I go back to my original comment about how the city and the provincial government are literally paying Flames ownership the money to build this event center. No way around that. No amount of political spin makes up for it.
Flames are getting the opportunity to build this thing for nest to nothing. I know some people argue about how great this is and how the team is going to stay etc, the Flames are going nowhere and that was evident.
The city got royally ****ed, full stop. They had a little leverage and they pissed it away. I know I come off as a negative Nancy, but let's get real. Why does the ownership group get the ability to collect naming rights on a building not belonging to them? It's the equivalent of an average citizen getting the ability to rent city hall, the library or a rec center and collect the revenue from a building they don't own.
I love that the deal is officially done, I have no doubts that the building and district will be great. It just burns me that people are making money on this without actually contributing to it and the only reason why it's allowed is shady business practices. Your average citizen, even if they wanted to and could afford to finance this, can't.
We get screwed and are suppose to be thankful.
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