Here's the key points from Ken King's CalgaryNEXT presentation yesterday:
Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/com...ion_and_heres/
There is no Plan B. King said you can't have a grand vision if you have a Plan B. To King, it's this or nothing. When asked what he'd do if this didn't go ahead, King jokingly said he'd kill himself.
The football stadium (aka Field House) will have a permanent non-retractable roof. The plan is for the Field House roof to be translucent so light can get in, but that's not a guarantee.
The cost of a retractable roof for the Field House would be $150,000,000. King says it's not worth it for something that would only be open approx. 10 times a year (for CFL games).
King said the ticket tax would be south of 10%. He also have two examples of how a ticket tax would work. The first example was an $8 tax on a $100 ticket. The second example was a $17 tax on a $100 ticket.
There were misleading graphs to show the age of the Saddledome and McMahon compared to other stadiums in those respective leagues. The construction date was used to plot the Dome/McMahon on the X-axis, while latest renovation dates were used to plot other stadiums on the same axis. This, for example, lead Commonwealth Stadium (Eskimos) to be plotted on the 2000's while McMahon was plotted at 1960.
King envisions the Field House mostly being used for amateur athletics, using the example of kids playing soccer on it at noon, then the Stamps hosting a CFL game in the evening.
The seats in the field house will fold up to expose the running track when it's needed, and fold out to get fans/people closer to the field for soccer or football games.
There will be minimal parking. Possibly as little as legislation will allow. King expects those who work downtown to stay parked where they work, and then to take transit or walk to the new arena. He said there'll be ample parking for amateur events since they won't be as heavily attended.
For the hockey rink/arena, there's some revolutionary new design planned that King said could make the upper bowl better than the lower bowl. He mentioned seating for hockey in the 18,500 to 19,500 range.
King likes Bow Trail just the way it is because it gives east and west access to the new arena.
Ward 6 Councillor Richard Pootmans was in attendance. King mentioned a few times that he's been working with Pootmans and his colleagues, but Pootmans never said anything.
King mentioned there are 3 subcontractors short-listed for construction. King said there will be no over-run on the $890,000,000 project estimate because he looked one of the subcontractors in the eye and said "you know those projects that run over with costs? This will not be one of them!"
The two car dealerships on the proposed property for CalgaryNEXT have demolition clauses in their contracts. No word on who pays that out.
King talked to Greyhound about kicking them off their site. Greyhound's response apparently was "we just want a better deal on our lease." King said Greyhound was agreeable though.
King mentioned future Olympics, but only that we could host them again if we wanted to. Other big events he mentioned were the Junos, We Day, and the FIFA Woman's World Cup.
No plan for an MLS soccer team. King said "maybe 10 years maybe 15 years" down the road. Right now it's not viable.
It's a fully integrated complex, meaning they don't think they can build the field house without the event space/arena.
If CalgaryNEXT proceeds, King proposed the Saddledome be renovated to become a trade-show space, and McMahon be demolished so that the University can build something else on that land. (The Dinos would play football at the CalgaryNEXT Field House just like the Stamps).
There's another ice surface planned for CalgaryNEXT where the Flames/Hitmen will practice and kids will get to use it when the pros aren't using it. No word on how often.
King calls CalgaryNEXT the "catalyst" for getting the creosote in the area cleaned up, but expects some combination of the city, province, and country to fully pay for it. The estimate is $300,000,000, but King has a feeling it might be lower. King had a slide with this creosote page during his presentation.
King kept referring to the proposed CalgaryNEXT location currently as "urban blight."
A few other observations:
Ken King is good public speaker and salesman. He diffused tougher questions with jokes (usually about the Oilers, Leafs, or Roughriders), and constantly repeated his key message about this being an urban redevelopment as opposed to just a stadium. He did slip up a few times, most notably when he suggested CalgaryNEXT would be a bad investment from a business perspective.
The food provided was a sandwich (tuna, veggie, roast beef, black forest ham, egg salad, or turkey), quinoa salad, babybel cheese, perrier water, apple, rice crispy square
The presentation took an hour, and King took questions for another half hour.
King opened and closed the presentation by mentioning the new $200,000,000 library and how it's a great idea and space for Calgary even though not everyone uses it. Then he'd draw a direct comparison to CalgaryNEXT.
On the slide that showed how much CalgaryNEXT was going to cost, the $890,000,000 price tag was shown next to a $1.3B price tag to build the Field House and Event Space separately (which King had already said wasn't an option), and the largest number on that slide (in font size) was "$300,000,000 in savings." This, to me, seemed particularly and intentionally misleading.
King vaguely mentioned the CRL portion of the funding would take 20 years.
Overall this felt like a sales pitch to get a small army of season ticket holders to spread the good word about CalgaryNEXT to anyone who will listen. The last thing King asked before we left was if we feel this is a good thing for Calgary, and he got a large applause back in return.
