Quote:
Originally Posted by Aarongavey
It appears he did. Probably around the time Toronto (like most NHL teams) paid for their own arena.
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So, here's the thing:
The Flames aren't going to. You may believe they ought to, but your belief in such matters is not relevant to what is actually happening. If the Flames were willing to invest in such an endeavour then it would have happened by now.
The City and the Flames have come to an agreement, and the province has offered to assist with infrastructure costs to help facilitate that agreement. That's the deal as it exists.
I personally believe that if this deal falls apart, the Flames will leave Calgary for greener pastures. I don't believe Murray Edwards will sell the team, and I don't particularly see why he would want to when he could relocate the team to somewhere like Houston. From the NHL's perspective, Houston is a much larger market and would likely better serve the NHL as a whole better than a small market Calgary-based team who is in the bottom 3rd of revenue league-wide (according to Forbes' 2022 rankings).
If people don't like the deal - that's entirely reasonable, but don't dislike it because you think there's some magic better deal on the table or that you believe the deal should be different. This has been a long process to get to this deal, and it doesn't matter if it's worse than the last one - the last deal isn't on the table any longer. So if you're that opposed to it, then reframe what you're saying. You're actually saying "This is a bad deal, and I'll be happy if it falls apart and the Calgary Flames leave Calgary" - because that's what the stakes (likely) were in this negotiation.
Our city officials assessed the situation and believed this to be the best path forward for the City of Calgary in the face of alternative outcomes.