Quote:
Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle
To pretend the city would be OK with losing the Flames, and will continue to be OK with having every single artist out on tour by pass Calgary for Edmonton is simply ignorant. There are both financial and quality of life impacts for the city if they don't replace the Dome at some point.
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The city wants or at the very least will want a new arena at some point. That they have a need /desire for this isn't even debatable, what is debatable is appropriate level of support based on their desire, and of course how timing lines up between their desire and needs and the Flames.
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I could not agree more with this.
For those who seem to want to vilify the owners for trying to approach the new building as a partnership with some measure of public funding, please at least click each of the following four links and read the pages. It will take only a few minutes:
http://calgaryflamesfoundation.com/w...gacy-projects/
http://calgaryflamesfoundation.com/f...ram/education/
http://calgaryflamesfoundation.com/f...-and-wellness/
http://calgaryflamesfoundation.com/f...mateur-sports/
This does not even touch the things that individual players and employees do every day to give back to the City and its people.
Billionaire NHL franchise owners are going to be billionaire NHL franchise owners and millionaire players are going to be millionaire players. I believe living in a community that includes those people is better than living in a community without them.
That does not mean writing a blank cheque by any means, but the City of Calgary would take a major hit in its standing as a community if it refuses to look for common ground and loses a major contributor to what makes the City great.