HOK Sport / Dialog were one of about only five serious bidders that could have realistically done this. The requirements were quite prescriptive to qualify.
I will say this, though, that NHL arenas aren't complicated facilities. There's about five firms in this city that could have done it on their own (Dialog being one of them), designed something incredibly impressive, and the money would have stayed 100% local. The need for 'starchitect' partnerships are really because clients just get starry-eyed looking at other facilities. This happens all the time with big projects, too.
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