[News] Ken King: Flames' owners no longer pursuing new arena with City of Calgary

[sureLoss]

From the audio of the press conference on 960: King won't give the exact numbers on what the Flames were offering to the city for a Victoria Park arena, but said it was a similar ratio to what the Flames were proposing for CalgaryNEXT.

He also said the last time he talked to the city was July 31st.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Ken King is back on the West Village thing.

[Aarongavey]

The Edmonton Oilers would never pull this type of stunt.

[stone hands]

Chris Johnston on the fan basically called the flames bluff. Why would they relocate? The team isn't going to make nearly the revenues they do in Calgary anywhere else

[longsuffering]

Originally Posted by IamNotKenKing

It should not remind you of that.
It should remind you of a situation where both sides purport to want something done, and one side is waiting for the other to respond to an offer, based upon what they publicly said they wanted, being an arena in the Victoria Park area, as opposed to the original West Village area.

Short version:
CSEC came up with the CalgaryNEXT idea. It had flaws in presentation for sure. There are funding questions for sure.
The City responded, and CSEC responded back. The original $890MM cost turned into $1.8B, then down to $1.3B. I don't know, but feel the true cost is likely between $890MM and $1.3B. Personally, I can see where CSEC got their funding model from, being 50% from them, 25% from the City, and 25% from the CRL. I can understand why some people don't like that.
The City then said it would like Plan B, being Victoria Park.
CSEC said OK and provided a proposal.
There has been no response to the proposal.

How much is CSEC proposing to contribute in cash and up front financing?

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[lvsteven]

Originally Posted by Gaudfather

Another Francis tweet "King "we're not shopping, we're not looking around." Bettman is here to help guide Flames forward"

Sort of like that adage - I am from Head Office and am here to help!

As a born and raised Calgarian, watching this from Las Vegas... WTF... SERIOUSLY.

These are BUSINESS DECISIONS. You are a sports franchise worth $410,000,000 USD, and you cannot find land and a contractor to BUILD SOMETHING?

I have watched billion dollar buildings go up all around this city (Vegas), if private industry wants to exist, it needs to shut up and find a way to do it profitably, not cry like children because they cannot get a loan from mommy and daddy.

The VGK and T-Mobile Arena had no financing. The Raiders do, but should not.

This is just a lousy way to negotiate a deal.
Pfft... Seattle. Really? Again? Didn't the same thing in 2012? Are we better than Edmonton?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Needs to be reiterated: The threat to move is groundless. NHL Board would never approve it and the NHLPA would sue if they tried.

I have no idea on what grounds the NHLPA could sue and have any hope of winning, but the rest of your post is accurate.

I'm going to guess you're going to argue the union would sue over lost revenue under the theory that Calgary generates more revenue than any relocation market could achieve. Except (1) that's completely unprovable and (2) the CBA doesn't place any such limits.

Historically, the people with the best success suing over a threatened relocation has been the cities themselves. Major League Baseball especially has had to place numerous teams in markets due to lawsuits, injunctions and threats. Including Toronto, who very nearly ended up being awarded teams in both the AL and NL simultaneously.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

and there it is:

Eric Francis @EricFrancis
Bettman on what Calgarians can do now: "You need to make your voice heard if you think the city is moving in the wrong direction."

And if we think the city is moving in the right direction?

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

I have no idea on what grounds the NHLPA could sue and have any hope of winning, but the rest of your post is accurate.

I'm going to guess you're going to argue the union would sue over lost revenue under the theory that Calgary generates more revenue than any relocation market could achieve. Except (1) that's completely unprovable and (2) the CBA doesn't place any such limits.

Historically, the people with the best success suing over a threatened relocation has been the cities themselves. Major League Baseball especially has had to place numerous teams in markets due to lawsuits, injunctions and threats. Including Toronto, who very nearly ended up being awarded teams in both the AL and NL simultaneously.

NHLPA case would be based on the fact that the Board was making decisions to deliberately reduce HRR without consulting or getting the approval of the PA.

[Trojan97]

They will never leave. If they do? Good riddance.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

and there it is:

Eric Francis @EricFrancis
Bettman on what Calgarians can do now: "You need to make your voice heard if you think the city is moving in the wrong direction."

why are they doing this to the ####ing fans

don't put that #### on me

[Traditional_Ale]

This is going to make Nenshi a hero all over again. I hope the Flames brass go all-in with Bettman on their posturing. Calgarians are way too smart for this kind of crap, and Nenshi will be mayor for another decade.

[Cantrader]

How about PSL? Some media guy should have asked that

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Ken King is back on the West Village thing.

Ugh. Are they really that desperate for that ridiculous proposal?

Disgusting if so.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by lvsteven

As a born and raised Calgarian, watching this from Las Vegas... WTF... SERIOUSLY.

These are BUSINESS DECISIONS. You are a sports franchise worth $410,000,000 USD, and you cannot find land and a contractor to BUILD SOMETHING?

Based on the experiences of private arena builders in Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa, if a new arena cost $450 million to build, it would have a market value of something like $300 million the day it opened. The rest of the construction cost would be basically unrecoverable.

You want a business decision? How about not pissing $150 million down a rat hole?

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

The Edmonton Oilers would never pull this type of stunt.

Pretty sure Mandel and the City of Edmonton pulled on Katz's proverbial weiner at Darryl's request.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Been a while since I've thought about how they could #### up this process any worse than they already have. This certainly would qualify. I think if I were a supporter of the arena or CalgaryNEXT (and could take your sycophant glasses off for just a sec), is it not juuuust a little bit concerning that the CSEC appear to be rank ####ing amateurs at this process? If they're total amateurs at getting the arena deal done, it's not even remotely unreasonable to conclude they'll be amateurs at building the thing. Which of course means whatever money the city will contribute will go well over budget. I wouldn't trust these people to run the hot dog stand outside a bar, and that's impossible to #### up. Giving them hundreds of millions to build an arena? LOL.

Edmonton does deserve a lot of blame for this process getting to this point though. Once they willingly bent over and took it up the ass without lube, CSEC was never going to accept anything less than us accepting the same ass pounding. Also, this is not going to work, and if anything they've handed Nenshi and the city all the leverage. God they are the very definition of NO GOOD at this. Put Treliving on this ####er and it's done within a week.

And to add moving is not a threat, that costs them hundreds of millions. More than likely they will simply sell.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by greyshep

Ugh. Are they really that desperate for that ridiculous proposal?

Disgusting if so.

Yeah, he was on Sportnet960. Claims Victoria Park is the city's idea, not their theirs.

[taxbuster]

Flames ownership needs to give its collective heads a shake: in this economic climate - and possibly in NO economic climate, can an absentee owner (M Edwards who now purportedly lives in England and likely pays no tax to Calgary OR Canada) hope to gain any sympathy.

He has voted with his feet and wallet, and Calgary is voting with its wallet.

Our feet will still go to games (and some of our wallets) - but a new arena? Not likely.

I fully support the City's position in this: unless there is significant (read 40%+) investment by ownership, they can suck wind.

Two other comments:
- really, really stupid timing on the part of ownership - opportunistic and transparent
- Ken King has gotta go; he has effed this up from the outset

[HotHotHeat]

Just read the Seattle Key Arena proposal is...Wait for it... Privately financed.