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Originally Posted by getbak
Maybe.
It's my understanding that the Sprint Center (which was built specifically to try to attract an NBA and/or NHL team) has done so well for Kansas City without a major tenant that they're no longer trying to woo a team there.
Look at the deal the Flames wanted: City pays $230 million up-front with no mechanism to recoup any of those costs. Annual costs to pay for free transit to any events in the building and additional police working the games. No rent or property taxes paid to the city and the city covers the provincial property tax on the building. City receives no revenue from any events held in the building. CSEC gets first rights to develop the surrounding land and receives a portion of the revenue from the Casino and event parking that currently go to the Stampede.
The city could tell CSEC to stuff it and build an concert/events centre without concern for trying to get all the NHL bells & whistles ... No NHL practice rink (probably drops the price by $100 million right there) no "world's largest" scoreboard (that's tens of millions); no NHL-calibre dressing room and training facility (more millions saved). They also wouldn't need a dozen different exclusive club and suite options (although, those might be lucrative enough to pay for themselves).
A concert-first venue could probably be had in the $300 million range. That's only slightly more than what CSEC wants the city to pay now, but the city would receive all revenue generated by the building. The city would almost-certainly come out ahead during the life of the building over what CSEC is asking for.
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This is an interesting observation. Given the concessions the CSEC is asking of the city, one has to wonder if it is more economically viable for the city to build a modern event centre independent of the CSEC's contribution. I imagine that is the very last thing the CSEC wants.