[Red Slinger]

I think the biggest contribution factor in favour of the Calgary arena being better than Edmonton is Katz.

I have a friend that works in a senior role for the Katz group in architecture and design. She worked on the Stantec Tower project and worked directly with many of the top people in the organization including Katz and his parents (which seem to have a relatively large degree of input into the organization for some reason). She described the culture there as a bunch of 'yes men' backstabbing each other and sucking up to Katz and family. Everyone outside the family is afraid to make decisions because they don't want to look bad and when the occasional thing happens to go right they all line up to take credit. The result is a slow pace, toxic environment, chaos and generally unwise decision-making.

The Flames ownership group isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they're generally professional, goal-oriented and not the Canadian business equivalent of Trump.