The thing I love about a lot of the talk in regards to the Edmonton arena is the outflow of dollars to Edmonton.
I understand that certain events may skip Calgary to go to Edmonton but I love the fact that Ken King makes it out to be that is some sort of tragedy business wise.
Citizens have a certain amount of entertainment dollars they have to spend. If they are spending it on Flames hockey, dinners, concerts, golf, ski trips or whatever, they choose what to do. Ken King always makes it sound like it's the hotels, restaurants, bars and other business's in Calgary that are the pure benefactors of the above mentioned entertainment dollar and the tragedy lies within those business's losing out on money. That may be true to a certain extent but the truth of the matter is that its the ownership of the Flames that is losing out on added revenue, concerts, sponsorship and other financial advantages. You never hear him say that it's killing their pocketbook, it's always somebody else.
A lot of citizens don't understand the financial model that ownership has with the City of Calgary and the Dome, whereas the Flames make a $1 million a year contribution through the Flames foundation to minor hockey and other initiatives as "rent" for the Dome and in return the ownership is required to maintain the building but derives all the revenue from events that happen inside the building.
It seems to be the financial pressure to do something to improve the economics for the ownership group is with them, not with the City of Calgary. If someone has $150 to spend this weekend on entertainment and the choice is a Flames game or other event at the Dome vs going to dinner and a movie, it's the same thing. It's always these "economic benefit analysis" that always show massive gains but don't talk about the other losses or redistribution of funds occurring.
Does anybody really believe the restaurants, bars, parking lot owners and other business's that surrounded Rexall Place in Edmonton are doing the same level of activity on game day? Or did those entertainment dollars just move downtown?
There will always be an economic benefit but it isn't as large as everybody always makes things out to be cause the dollars just move around, its not like every transaction is "new money"
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