There are smarter people than I who can speak to the financial portion, but from a designers perspective, a couple of thoughts:
1) Even if it feels a bit claustrophobic, I'm glad they are at least thinking of connecting to the river, instead of having a street run between the stadium and the river like they did in the last round. Their tunnel idea doesn't sound particularly cheap of course (and Im not sure if its realistic), but it at least shows some creativity.
I still feel like handing the community planning over to CMLC is the right step. This thing has to be looked at as a whole...and the Flames aren't the right people to do that.
2) The design of the whole thing still feels very monolothic to me. Having the surface of the field be below ground is smart as it helps decrease it's impact, but this is still going to be one imposing mother of a building. That's always going to be a challenge with a building this big...but I can't help thinking of giant convention centers from bygone eras. It's not a place that invites hanging around.
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