Quote:
Originally Posted by TheKurgan
That's fine, your opinion and your are entitled to it. But if we aren't willing to support pro teams, or state of the Art entertainment facilities there are other cities that do, and will. You are seeing that in more and more in Pro Sports (3 relocations ongoing in the NFL), teams are going to where the money is. If the city doesn't want to support the Flames I think they have every right to move the team to someplace that will, they are for profit as you say.
And with the Team owner living in London now because he doesn't want to pay NDP taxes I wouldn't hold my breath on his loyalty to Calgary.
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If the Flames leave Calgary because I don't want my tax dollars spent on them, but rather on facilities that my daughter and I can actually use, I wont even wave goodbye. Granted, I'm a tier 2 fan. I've only attended a few hundred games over the 30 years I've been a fan. My property taxes pay for overpasses and pedestrian bridges, and I'm ok with that because everyone in Calgary, driver or pedestrian, is free to use them. Not the same with an arena that is privately operated.
Now if the City were to manage the facility with a team of people that are juggling the Flames and Hitmen, charging CSEC a fee per game, and then booking concerts and trade shows and monster trucks and dildo conventions, and the profits were going into the coffers of the CoC, then yeah, I'd be interested to see whether the numbers justify the CoC spending taxpayer dollars on such a venture. I highly doubt it would justify an ~18,000+ seat arena, so when it's chipping in on a barn for the local pro team, and said team gets to operate the venue, charge and collect the money, not pay property taxes because they don't actually own it, and also charge a ticket tax to the fans of the main tenant? Um, no thanks.