The Calgary Flames have an 8.5 per cent chance of landing Auston Matthews in Saturday’s draft lottery.
The odds appear slightly longer that they’ll ever realize the team’s dream of building a proposed new arena and football stadium/field house in the city’s west end.
At least that’s how it looks following a damning report from city administrators who suggest the $890 million CalgaryNEXT project would actually cost twice that much.
It went on to declare that the proposed site alongside the Bow River is “unfeasible.”
However, not only is Flames president/Calgary Sports and Entertainment CEO Ken King undeterred by the 173-page report, he was actually buoyed Monday by its tabling in city hall, which sparked healthy dialogue on the matter.
And that’s all he’s ever asked for – open, honest discussion on whether the new facilities are needed in town, where they should go and who pays for what.
Few can deny the 33-year-old Saddledome or the 56-year-old McMahon Stadium are far past their prime and in need of state-of-the-art replacements befitting a world class city like Calgary.
It’s the location and the ask from taxpayers that are the early sticking points. And headline-grabbing reports like the $1.8 billion price tag that suggested taxpayers would be on the hook for two thirds of it don’t help with public sentiment.
“The simplest light made it look like the project was double the cost but it’s not as scary as that and there was much more support included amongst the healthy debate (Monday) amongst (city) councillors,” said King.
“A large amount of this money will have to be spent with or without us and that message was clear today. It’s about incremental costs, not an overall number. It’s about cleaning up the land, it’s about the field house and it’s about west village. If they never do any of those I think we’d have a much more difficult process.”
Some of the unused riverside land the Flames earmarked for the project has long been contaminated with creosote. Despite predictions the cleanup could cost in excess of $300 million dollars, the city report suggested it would actually costs closer to $100 million – the first hint of “good” news, if you can call it that.
With the Flames bringing the contamination to light, surely the city now feels compelled to remediate the environmental blight regardless.
Am amateur athletics field house had long ago been identified by the city as one of its biggest priorities in town at an estimated cost of $200 million. Yet, the city has no plans or funds for the project, prompting the Flames to include it as part of their grandiose plans, announced in August.
The complex would include 30,000 seats, a football/soccer field and a 400-metre track.
The Flames’ vision includes paying $200 million for the facilities, which would be publicly-owned, but run by the Flames, who would get all the buildings’ revenue.
The Flames say they’d also provide $250 million by way of a ticket tax/user fee.
The ask from taxpayers is $200 million, which the Flames argue would be the cost of the field house alone.
A proposed community revitalization levy would raise the final $240 million, based on taxes collected through new development and rising property values in the west village.
The province has said it won’t cough up a dime for the project and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi consistently reiterates he isn’t keen on having taxpayer money go towards the project.
A recent poll indicates 52 per cent of Calgarians didn’t support CalgaryNEXT and three out of four residents didn’t support the funding model.
It clearly needs to be improved.
At a time when Calgary’s typically robust economy is in the midst of a severe downturn given the slumping price of oil, the Flames are facing an uphill task when it comes to asking for tax dollars.
That said, the project deserves city backing – financial and otherwise.
It’s all part of the negotiating process, which is now fully underway following the report, which the Flames will respond to extensively in June.
Meanwhile, council agreed to meet with the Flames behind closed doors to find the best fit for a stadium proposal. Early suggestions indicate several councillors believe the best place would be on the Stampede grounds on which the Dome sits.
“It’s going to be tough but certainly I think Calgary Sports and Entertainment should have the chance to try and address some of the questions and concerns and see if they can be met,” Nenshi told reporters when asked Monday about the West Village project.
“I’m not optimistic on that (West Village plan) but I also think that what council did (Monday) was start up a conversation on seeing if there are any alternatives.
“Calgarians have been pretty clear that they would like to see better facilities, but they’ve also been pretty clear that public money has to go for public benefit.”
Edmonton will open its new $480 million Rogers Place arena in the fall, capping off a lengthy negotiating process with the city that took more than nine years to complete from the time an arena feasibility study was launched in 2007. In the end, Oilers owner Daryl Katz’s Group paid $161 million, $125 million came from a ticket tax, and $279 million from a community revitalization levy. Keep in mind the entire project cost over $600 million as it also included an LRT link, a winter garden, community rink and pedestrian connection.
The result has been more than $2.5 billion in new buildings in the rink district, completely transforming what was once a dilapidated part of town.
Nenshi points out the same argument can’t be used to garner city funding as the west village isn’t in such desperate need of being revitalized.
Still, that land needs to be cleaned up and it would serve to benefit the city if it was being developed on.
It’s interesting to note that Toronto’s Air Canada Centre and Montreal’s Molson Centre were both built privately by team ownership – a suggestion King and his owners have heard repeatedly given their tremendous wealth.
“It’s simply a product of market economics,” said King, explaining why the club can’t be expected to follow suit.
“The difference between buildings in cities like Montreal and Toronto and the ones in Alberta is the size of the models. Everything is more in the bigger centres – revenues are more and the opportunities are greater. Having five million people in a city is a distinguishing characteristic between small markets and large.”
King figured long ago that the best-case scenario would see a new rink completed within five years.
He hoped the economic downturn would provide impetus to get started sooner rather than later.
However, it appears this will be a long and drawn out a process – something the Flames are used to given how Dennis Wideman’s situation was handled this year.
Short-term, the focus is on the draft lottery.
King, who insists he isn’t a superstitious man, won’t join Brian Burke in attendance for Saturday’s proceedings.
“We’re pretty pumped about it,” said King, whose 26th-place club could pick anywhere from first to third, or fall back from fifth to eighth.
“Let’s assume the door will open for us to have as good, if not better, an opportunity.”
He might say the same about CalgaryNEXT.
