Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
The ticket tax will be tacked on lol. It's amazing to me that after we just saw Edmonton raise ticket prices at least 20% across the board that people think the Flames will what, keep prices the same out of the goodness of their hearts? The ticket tax will be factored into whatever they choose to raise ticket prices by. So maybe now they raise it by 25% instead of 20%. But they will never be eating that $250 million, they will earn it back one way or another. Their actual cash outlay in the end will only be $200 million.
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Sorry, but that's not how it works. If the ticket tax is tacked on, it is still money out of their pockets. You can charge whatever the market will bear, and where you spend the money is your business. In this case, they are proposing to spend $450 million on the arena.
The argument can be made the initial $200 million isn't theirs because it comes from ticket prices, beer prices, merchandise, parking, etc. That makes it theirs, to spend as they see fit. In this case, they want to spend it on a new arena. Yes, the new arena will likely bring in new and higher revenues for them, but it is still their money that they are spending. They cannot just tack on an infinite amount to the ticket price, as the market will dictate what that amount is. They can, and do, set ticket prices already based upon what the market will pay, and will continue to do this with the new arena.