Quote:
Originally Posted by Cappy
Again, the issue. There is no applicant. There is no application. There is a letter. There was a public presentation. There was Gary Bettman saying "I would love to meet with the mayor about the proposal". There was Nenshi saying "if nothing has changed, then its a waste of time."
Done. End of story. Next topic.
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No, this would be huge over-simplification of how these things get done. You don't put forward a detail application on something like this without some significant preliminary agreements and concessions. The costs of doing an actual application for this project would be in millions. Why spend them if there is no consensus on principles? CSEC decided to take a chance and see the public/government reaction to their idea. Yes, bad idea. Yes, not well-thought. Yes, on the wrong site. These are all of the things that are going to be vetted and phased out pretty quickly. But, this should also have been a catalyst for the initiation of a constructive dialogue. And Nenshi very rudely said, "not interested unless you have something new to say". I'd say, a very bad and near-sighted call. He should be interested. Flames franchise is worth hundreds of millions of $US dollars. If sold and moved to a US buyer, the owners stand to take huge profits (at the time when all of them are bleeding losses in their O&G businesses). While Calgary hockey community and general community both stand to lose big time from the loss of the franchise, if that's in fact is the risk. So, there are mutual benefits to solving this collectively and cooperatively.
Anyone thinking or saying that this should be 100% paid for by CSEC are living in some weird world of reality denial or posturing. All NHL franchises in North America are in one way or another supported by public financing through taxation relief, special guaranteed usage rights, subsidized leases, sponsored loans and direct cash investments. How much of each and what specifically this financing could include should be the real question on the table and it is for CSET and City Council to negotiate.