[Jimmy Stang]

With the province poised to give 20 billion public dollars to private companies to clean up messes that they are already required to do on their own (abandoned oil wells), I don't think that the West Village is as much of a long shot anymore.

Personally, I think that the West Village is a less than ideal location, and I'm not a fan of public dollars being used to clean up private messes. I think that it would be terrible in so many ways, but... I could see it happening.

The province gets to contribute in a way that lets them spin it as a nice little environmental gift to Calgary (and definitely not a stadium handout, even though everyone will know it is), which would a boost in the lead-up to an election in "battleground Calgary". Contribute without contributing directly.

The Flames get to congratulate themselves on the visionary CalgaryNext concept that was just too good that the public needed years to realize it. (It remains a half-cooked idea).

And the city will be on the hook for a less valuable piece of land that they can't develop anyway, not to mention the ability to redevelop the Victoria Park area properly with the CMLC back in the saddle, and without the CSEC being involved. Of course, the city would need to fund expensive upgrades to infrastructure in the vicinity, but that has much better optics for the public than dumping a bunch of cash and land into a stadium. The public doesn't seem to mind as much when millions are spent on roads and interchanges.

I very much prefer the Victoria Park option, but I don't think that CalgaryNext is as dead as we think it is.