To me the PR thing was lost early with an assumption of the Edmonton model.
I've said 100 times that it was a logical thing to ask for, but they didn't explain it correctly. For that they have King to blame for glib remarks but themselves to blame for not having a better strategy and/or expectation for what was coming from the city and the public.
Having run the numbers they can't build this thing on their own if they don't want to take a hair cut, so asking for help in that regard makes sense. But I think they should have come out saying as much. This is a losing proposition in the current climate for a city of 1.2M to build a 600M arena.
I've done some modelling for some huge business deals but I wouldn't call myself an expert by any means ...
But if the Forbes operating income figures are correct they can't go ahead without the city picking up a third of the cost. Certainly the city's right to say too bad however.
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