Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
To me this has always come down to a bullet list of logic that hasn't changed.
- the football and hockey facilities are old
- it's probably a good idea to build new ones
- there are plenty of facilities that have been built in Canada with public funding
- it would be silly for the Calgary group not to ask for the same
- the city doesn't have to do what the other public funding models have done
|
Completely agree with this list. But that doesn't mean that the current CalgaryNEXT basis is any good. CalgaryNEXT is a bad concept.
It's bad from a city planning perspective because a) it took too much prime river front land for a big box and left too little developable land to repay a CRL with incremental taxes, and b) it was scheduled to happen before the West Village was done filling out.
It's bad from a financing perspective because it pretty much equated to the Flames kicking in about $450M and the taxpayer kicking in $900M when you consider the full scope. Note that those numbers are based on CSEC's response to the City's response to the original CalgaryNEXT proposal (
link to my finance breakdown of CSEC's response)
It's just a bad concept.
Let's move on to finding a good concept, let's get the right amount of public funding involved, and let's get some shovels in the ground.
I believe that a Stampede based arena and minimalist outdoor stadium is the best idea. If a stadium doesn't fit, then a Stampede based arena only project is second place (and carve out the stadium into a separate discussion).
My dream concept is an arena on the Big 4 at the end of 17th Ave and a stadium replacing the Grandstand. The Stampede would then use it for 10 days a year with the chucks racing around one side of it and the finish line is in the middle...but I think that's a pipedream.