Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
Then walk away for sure.
However I'm not sure I even agree with your summary.
Diane Colley-Urquhart mentioned in an interview that the committee that kicked off the East Village was already approaching the city on kicking off the West Village as well. The city published a plan to do that. So not sure they see doing both at the same time as a no go as you do.
The CN project has a field house, so I guess if the word "dedicated" is a hang up it can be a deal killer, but that can certainly be negotiated or discussed.
The City has a contamination issue that would certainly be helped by an anchor tenant and a partner to help clean it up.
So no I don't agree that it does nothing for the city. That's not to say they should just say yes and go with it. But nothing is a big stretch in my mind. If the city has a better plan that doesn't include an arena etc they are more than welcome to pursue it though, and I certainly don't have a problem with that.
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Literally nothing in Tinordi's post you had addressed was accurate, so I am not commenting on his post but wanted to add a few points to yours only.
In his presentation last night King said the following:
- The total project cost is estimated at $890M including cleanup, not $1.3B. This perception is the most frustrating issue they (Flames organization) is faced with. The total cost number is being exaggerated a lot by various sources (according to Ken);
- $200M is already committed by the City for the fieldhouse; this is "money in the bank regardless of there it's going to be built". A fellow from the Fieldhouse Society (?) was in the audience and he confirmed that.
- Domtar confirmed unofficially that they would contribute to the cleanup costs. Federal and Provincial governments indicated that they would likely contribute as well. Only the City of Calgary does not want to contribute so far.
- Flames ownership will contribute $350M of their own cash, if the project goes ahead.
- The community levy (user fees) will have to fund the rest of the costs. Very complicated mechanism, he said.
- Edmonton deal for the Rogers arena was much heavier on the taxpayers than what CalgaryNEXT would be if approved as proposed. Said that the ownership group would sign the Edmonton deal today for CalgaryNEXT on the same terms with no further negotiations and start developing tomorrow.
- New arena development will take 5 years from approval to completion.
- If the new arena is not built within a reasonable timeframe, chances are high that the team would not be able to survive and compete in Calgary (he specifically said that this is not a "gun to the head threat, but a sad reality of today's sports entertainment market".
- Winter Olympic bid win should not be prerequisite to the new arena. It should be the other way around - the new arena construction should be one of the factors that would make Calgary bid chances more successful just like construction of the Saddledome was.
- Answering a question about their "Plan B" he said that if CalgaryNEXT doesn't happen, the new arena will most likely be built on the Stampede grounds north of the Saddledome; in which case the new fieldhouse will be built somewhere on the UofC grounds and McMahon would be given a facelift.
Just wanted to address comment about East Village. It has nothing to do with CalgaryNEXT from the competition perspective, zero. East Village is practically done and is just being completed/constructed. Most, if not all, of the developed sites within East Village have been either sold or conditionally sold to third parties. CMLC is looking for a new big job and had proposed to handle West Village development as a municipally-owned developer in the similar fashion East Village was developed. At the moment, CMLC was only asked to look at the environmental remediation plan.