Sammy Hudes @SammyHudes
Coun. Jeff Davison, chair of the city's Event Centre Assessment Committee, says council is set to discuss the new arena deal between the city, Flames and Calgary Stampede behind closed doors today at 3:45 p.m.
"All three parties are on board and have agreed," he said.
Following the private discussion, Davison says council will vote this afternoon whether to make the deal public.
"We don’t need a $2 million engagement plan to take feedback in,” he said. "There’s many, many ways that the public can let us know how they feel about this."
After public input has been received, Calgary city council will vote July 29 (one week from today) to ratify the deal or not, according to Davison.
He says the city wants to hear from the accessibility, arts and sport communities on what they want to see in the new arena.
Davison on when shovels could be in the ground for a new arena to replace the Saddledome:
"I think we’ve really come to the realization that we’re probably well into 2021 before we move forward with any potential event centre.”
Mayor Naheed Nenshi says the city never wavered it’s "number one principle."
“Public money must be spent for public benefit. As long as what is presented to us today meets those criteria… then I think we’ll be able to have a very good conversation with the public.”
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