Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Who's paying in Seattle? It's funny that other cities around the world manage to do this, but we can't possibly consider it here. The soccer team I follow in London just finished a £1bn stadium, which is magnificent, and there was no public money for that. The reality is professional sports franchises are spoiled in North America. We all know, deep down, that this is only a good deal "for", and not a good deal. It's maybe slightly better or the same as what Edmonton got, and that seems to be the bar here, so as far as multi-million dollar spending for a private corporation goes it's ok I guess. Better than subsidizing Bombardier again, or at least a little enjoyment for me!
And I say all that as someone who just accepts that it's going to happen. I do want a new arena and I think we need one. I just don't think that this deal is amazing. It's just OK.
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Seattle metro area is three times the size of Calgary. London is 10 times bigger. That’s why buildings there can be privately financed. Try to find an example of a metro area with less than 1.5 million people with a privately financed arena. I did some research and found nothing. I did come across an article that states that the city of Winnipeg pays the Jets a subsidy every year (16.3M in 2018).
And this deal is easily better than the Edmonton one. Katz only put up 19.7 million of his own money according to the City of Edmonton website. Even CalgaryNext wasn’t that greedy. CSEC is putting up 275M upfront for this one. It’s a fair deal.