Edmonton gets Oilerplex fever
Despite the way the Debate Unfolded, There Is A Case For A New Arena
Colby Cosh in Edmonton, National Post
Published: Friday, January 05, 2007
As I remember it, the fog began to roll in late last year. That's when one began to read annoyed references in the columns of the local papers to the fact that the Edmonton Oilers are playing in the National Hockey League's third-oldest building. Representatives of the team's ownership group, with infinite delicacy, began to speak of hopes for a "partnership" on a new facility within 10 years or so. Public-minded citizens began to scout empty or underused spaces in Edmonton's downtown. "Brown envelopes" were sent to news outlets and their contents cheerfully reported. Architectural drawings appeared as if by magic. A favourite parcel of land, in an urban combat zone near City Hall and the Law Courts, emerged as a clear frontrunner. The mayor ventured tentative support.
And, just like that, a new downtown arena for the Oilers, funded at least in part with public money, seemingly became all but inevitable. There has been no official announcement, but the project is the talk of the whole city, and it is universally accepted that it cannot happen through private financing alone. In public venues of opinion, there has been no debate to speak of. No one really knows, or will say, who urged the project forward. We simply woke up one morning, surrounded by the fog.
When a proposal is made to spend public funds in conjunction with, and for the benefit of, private business interests, a natural first question would seem to be "How much?" Only with an answer established can one reasonably go on to ask "Is it worth it?" But one has the uneasy feeling that Edmonton is so desperate for attention, so enamoured of hockey, and so awash in money that it has destroyed its bargaining position on the first question by reaching quick consensus on a "Yes" to the second one.
The political maneuvrings of 2006 have given arena plans obvious new impetus. Tight-fisted Ralph Klein has just been replaced by a premier from northern Alberta -- one who won the party leadership with timely backing from a rival, Mark Norris, who was an unabashed mouthpiece for the Oiler ownership group. And while Ottawa may not be asked to contribute cash to the project, federal backing may still be relevant, since the acreage everyone is drooling over is a little kernel of blight owned and stubbornly underdeveloped by Canada Post. No one, including me, would feel too much regret if a hockey- crazy Alberta Prime Minister assisted in a quiet land swindle.
There is nothing very wrong with the existing Rexall Place, aside from an approaching need for some routine upgrades and the lingering smell of hemp smoke from a thousand rock concerts. And yet, the downtown-arena dreamis already being defended with the batty, self-contradictory arguments familiar in other cities visited by the fog. Supporters complain that Rexall stands in a crummy neighbourhood without adjoining amenities, yet promise without shame that Fancy New Arena will attract retailers and bars and transform a crummy neighbourhood. They boast that it will "spur" rail-transit development, as if an additional municipal cost were an attraction. They envision boulevardiers sauntering around after games to sample Edmonton's manifold delights -- in January? -- and say nothing of scalpers, panhandlers, and meth dealers.
Hockey writer Tyler Dellow recently pointed out to me that there is a weird paradox here: Just about the only people professing genuine skepticism toward the idea of a new Oilerplex are local hockey fans with Web logs. It's sports fans, above all, who are familiar with the system of semi- blackmail and bogus economics that has fed the current North American mania for stadium construction; who remember how Edmontonians were terrorized in the 1990s into lowering the Oilers' rent to $1 a year; and who recall that Edmonton built a new ballpark in 1995 that was promptly abandoned in mid-lease by its Triple-A tenant and now serves as the absurdly ostentatious home of an independent league team.
But what other constituency aside from sports fans, Dellow asks, is so critical of tax-funded projects that nakedly serve its own interests? Notwithstanding the foggy way the arena debate has unfolded, there is in fact an arguable case for an Oilerplex. Thanks to the NHL's salary cap, a new arena is now one of the few practical ways to attain a competitive edge in player acquisition. Scientists and arts connoisseurs don't beat themselves up when you hand them millions of dollars: They spend and come back for more. There is no reason we should be embarrassed that hockey is so important to us -- vastly more important, judging by the way we spend our personal money and time, than cancer research, opera, or Third World poverty. Perhaps government really should reflect our priorities just once instead of trying to rearrange them.
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