Quote:
Originally Posted by Regorium
You must think you are literally the only person in the entire world that knows what a multiplier effect is.
For the last time it does not matter if you bring an extra 200,000 tickets in a year for which the city is going to see a couple million in revenue, with a couple million more in businesses around it (sidenote: arenas do not generate businesses around them, but let's assume they do), when you spend a billion dollars to do it.
If you spent the billion dollars to build condos, plazas, music halls (east village), you will see a much much much larger multiplier effect than an arena with a few extra concerts.
If your end game is jobs, spending the billion dollars to attract some tech company to move to Calgary will be cheaper and more effective than the arena.
The arena is basically the worst economic choice in every single way when considering the opportunity cost. However, the social and emotional benefits of having an NHL team may outweigh the horrible economic cost. That's for the city (and us) to decide, but don't try to argue economic benefits when it's basically been proven over and over that there are none.
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1) the city is not being asked to spend a billion dollars
2) the city does not spend money on condos. However, condos are a terrible example for the argument you are trying to make because they are one of the strongest examples of replacement - if it isn't built here, it will be built elsewhere, because the number of condos built will reflect overall demand, regardless of where they are built. Plazas will be built where the demand is - like near a new downtown arena, for example. And they aren't something the city needs to be involved in regardless.
3) I would love to here how you think music halls create more of a multipler than an arena does.
4) agree that attracting new businesses to Calgary is the best way to create jobs. This is not an either/or issue here, however. Also, as you suggested, having new facilities can only increase your success rate for attracting new businesses.
5) Your hyperbole in the final paragraph is ridiculous. I never argued that an arena is the greatest investment a city could make. I am simply arguing against the people that say there is no multiplier effect. There most certainly is.