Senators New Arena Deal Making Progress

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by carmenshoes

So what is the construction cost of that new Arena?

All Anthony LeBlanc does is create renderings..

[getbak]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Surely CNRL wants naming rights for an arena too at the same tune of $300M per 20.

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by getbak

1. Calgary
2. Arizona
3. Ottawa

The Calgary arena is ready to go once Murray gets the deal he wants.

Arizona is still early in the process and the site will require environmental clean-up before they build.

Ottawa is dealing with a federal government agency, so it will move at the speed of the federal government.

You really thing a Calgary arena will be built and puck drop ready in 3 years? ZERO chance. Especially with Murray at the helm. Commodity costs are only going up, his best deal he chose to walk away from.

As long as Murray is owner The Flames aren't getting anything built

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

UBS was privately funded and if I'm not mistaken Nassau county is about the same population as Calgary or maybe smaller.

UBS is right on the boundary of Queens, population 2.3 million; which is only a small part of the New York City metropolitan area, population just over 20 million. It's absolutely silly to pretend that the Islanders draw only from Nassau County.

Swing and a miss.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

UBS is right on the boundary of Queens, population 2.3 million; which is only a small part of the New York City metropolitan area, population just over 20 million. It's absolutely silly to pretend that the Islanders draw only from Nassau County.

Swing and a miss.

Based on your comment and assertion of the general populations support for the team they should have been able to draw much larger crowds at Barclays and potentially fill the stadium but they didn't. They apparently had 99% capacity at UBS this year while at Barclays they were doing low 80's.

[Icon]

Originally Posted by Jordan!

You really thing a Calgary arena will be built and puck drop ready in 3 years? ZERO chance. Especially with Murray at the helm. Commodity costs are only going up, his best deal he chose to walk away from.

As long as Murray is owner The Flames aren't getting anything built

This is probably, sadly, true. Hindsight 20/20 they should have had this in motion during the pandemic, hell they might have got government subsidies as a project creating jobs and stimulating the economy.

I'm with you that unless/until there's an owner change we're probably stuck with the dome.

[sarge]

Originally Posted by Icon

This is probably, sadly, true. Hindsight 20/20 they should have had this in motion during the pandemic, hell they might have got government subsidies as a project creating jobs and stimulating the economy.

I'm with you that unless/until there's an owner change we're probably stuck with the dome.

They can’t keep playing in the dome too much longer without the roof becoming a safety issue. There was a recent engineering report that said if the roof needs major repairs, it could cost upwards of $200M.

[PepsiFree]

There is zero point talking about the population of the New York Metro area in regards to where the Islanders “draw from” when you consider the Rangers (by FAR the most popular team in the area) and the Devils both draw from the same.

Not to mention the Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, and Mets all competing for the same kind of dollars, some at the same time of year.

Terrible comparison, and not for the reason people are suggesting.

[Icon]

Originally Posted by sarge

They can’t keep playing in the dome too much longer without the roof becoming a safety issue. There was a recent engineering report that said if the roof needs major repairs, it could cost upwards of $200M.

Unfortunately that probably helps the case for them to relocate all of a sudden more than it does push anyone to spend on a new arena.

Maybe I'm just overly pessimistic right now, idk.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Based on your comment and assertion of the general populations support for the team they should have been able to draw much larger crowds at Barclays and potentially fill the stadium but they didn't. They apparently had 99% capacity at UBS this year while at Barclays they were doing low 80's.

Have you seen the layout for hockey at Barclays? It's ghastly. There are thousands of seats with obstructed views, which are very nearly unsaleable at any price. There's the reason for your 80% of capacity.

The last year at Barclays, the Islanders' average attendance was 12,810. The first year at UBS, it was 16,942 – 98% of capacity.

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

There is zero point talking about the population of the New York Metro area in regards to where the Islanders “draw from” when you consider the Rangers (by FAR the most popular team in the area) and the Devils both draw from the same.

Not to mention the Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, and Mets all competing for the same kind of dollars, some at the same time of year.

This isn't about the Islanders, it's about whether there was enough of a market to be worth investing private money in an arena. There are four major indoor arenas in the NYC area: MSG, Barclays, Prudential, and now UBS. The real question is whether the 20 million people in greater New York could attend enough events to make a fourth arena profitable, and the answer to that, it appears, is yes.

A market of 1.5 million simply isn't big enough to support even one modern arena without the help of public money.

[jayswin]

On a side note - The Islander's UBS arena looks like it was designed in the late 90's. It's actually very similar to American Airlines Arena in Dallas that opened in 2001.

[Beatle17]

Originally Posted by jayswin

On a side note - The Islander's UBS arena looks like it was designed in the late 90's. It's actually very similar to American Airlines Arena in Dallas that opened in 2001.

Might have something to do with being right beside Belmont Park and wanting to match the face of the track.

[browna]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Pretty hard to believe our baseball stadium once housed a triple-A team. It's, uh, lacking.

But at the time, at least in the early years of the club, it wasn’t that much of a step down from most ballparks in the PCL. It had a fair bit of renos from the previous Foothills Stadium when the Calgary Expos played there.

Vancouver and Edmonton’s stadiums were no better, same with some places like Vegas and Phoenix. Hawaii was in the league and played in cavernous Aloha stadium.

In the early 90s did places start to require updated facilities and more seats to pay for those amenities. Calgary couldn’t compete.

Again, Flames biggest blunder in this whole arena thing was not putting shovels in the ground in 2006 like they had planned and very easily could’ve. Social media wasn’t driving agendas and creating “outrage”. Mayor and Premier were Flames friendly at the time would’ve helped push it through because of that alone.

But they paused and then the social environment changed drastically and they had to fight more forces just a few years later…And even though the city taxpayers were on the hook for a very small portion of the Dome in 1983, that was forgotten.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Beatle17

Might have something to do with being right beside Belmont Park and wanting to match the face of the track.

Exactly. This was mentioned in news stories about the project while still in the planning stages. If memory serves, one of the conditions on which the project was approved was that it must not clash with the existing buildings at Belmont.

[getbak]

One thing I find interesting about the Ottawa announcement is the inclusion of partners on the team with the Sens including Sterling Project Development, Tipping Point Sports, and Live Nation.

The first two specialize in financing these sorts of large sports developments. Sterling is owned by the former owner of the NY Mets and they worked on the CITI Field development. They're also part owners, along with the Islanders and OVG, of UBS Arena.

Live Nation is the world's largest concert producer/promoter and they also own Ticketmaster (or Live Nation and TM have the same owner -- I don't know the corporate structure).


For a long time, I've been saying that sort of partnership is likely the way forward for getting a deal done here. We've already seen it in Vegas, Seattle, and Long Island. It's likely we'll see it in Arizona and now Ottawa too.



Live Nation is an interesting one. I wonder how much potential revenue they lose every time a concert tour has to bypass Calgary because the Saddledome can't handle them?