Quote:
Originally Posted by NiklasSundblad
And the City is offering to pay them 155 million dollars, no strings attached, to build one. And no paying property tax is not a string. They're going to pay money to move to a market where they would be the 4th choice sports team, until the NBA returns and they become a 5th tier team in that city, where they collect arena revenue 42 nights a year instead of every night something happens in the arena, and by the way, also pay a lease on the arena? Who's broadcasting the games, Fox Sports regional? You're saying all that represents more money to the ownerships pockets than what the city currently has on the table? Really?
It's really hard if not impossible to imagine a situation in an available US market, where a hockey team owner has even close to the opportunity to make money at the same rate the Flames would if they took exactly what is on the table today.
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Paying property tax certainly is a string. Arenas in small markets are not profitable with a single major tenant and the relatively low number of other events that can be booked. An arena in Seattle, once they get an NBA team in it, will be booked for two to three times as many nights an arena in Calgary, Edmonton or Winnipeg, and therefore potentially have twice to three times the gate, merchandise, and concession revenue. This is not to say that we should pay for an arena, but rather to say that the economics of an arena in Calgary differ so much from the economics of an arena in Seattle or Toronto that it makes little sense for us to compare them. Basically, if we want a modern arena, and in the long term, a venue to host the Flames, Hitmen, and Roughnecks, and to be a keystone in a potential Winter Olympics bid, then the city will have to foot some of the bill, and not just as a loan, which is essentially the economic model the city is proposing. If we don't want to pay the price for that, then eventually the team won't be able to compete with others that have a substantially higher revenue stream and will either become a budget team with its player signings or will move somewhere that is economically more viable. That's OK too, we just shouldn't expect to be able to have it both ways.