Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
I wonder if we'll ever get the inside story on why the Flames waited so long to start seriously looking at arena options. Was it just a matter of waiting until Edmonton set the bar for government lucre?
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Looking at it from a historical angle, I wonder how much the increasing price of oil impacted the scope and expectations for the project.
Oil basically doubled between 2004-2006, and then had similar acceleration between 06-08.
I think the size of the project grew significantly as the perceived budget grew, but then it had to be shelved while oil fluctuated. Now that the province is full of underemployed construction industry workers, now is the right time to take the project off the shelf because the decline in labour and construction costs make the massive CalgaryNEXT project more economically viable, but without $105 oil, the project needs significant public money for the owners to still be willing to put in there own.
Now that it looks like the City/Province may not be willing to toss a bunch of money at a mega project, the economic climate in the province makes now the right time for the owners to put in significantly less dollars for just a new rink, but to do it quickly before the economy threatens to take off again and construction costs increase.