Quote:
Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed
Let me summarize this again.
There are two viewpoints being presented here. The Flames portray that the arena is a community gathering place, and that the Flames are being so generous by even putting in a little bit of the own money - since the building is going to be owned by the city. The City portrays that no matter who “owns” the building, the Flames recieve all of the benefits of an owner, and in that case, The city owning the building is actually a subsidy to the Flames, because they don’t have to pay property tax.
In short, there is a fundamental difference in that each side is portraying that they are “giving” money to the other side, for their project.
The fact is that the city is correct. A building to has all revenues going to a private entity is a building that “belongs” to that private entity. The city ownership of the building is, in fact, a subsidy to that private entity.
Now, there is one question that remains, do the Flames actually believe what they are portraying, or did they just present it that way to try and influence the election/public? Because if they actually do believe what they are portraying, there will never be a deal with the city - at least until they come to their senses. If they were just trying to fool people, they aren’t actually that far apart, and a deal should be able to be made surly quickly.
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It is not that simple. Does CSEC benefit from the Stampede using the facility? There is a little more nuance to that point than your opinion would suggest.
There is also another fundamental issue at play here that doesn't get as much discussion as it warrants, IMO. And that is the location.
Arenas, in cities this size, are not good investments, which is why funding is such a major issue and source of contention. But an extension of that is that an arena
does attract a large amount of development around it. CSEC (or the owners) wants to develop other projects around the arena, in order to leverage their investment.
The city wants the arena to be part of
their development plan. They have their own plans for the area surrounding the Victoria Park location (thus the city also sees benefit in the project). And further to this, the Stampede Board wants that location, and wants to benefit from the arena as well.
There is no right or wrong here, simply two very different agendas. And IMO, this is the real source of the cavernous distance between the two sides.