New Edmonton Arena Construction will begin in March 2014

[Stay Golden]

Originally Posted by 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.

hee hee

[Erick Estrada]

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?

LOL overreact much? The average person will never even see a difference in their taxes from the building of these (Calgary will follow) arenas. News flash: The government misspends half of taxpayer money so if they are going to waste a large portion it may as well be on a world class facility that the city can used for concerts, briers, hockey, lacross, etc.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

LOL overreact much? The average person will never even see a difference in their taxes from the building of these (Calgary will follow) arenas. News flash: The government misspends half of taxpayer money so if they are going to waste a large portion it may as well be on a world class facility that the city can used for concerts, briers, hockey, lacross, etc.

Logic fail.

[CedarMeter]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

hee hee

Critics question arena funding
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/01/2...-arena-funding

[EddyBeers]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

LOL overreact much? The average person will never even see a difference in their taxes from the building of these (Calgary will follow) arenas. News flash: The government misspends half of taxpayer money so if they are going to waste a large portion it may as well be on a world class facility that the city can used for concerts, briers, hockey, lacross, etc.

The only added value would be if there are additional concerts, additional briers, additional NHL games, etc. Fact is that there is already a venue for those things and I doubt there will be any additional revenue generated as a result. World class musical acts are not avoiding Alberta because the arena is not fancy enough.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

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.

No.

Its been quite clear that the team is not in any danger of leaving. If you read this thread from the beginning its been clearly pointed out that if a deal cannot be reached under these circumstances, its not the team that would leave, it would be the owner.

Bettman and the NHL have stated that as the Oilers are profitable, they will not be allowed to re-locate.

If they dont reach an agreement because the $100M gap cannot be closed by one party or another then someone even richer will step in.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Logic fail.

It's the reality. Taxes are raised, people are outraged, then they soon forget and go on with their lives. A few years after the arenas are built nobody will bat an eyelash.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by EddyBeers

World class musical acts are not avoiding Alberta because the arena is not fancy enough.

Actually they do avoid Calgary because of the arena.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by EddyBeers

The only added value would be if there are additional concerts, additional briers, additional NHL games, etc. Fact is that there is already a venue for those things and I doubt there will be any additional revenue generated as a result. World class musical acts are not avoiding Alberta because the arena is not fancy enough.

They avoid Calgary because the roof of the Saddledome cant accommodate a lot of the speaker/light setups.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Actually they do avoid Calgary because of the arena.

Maybe 1-2 a year, at most.

[korzym12]

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 don't know why sports fans always insist taking money away from hospitals, education, & infrastructure to bail out private businesses that do not provide the slightest essential service to the public.

There are many money markets out there, if the economics were profitable, they could easily raise money for arenas through bonds. Moreover - the NHL signed a multi-billion dollar broadcast deal with NBC - this is more than enough money to replace the so called "outdated" NHL arenas.

Sure you might want a shiny new NHL arena, but you don't have to go through government to get the money. Governments have to start calling sports teams' bluff.

[Southside]

Today's news...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=414439

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by korzym12

I don't know why sports fans always insist taking money away from hospitals, education, & infrastructure to bail out private businesses that do not provide the slightest essential service to the public.

Why do people assume that the money will come from these areas?

[Jiggy]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

LOL overreact much? The average person will never even see a difference in their taxes from the building of these (Calgary will follow) arenas. News flash: The government misspends half of taxpayer money so if they are going to waste a large portion it may as well be on a world class facility that the city can used for concerts, briers, hockey, lacross, etc.

I actually agree with EE . The way governments waste money is ridiculous. People always raise a big stink at first about taxes being raised then forget about it. I work with one of Redford's good friends, the things he has done with her using tax payers money is embarrassing.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by 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.

I have been saying this all along...they are acting like its a done deal, no provincial money is coming just look at the budget

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

I actually agree with EE . The way governments waste money is ridiculous. People always raise a big stink at first about taxes being raised then forget about it. I work with one of Redford's good friends, the things he has done with her using tax payers money is embarrassing.

I have worked with government and I can say the average taxpayer has no clue just how much money is wasted. It's sickening. People assume that all their taxpayer money goes to all the good things like hospitals, education, infrastructure, but most would be surprised that only a small portion of the pot goes to these areas and a lot of it goes to fat cats and wasteful spending.

[EddyBeers]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Actually they do avoid Calgary because of the arena.

How many towns of a million people get world class musical acts. It is not like the biggest acts in the world will show up in Quebec City just because they got a new arena. I bet you are at most missing out on 10 concerts a year, that is the additional revenue that a new building would raise in Calgary, probably even less in Edmonton because truly big acts will play at Commonwealth.

600 million dollars the government will be putting into this and what will the people get out of it? Virtually nothing, limited economic growth and a shiny white elephant they can call their own.

In 2009 300,000 kids played minor hockey in Canada. If you assume that Alberta has 10% of that, reflecting their percentage of the population, that would be 30,000 kids. Average registration fees are around 700 bucks.

It costs 21 million dollars a year in registration fees. The government gift that Katz is being given could literally pay for 29 years of minor hockey registration fees in Alberta. But this seems like a much better use of the money.

[EddyBeers]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I have worked with government and I can say the average taxpayer has no clue just how much money is wasted. It's sickening. People assume that all their taxpayer money goes to all the good things like hospitals, education, infrastructure, but most would be surprised that only a small portion of the pot goes to these areas and a lot of it goes to fat cats and wasteful spending.

So if I understand your point correctly, since Government wastes money on other things why not waste money on this?

[North East Goon]

Why does the Oilers organization and the City of Edmonton continue to role out these press conferences when they know the entire budget has not been covered?

[Robbob]

I don't know if it was posted but there was a report released recently where it ranked venues world wide for concerts and Calgary finished 101. Edmonton was a lot higher (don't remember off hand). It also stated that Rexall made three times the revenue over the Saddledome.