Quote:
Originally Posted by MattyC
Let's roll it back a bit here. The Flames organization has given a great deal to this city over it's tenure here. Helping to building many public facilities through charitable donations and fundraisers. As well as the individual players themselves.
There is no doubt the Flames have a positive impact on the city. But their positive impact is also only maximized if they work with the cities long term development plans.
Look, I actually really liked the idea of CalgaryNext. The field-house. The riverside placement. The clean up of the creosote. Improvements for that nightmare intersection. I was all in for that. Even if their pitch wasn't absolute bonkers, the city has planning that it does. Long term planning, like decades. The idea that a sports team will just throw a huge wrench into that because they want part of the development funds but want to put the stadium wherever they want is at the very least kind of annoying.
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CalgaryNext was an offer that the city rejected out of hand. The Flames are past that and onto Plan B which the city offered and I'm assuming the Flames rejected out of hand. So that's 2 plans dead.
The Flames are saying now that the city is not talking to them anymore so they will no longer pursue a new arena and play in the SaddleDome until it's no longer feasible to do so.
I think it had to get to this point eventually. Let's see what City Council does. They could simply ignore yesterday's news conference and go on business as usual.