, the CRL would also have to include the costs of cleanup, building and moving roads, + all of the rest of the infrastructure upgrades. That leaves the CRL at at least $500 million, but the arena/stadium itself has taken up ALL of the best land that might make a CRL work.
Did the Flames ownership spend time trying to collect the neccessary land? - No, the don't want to own the land.
Knowing that their plan was to have the city retain ownership of the land, did they talk to the city to try and work together to make a plan that would work for everyone? - No, apparently not, since basically none of the concerns the city might have have been addressed.
Did the Flames Ownership ask the city if they could get cleanup quotes for the land? - No, they say they researched it and "think it costs much less than everyone is speculating".
Did they work with the city to see what their needs for a feildhouse would be? - It doesn't sound like it.
Ultimately, I think the project that goes ahead will be beautiful, and state of the art. I have no problems with the owner supplied share, the ticket tax, or the city redirecting money from a feildhouse to this complex (provided that it meets the needs of the city's hopes for said fieldhouse). The CRL portion is where the whole model breaks down. The east village CRL seems to be working great, but the whole CRL is MUCH less than the total of what this West Village CRL would have to be. And for the east village CRL, the city convieniently included the land that the Bow Tower was taking up, giving the East Village an "anchor tenant" - essentially ensuring that the East village CRL would work. The West village CRL would have no such anchor, and the complex would take up the majority, and best portion of the lands in question, all while paying no Property Tax, since it would be owned by the city.
In short, the Flames ownership is going to have to put another half billion of their own funds or so to make this plan work. They should probably start working on assembling the land for themselves, while working with the city on figuring out where the city wants to move the roads to, and how to transfer the lands required to make that happen. That way, the Flames take all the risk on the cleanup, if they are so sure it can be done cheaply, they shouldn't have any issue with this, and perhaps could get a deal from the city on the land.
Also, if the city puts in $200 million for the feildhouse, the city should get all control and revenue from the feildhouse part (except for Stamps games, or something like that).
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