Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
If only they weren't tied to milking the public purse.
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Building a modern NHL-grade arena in a city the size of Calgary is a guaranteed way to lose money. Every city where such arenas have been built entirely with private money was at least double our size, with one exception.
The Ottawa Senators built their current arena with their own money: the public financing they received was less than the money they spent to build a highway interchange which they did not even own. They were unable to service the resulting debt, and the club's holding company went bankrupt. And that was for a building that cost only $170 million to begin with.
That's the economic reality. No public funds means no arena at all.