If the Flames were really serious about this proposal and if there really was "no Plan B" then they would have had something more serious to present. By presenting something so ill-defined and vague they've allowed other people to define it for them, which is Nenshi and others who've said this is a big waste of money that doesn't make any sense.
If the proposal had actually been in the hopper for 5+ years and they had showed detailed mock-ups of the site, the infrastructure needs, the community plan, the developers and other partners joining up and their assessment of the total costs (including clean up) then there would have been something serious for the City to bat back.
This leads me to believe it's all a smoke screen and that this has been a springboard to get the conversation started between the city and the Stampede board.
Nobody can seriously think that this billion-plus dollar project is going to be gestated from what's been proposed so far? The well's been mostly poisoned by the lack of clarity and seriousness of the proposal. If 70% of a freaking Flames fans board can't even get onboard how is public opinion shaping up?
No, I think this proposal was just a way to start the conversation on the "Plan B" (which is actually Plan A), that being the mix of key stakeholders (city, Stampede Board, land owners) that need to hammer their heads together to make a deal. I don't think the Flames found the appetite of these stakeholders to be that forthcoming in the five years previous so they threw something out there to publicly start some type of process.
Ownership also probably finally faced up to the fact that there would be no money coming from higher-levels of government which would have also kickstarted a process. Without that seed they needed something like "CalgaryNEXT" to bring people to the table. I'm confident that this "proposal"will be off the table by the end of 2016 with a more reasonable project being discussed privately.
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