Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal all privately financed their arenas. Ottawa got $26M and Winnipeg $40M (three levels of government contributed).
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The Canucks were for sale a few years later because ownership overspent on the arena, and the new ownership has been very hands on and meddling.
The Leafs were carved up amongst the teacher's pension, corporations, and banks after Ballard died before the majority of it was purchased by the two largest media conglomerates in Canada.
The Canadiens have managed to have more or less the same contiguous ownership for over 40 years, though Molson did sell a big chunk of the team and arena to Gillett for 8 years before buying it back 8 years later at an almost 4x premium.
I think the Flames ownership has been a great group during its time in Calgary. The group certainly has the resources to privately fund an arena if it chooses to. I wonder what kind of uncertainty such a decision might introduce into the ownership picture down the road, and what kind of ripple effect that might have on hockey operations. There's no way to say for certain, of course.
Sorry for the rambling stream of consciousness entry.