Quote:
Originally Posted by Redlan
I am under the impression that at the end of the day, a new arena would be in the ownership of the City...not the Flames. Am I wrong?
|
Who actually owns the arena isn't really an important detail in this discussion. CSEC actually wants the city to own the arena, so that they don't have to pay property tax.
Whether it property tax, % of ticket revenue, or whatever else, the city isn't going to put money in without getting something back.
The current deal in the saddledome has the city technically owning the building, and the Flames paying for all operations/maintenance, and also getting all revenues. Essentially, the city subsidizes the Flames each year by whatever the property tax amount would be.
The Flames want to be in a new arena, and essentially have the same deal - all the while putting in as little money as possible into building the new arena.
For the city, this would mean putting in a large amount of cash, and getting little financial gain out of it on an ongoing basis.
The Flames are trying to frame this as - "the city owns the building, but its getting outdated. We want to continue on in the same deal as we already have, and we want to be generous by putting in $200 million of our own money to help the city build a new building."
However, While the city owns the building, that fact only means that the city is actually giving a subsidy to the team. Continuing on with the same deal structure in a new building means that the subsidy the city would be giving the Flames would be MUCH larger. The deal terms have to be revised to balance the subsidy amount to what it is now (or somewhere thereabouts).