Quote:
Originally Posted by JerryUnderscore
I'm so glad this conversation has moved from the Victoria Park arena to the CalgaryNext project to the merits of playing CFL football indoors and now what defines a world-class city and whether or not Calgary is it.
Keep going your thing CP.
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Arena/stadium discussions all follow the same script. It's inevitable.
I used to buy the rhetoric, and was one of the people who saw an arena as more of a need than a want. Now I still support a portion of public monies going towards these projects but it is a much smaller percent than I used to support.
I really like the cities proposal as I understand it, but as long as other municipalities are willing to contribute more it will be a tough standoff.
We built an arena to keep the Warriors in MJ and it is a fantastic facility for our city, but it is costly and the Warriors reap the lions share from the deal. Being a public owned facility there is a ton of bureaucracy that has hampered management of it, and it is a burden on the city. I don't know how you get away from that without giving away too much money.
From what I understand the Flames want full control of the facility, which means they make the profits from all events there, not just hockey. That is a hell of a lot of money and the city should be able to get a fair portion of that back through rent or taxes.