[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

IMO this ascribes too much importance to the building, and not enough consideration to what the alternative cities mean for business. QC is the only place that comes close. Which would mean we're first in line to cheer for either Barkov of Hamilton.

You're definitely underrating the building. NHL teams are heavily dependent upon gate receipts, and will grow still more dependent as cable-cutters cause local TV revenues to dwindle. Pittsburgh is an excellent hockey market, with a history of fan support going back over 100 years, yet they nearly lost the Penguins by not having a modern arena to play in. The best market in the world is worthless if it doesn't have a building capable of tapping the available revenue.

Much more importantly, this ignores the reality of a relocation fee. The Flames would need to find a place that offers at least $150M better arena deal than Calgary, and comparable long term business sustainabilty. That sound you hear is crickets.

In a world where an owner paid a relocation fee to move a team to Winnipeg, that isn't the obstacle you think it is.

Look, YYCCC didn't offer $0.

What they offered was just enough to offset the property taxes that the Flames are not paying now but would be paying if they owned the new building. That still leaves CSEC effectively on the hook for $450 million, and no way to recoup that cost in a city of a little over a million people.

People go on about how well privately financed arenas have done in other cities. All those cities were at least twice the size of Calgary and did not have the boom-and-bust resource-based economy that makes long-term planning in this city so difficult.

Bettman et al. may want a more generous offer (and they'll probably get it, eventually), but they're not letting this team move if the current offer is on the table is the last one.

If the current offer is the last one, no new building is going to happen – and sooner or later the Saddledome will no longer generate enough revenue to support the team even if it only spends to the salary floor.

They would tell Murray to suck it up and build, stay where you are, or sell to Brett Wilson, the Shaws, or any other combo of local multi-millionaires that wants a piece.

Is there anyone who wants a piece under the current deal? As they say on Wikipedia, *citation needed.

If the NHL wants to admit that the Flames aren't a viable business at the city's current offer, then they might as well contract back to 12 teams, because there are 20 other markets comparable or worse than Calgary.

Twenty other markets. Zero other buildings. That's been the problem all along. It's the same problem that had Jim Balsillie thinking he could move the Pittsburgh Penguins to Ontario.