Originally Posted by RyLucky
There have been some really great points from all forumers.
There are also a few key assumptions that we need to elucidate:
-How many seats? How many boxes? A few years ago, King told me there would be the same number of seats, but they would be better, and there would be about 2x as many boxes.
-Will the Saddledome remain? Who owns it when the dust clears? In the same conversation, King told me there was no way to keep both, because the saddledome is too expensive to operate and Calgary's market can't support two arenas.
-In 1980 the team cost $16M. Today it is valued around $451M.
My view:
The public DOES stand to potentially benefit from the construction of a newer, larger stadium, but from this gain we must subtract the opportunity cost of premium land, debt servicing, and the loss of the Saddledome. In my estimation, the sum magnitude of direct and indirect benefit to Calgary would probably be in the 10s of millions annually with only minimal social benefit, assuming the alternative is the status quo. Bus service hours, bike lanes, and beautification projects might be better bang for our buck, especially given the limited commitment/risk of investing in these public services/infrastructure. For the price of the stadium, we could probably build 25 state-of-the-art minor hockey arenas and free equipment for every kid in Calgary. Calgary could probably build its own Rideau Canal for half a billion.
Where it IS worth investing city $$$ is in peripheral projects associated with a new stadium, so that private ROI can be maximized. This might include anything from road realignment to transit to site work for adjacent developments. The city should do whatever it can to keep the area near the new stadium as vibrant, multi-use, and 24-7 as possible. The last thing we want is for $0.5B dollars to be spent to get the same thing we have now. As outdated as the Dome might be, the area surrounding the Dome is 100x worse.
Ideally, this is what I would like - though a complex agreement always has room for compromise:
-City-owned land be donated to ownership group
-private developers fully fund stadium construction and operation
-as part of the deal, the city promises to spend x million dollars by such a date on upgrading the entire WV, including changes to road layout, pedestrian infrastructure, park space, river access, possibly a CPR underpass to 17th street, a new bridge to 19th st NW, and maybe even fix CROWCHILD.
-City holds exclusive right to parking management
-City charges for water&power
-Building code on stadiums be carefully revisited, ensuring design is up to modern best practices that will benefit Calgarians
-property tax exemption (may depend on how concession space is owned/leased/controlled)
This kind of deal would mean the owners would build the stadium for $400-700
M (partly user fee), and the city would spend invest a few hundred million (depending on scope) around the stadium to ensure its success while addressing some other needs at the same time.
The timing is also important. It would be great to take a Keynesian approach and buy this during the next down turn, so long as we could save before and/or access low interest. In light of recent property tax hikes, it might be best to wait a few years. It would also be great to move forward as CMLC involvement in the EV begins to wrap up. I'm pretty skeptical of an Olympic bid in the next few years, but perhaps down the road.
|
Prev
Linear Mode
