Poll: Hearts and Minds - Who is winning the Arena PR battle so far?

[Pliddy]

Man if the Flames can't win a poll on this board imagine how they are doing at a public library or a shopping mall. It might be time to call in Lanny here

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by getbak

Ken King looking back on his week...

How King thought he would look:

Spoiler!

How he actually looked:

Spoiler!

[Amethyst]

I voted neither, not because I think it's somewhere in between but because when I encounter non-hockey fans, the most common thing I hear is that they think the City's offer is already too generous.

[Lanny_McDonald]

I say we wait until the end of next week to see the Flames offer to the city. Once we see that, we will be able to really gauge who is winning the PR battle. As it is, one side has not yet communicated the information we are most interested in seeing. As it currently sits, nether. They both look like clowns.

[Thor]

I just hope the Flames ownership, KK and co are hearing loud and clear the response by Calgary tax payers and Flames fans, its been pretty overwhelmingly in support of the City of Calgary.

[Conroy4Mayor]

King, Bettman and Burke are going to get Nenshi re-elected in a landslide.

[Krovikan]

After finally watching the press conference, it will be pretty hard to come back even with a good proposal. King started it by mocking Nenshi and the council, and the arrogance just continued. Before I watched I thought maybe King doesn't like the position the Owners are putting him in, after I felt like his position was "you have to be an idiot not to understand our position".

Also, so much of his analysis of the city deal is just plain attempt to miss lead the public. An example, giving $30million of land prevents the city from selling that land, so yes it should be included in their portion of the deal. So yes it's a paper transaction, that costs a $30m asset.

Edit: Also an different Mayor isn't going to solve this, the entire Council rejected the Flames deal. I can't find the article co-worker showed with my last week but their was a note in it that ownership may change to get fresh blood. I suspect the solution to this issue is a majority of ownership changes voluntarily or by force (possibly Berman's consequences means the NHL is growing frustrated with Ownership and wants them to sell)

[GGG]

My one thought is that this was a Hail Mary with no downside for the flames. If they can turn the election they win. If the public hates them with their threats to move they don't really lose as the worst they can do is the current city position plus whatever they can negotiate. So in the end the Flames ability to deal with the city hasn't really changed as a result but they so far haven't gotten close to their goal of unseating Nenshi.

[N-E-B]

Accidentally voted for Ken King.... whoops, I meant to click city. Curse my fat fingers on an iPhone.

[Yanda]

Originally Posted by Ducay

I get you wanted a poll, but dang, do we really need a 5th active topic for the arena discussion?

Not seeing more than 1 other topic (That isnt locked) so your coming off as a massive crybaby

[GGG]

Originally Posted by New Era

I say we wait until the end of next week to see the Flames offer to the city. Once we see that, we will be able to really gauge who is winning the PR battle. As it is, one side has not yet communicated the information we are most interested in seeing. As it currently sits, nether. They both look like clowns.

I think a weekly PR poll if this stays in the news up until the election would be interesting. Once the flames offer is released does it swing back towards the flames?

Also for the few people outside of NEBs fat fingers. What do you see as the Flames accomplishing this week?

[codynw]

Ken King plz read

[FlamesFanTrev]

I honestly think that right now everyone is losing in this situation.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by GGG

I think a weekly PR poll if this stays in the news up until the election would be interesting. Once the flames offer is released does it swing back towards the flames?

Also for the few people outside of NEBs fat fingers. What do you see as the Flames accomplishing this week?

I saw nothing being accomplished this week. I saw some public squabbling on a Friday afternoon, where both sides looked bad. Fortunately, for both sides, that gets buried by the weekend cycle.

If the Flames accomplished one thing, they have established their fall guy in all of this. King came off looking like an arrogant dick, which is probably what ownership wanted. Nenshi has always come off as an arrogant dick, so now they are positioned to make this about two obnoxious personalities. They leave themselves an out in saying that this has become too personal between the two men, and both need to go.

If the Flames come out with their offer Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, and it is reasonable, they get to dominate the news cycle for the week and pound it home in the minds of people. This is their opportunity to sway the public. If they mess this up, Nenshi can use this as an opportunity to hit them over the head with their own plan, and again claim that he is fighting for the citizens of Calgary, which I have never believed. The Flames can assume control of the news cycle if their offer is reasonable, and they are prepared to present it well.

If I'm the Flames I have someone completely different come out and do the press conference for the presentation of the offer, and answer follow up questions. Get the focus off King, and get the focus on the offer and the reasonableness of the Flames organization. If this comes off right, it frames the Friday debacle as friction between King and Nenshi bubbling to the surface. Pushing King back out there has potential for this to be immediately dismissed and have the focus placed on King rather than the presentation. The press will be more interested in character assassination than exploration of the details of the proposal. In fact, I'd have King out of town on other "pressing business" and not have him available for comment or questions. Keep this press conference about the details of the arena, the entertainment district, and the value it brings to the city of Calgary and her citizens. The second this becomes about King is the second this opportunity to control the media message goes out the window.

This week is when the PR battle will be established. Once both offers are out in the public for all to see, then we'll be able to weigh which has the most value for the tax payers. Until then, we've got one side of the story.

[OldDutch]

I know people that think the owners are winning they amount to the following groups;

1. I love hockey and were going to lose the Flames. OMG do something.
2. I hate Nenshi and/or Druh and no matter what they do I hate them
3. Fellow Billionaire NHL owner W. Brett Wilson

I think it is a pretty small minority out there that thinks the city is being totally unreasonable.

[ricardodw]

Richard Peddie supposedly either running for mayor of Toronto or looking for a progressive candidate to back and former Leaf CEO:

link

Former Leafs CEO Chimes In On Flames Arena Situation
SEPTEMBER 16, 2017 AT 9:23 AM CDT | BY MIKE FURLANO LEAVE A COMMENT

Former MLSE president and CEO Richard Peddie chimed in on the ongoing Calgary Flames arena saga yesterday. Peddie—who once ran the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, and the AHL Toronto Marlies—tweeted that Toronto’s arena was 100% privately financed. Not only did Peddie state that the arena fully privately-funded, but MLSE paid full property taxes and infrastructure costs. The Flames are looking for a substantial public investment in any new arena, and have implicitly threatened longterm consequences if they cannot reach some sort of agreement.

[SOURCE LINK]

[Rejean31]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

From what I've seen on TSN and RSN, they both report that the city has offered to pay a third of the cost without mentioning that they want their money back. In that scenario Nenshi's winning.

Everything I have seen says that the city is willing to pay 1/3 but only if the money is returned to the city in some way, shape or form.

[jammies]

I think Nenshi anticipated the Flames having a strong negative reaction to his (appropriated) East Village district proposal, and counted on an immediate and inept reaction by CSEC. He is undoubtedly gratified that even his most optimistic hopes for panicked flailing about underestimated just how inept that reaction would be.

Taking it into the public realm is playing his game, Ken King and the owners are never going to out-spin and out-politic a master politician, they'd have been far wiser to just ignore his press release about the arena project and kept to a "we aren't negotiating this in the media" stance if asked about it. Now they're learning it is far more difficult to sway hundreds of thousands of voters than a few good ol' boys at a booze'n'schmooze event.

[Rejean31]

Former Leafs CEO Chimes In On Flames Arena Situation
SEPTEMBER 16, 2017 AT 9:23 AM CDT | BY MIKE FURLANO LEAVE A COMMENT

Former MLSE president and CEO Richard Peddie chimed in on the ongoing Calgary Flames arena saga yesterday. Peddie—who once ran the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, and the AHL Toronto Marlies—tweeted that Toronto’s arena was 100% privately financed. Not only did Peddie state that the arena fully privately-funded, but MLSE paid full property taxes and infrastructure costs. The Flames are looking for a substantial public investment in any new arena, and have implicitly threatened longterm consequences if they cannot reach some sort of agreement.

In other words, the Flames are looking for the same deal that another team in Alberta just got, which, too me, if it was a fair deal for Edmonton then it is a fair deal for Calgary too.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Rejean31

In other words, the Flames are looking for the same deal that another team in Alberta just got, which, too me, if it was a fair deal for Edmonton then it is a fair deal for Calgary too.

It was a horrible deal for the city of Edmonton and has been rightfully mocked country wide, and even referenced south of the border.

That deal should not be replicated by any municipality, and if anything it has hurt the Flames to wait until the true awfulness the Ice District has become clear to leaders and citizens of Calgary and across Canada.

In their arena pursuit just like in their hockey deals, the Oilers set a precedent of stupidity that ruined everything for the other teams.