New Edmonton Arena Construction will begin in March 2014

[VERVE]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

My prediction:

we'll really see 2 or 3 years from now, when Calgary's new arena is well underway, and Edmonton's arena hasn't even started construction - or perhaps has been significantly scaled back to make it work with the funding they've got.

I still get the feeling that nothing will be done in Edmonton while Katz owns the team.

The deal is done as I posted in more detail earlier:

The city councillors have voted 10-3 in favour of the revised deal. Shovels are expected in the ground by summer 2013. Expected date of completion is 2016 before the start of the NHL season.

The final price tag at $601-million (480 arena and 121 million for LRT, Winter Garden). The mayor is very confident that the funding will not be an issue from the Provincial government

[Icon]

Originally Posted by VERVE

The deal is done as I posted in more detail earlier:

The city councillors have voted 10-3 in favour of the revised deal. Shovels are expected in the ground by summer 2013. Expected date of completion is 2016 before the start of the NHL season.

The final price tag at $601-million (480 arena and 121 million for LRT, Winter Garden). The mayor is very confident that the funding will not be an issue from the Provincial government

If I say I'm very confident I'll win the lottery this week does that make it more likely too?

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Meanwhile, the province appeared to be budging slightly, after maintaining for some time that provincial money would not go directly towards the downtown arena.

“We’ve talked about doing a sports-select pool or something along those lines,” Provincial Finance Minister Doug Horner said. “That would allow every municipality to have a piece of that.”

Horner said if that happened, the money would still come from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative or MSI, the same mechanism the province uses to give cash to cities – it’s not clear how much money would be generated for Edmonton.

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/mayor-ndp...#ixzz2IqGIadAy

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by VERVE

The deal is done as I posted in more detail earlier:

The city councillors have voted 10-3 in favour of the revised deal. Shovels are expected in the ground by summer 2013. Expected date of completion is 2016 before the start of the NHL season.

The final price tag at $601-million (480 arena and 121 million for LRT, Winter Garden). The mayor is very confident that the funding will not be an issue from the Provincial government

Sure, they can get construction started. What happens if halfway through, they realize the fed/prov government isn't going to give them any money? The city is then left holding the bag. I'm sure Edmonton taxpayers will be more than happy to pony up an additional $114M to cover it right? You sure as hell aren't going to get it from the snake Katz.

[Tinordi]

What a joke. Your tax dollars at work.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Sure, they can get construction started. What happens if halfway through, they realize the fed/prov government isn't going to give them any money? The city is then left holding the bag. I'm sure Edmonton taxpayers will be more than happy to pony up an additional $114M to cover it right? You sure as hell aren't going to get it from the snake Katz.

They said in the meeting today that they won't start the project without the funding. The mayor also said that he is confident that funding will come through. Discussions with the province are near complete on that issue.

[VERVE]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Sure, they can get construction started. What happens if halfway through, they realize the fed/prov government isn't going to give them any money? The city is then left holding the bag. I'm sure Edmonton taxpayers will be more than happy to pony up an additional $114M to cover it right? You sure as hell aren't going to get it from the snake Katz.

Of course the construction will not start without having all their ducks in a row meaning the funds will have to be inplace with commitments from all parties (drafted up by lawyers).

As in the post above by Sidney Crosby's Hat, the Province is moving to other forms of funding. It is fairly difficult to not get some sort of funding from the province or feds esp when Quebec is getting their arena built with funding help from diff levels of government. Essentially, wealthy Alberta is funding Quebec's arena through the Equalization payments (Ontario is also taking big payments from us). In the end it will get done.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

They said in the meeting today that they won't start the project without the funding. The mayor also said that he is confident that funding will come through. Discussions with the province are near complete on that issue.

I'm not holding my breath. However, the government doesn't seem to be able to handle money very well, so you never know.

[Southside]

That Katz donation to Redford campaign looms large.

[MissTeeks]

This will go over well:

John Shannon ‏@JSportsnet
Oilers/City agree to new arena project...but still $100 million short.Most hoping province makes up difference...particularly in Calgary.

[Tinordi]

Would love to know the interest rate Katz is paying on that $135 million the city is basically fronting him. Betcha it wont be market. What a frickin huge joke this all is.

Seriously, why doesn't Katz behave like any other normal investor and borrow his money from a bank like anyone else? Why is he borrowing it from the city. That's an implicit subsidy right there using the City's credit rating. Means the city would not be able to borrow as much as it could borrow to keep their credit rating.

Huge joke.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by VERVE

[FONT=Arial]...lots of studies that actually counter his argument

Wow, first time I saw this post. Sorry I didn't reply. But my reply is that you may want to read those studies a little closer. They actually support my position instead of yours.

[1stLand]

As a person who pays property tax in Edmonton, I am disappointed with the funding shortage. Who is going to make this up? The City or The Province?

One of the two. I am sure.

Not the Billionaire owner.

[Table 5]

If they can get it built, it's going to be a very nice looking building. I'm actually pretty impressed with the design proposal.....and scared to death that the Flames will release some sort of cheesy Urban Sombrero Dome in comparison.

[Stranger]

How did the feds get wrangled into giving up 7 million for the arena. I don't want to see any money from governments involved in these rinks. Quebec or Alberta.

Is the city still forced to lease office space in Katz's new office building? Does Katz still get a sweetheart deal on the naming rights for the arena?

[VERVE]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Wow, first time I saw this post. Sorry I didn't reply. But my reply is that you may want to read those studies a little closer. They actually support my position instead of yours.

On the contrary, I have explained my postion with counter studies as well. Did you care to read them? In other words, as explained in that post, it really depends how you want to paint the data and by whom. It is not that one sided as you chose to portray it, in other words, not that black and white. There are studies out there countering your points as well.

[boggledepot]

It's a tragedy when rich business men play on ordinary people's passions, and sucker them in identifying themselves by: "Hockey is Canada's game; it's our national sport", and all the rest of that rhetorical bull. Many cannot fathom it, but professional hockey is a means of subverting, otherwise, intelligent people into building palaces for the super rich, so they can charge exorbitant amounts to the ones who built and paid for the palaces in the first place.

We look back on history and view the winter palace in Russia, and Versailles in France as symbols of government corruption--the royalty basking in the glory of these grandiose symbols of their rule, while ordinary citizens, the ones who paid for these palaces, starved, were left cold, and struggled to survive.

It is a little coincidental that Edmonton and St.Petersburg are the two largest northern cities in the world. In lieu of this geographic connection, I suggest the name of this downtown arena be the 'Winter Palace'.

You know? Edmonton, hockey, beautiful arena, winter, palace... Get it?

[Magnum PEI]

Originally Posted by boggledepot

It is a little coincidental that Edmonton and St.Petersburg are the two largest northern cities in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_latitude

Just going by latitude there's probably a dozen cities further north than Edmonton that have larger populations. Moscow is probably the largest.

/cool story

[Southside]

So Redford says again today no money and no lottery. She says Edmonton must work with what is already allocated to municipalities. Interesting stuff.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by boggledepot

It's a tragedy when rich business men play on ordinary people's passions, and sucker them in identifying themselves by: "Hockey is Canada's game; it's our national sport", and all the rest of that rhetorical bull. Many cannot fathom it, but professional hockey is a means of subverting, otherwise, intelligent people into building palaces for the super rich, so they can charge exorbitant amounts to the ones who built and paid for the palaces in the first place.

We look back on history and view the winter palace in Russia, and Versailles in France as symbols of government corruption--the royalty basking in the glory of these grandiose symbols of their rule, while ordinary citizens, the ones who paid for these palaces, starved, were left cold, and struggled to survive.

It is a little coincidental that Edmonton and St.Petersburg are the two largest northern cities in the world. In lieu of this geographic connection, I suggest the name of this downtown arena be the 'Winter Palace'.

You know? Edmonton, hockey, beautiful arena, winter, palace... Get it?

I didn't realize that there were people in Edmonton who were starving to survive under the authoritarian rule of a King or a Czar. Fact is that Edmonton needs a new arena, Rexall Place is just too damn old and I doubt that Katz has the assets to go it alone on a new arena, especially when there are positive effects for the city of Edmonton and the province of Alberta that need to be recognized.

Fact is that if Edmonton doesn't get a new arena I wouldn't be surprised to see them leave in the next 5-10 years, which hurts both Edmonton and Alberta from a financial and from a civic pride standpoint. At the end of the day the province will likely chip something in indirectly from a top up of some fund that will be put towards the arena by the city.