New Downtown Calgary Arena

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by Socguy

How so?

The bulk of the Edmonton's contribution will be paid for through a ticket tax on events in the new arena and through a CRL on the area around the new arena. This is a tax-base that didn't exist prior to the arena deal.

In fact, since the announcement of the new arena there has been 2.5b worth of new development slated for the area around the arena and more to come. This development is happening because of the new arena. It would not have occurred without it. We know this because the land the arena is built on was parking lots for decades and the development only chose to locate in the district after the arena was confirmed and knowing full well that they would have to pay extra through the CRL to be there. At the end of the day 'taxpayers' aren't paying for Edmonton's arena, rather users and specific taxpayers who by and large chose to be there are the ones paying.

But could they have gotten a better deal? Doubtful. The fact that the arena deal in Edmonton took ~4 years of intense haggling back and forth, veiled threats of moving the team, councilors dead-set against any public money being involved along with massive public opposition basically undermines any argument that Edmonton could have gotten a significantly better deal.

At the end of the day, Edmonton faced a choice: Make the deal and reap the rewards of the revitalization of a huge dead zone in their core including millions in new tax revenue or walk away from it all. Edmonton chose wisely IMO.

If the arena complex was 100% user funded via the ticket tax I would say good on them, but alas it isn't. IIRC the ticket tax only covers 25% of the estimated cost, with the rest coming from the taxpayer. Hopefully they will be able to capitalize on the downturn and the build will be cheaper but there's a good chance they will blow the budget.

As far as the resulting development around the arena go, that's great to see those empty lots get swallowed up but it still doesn't justify this deal. There's been more than one study that shows tax funded sport infrastructure is a sucker's bet.

Only time will tell, and as I have a soft spot for the Chuk, I hope I will be proven wrong.