Flames expected to unveil 'one giant' sports complex
Annalise Klingbeil, Trevor Howell, Calgary Herald August 18, 2015
After a week-long tease, the owners of the Calgary Flames are expected to unveil their plan Tuesday to build a “giant” enclosed sports complex for the city’s professional hockey and football teams, as well as a public field house.
It’s anticipated that Ken King, CEO of Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., will pitch that the CalgaryNEXT megaproject be built near the Bow River, west of downtown near the Greyhound bus station.
The organization and public officials have remained vague about the exact details of the project many expect will combine a new arena for Calgary’s NHL team,
a domed football stadium for the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders and an amateur sports field house.
While most have remained tight-lipped about the proposal, Ward 5 Coun. Ray Jones hinted Monday that CalgaryNEXT would be a single, massive facility, according to the plan he saw several months ago.
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It would all be combined together, all three,” said Jones, a well-known Stamps fan. “I think it’s all just one giant building from what I understand of the plans.”
He cautioned the plan could have changed over the ensuing months and he was excited to see the proposal when it’s presented to season ticket holders at an invitation-only event Tuesday morning on the Stampede grounds.
“It’s a hell of proposal that they’re putting together,” Jones said, adding the Flames are “putting up the majority of the money.”
Plans to replace the aging Scotiabank Saddledome stretch back to at least 2007, when King first began drafting plans for a new arena.
The proposal would move the Stampeders from McMahon Stadium, a 55-year-old facility that sits on University of Calgary land.
It’s unclear what would happen to the football stadium, which was built in 103 days in 1960 and has undergone a number of expansions over the years, if the Stampeders move out.
Larry Robinson, a Canadian Football Hall of Fame member and former Calgary Stampeder defensive back/kicker from 1961 to 1974, said a covered stadium roof would be beneficial for both fans and players.
“If they do it right, they should be able to put a hockey rink and a football field in the same covered building,” he said.
Robinson played countless games in freezing conditions, but today the man behind a 1970 game-winning field goal that’s been dubbed the finest cold weather play of all time, won’t go to McMahon Stadium to watch a game if it’s raining.
“I don’t want to go sit in the cold when you can watch it on TV,” said Robinson, who noted a covered roof would make for a much more comfortable environment.
Calgary Sports and Entertainment also oversees the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League and the Calgary Roughnecks of the National Lacrosse League, both of which currently play at the Saddledome.
In Edmonton, the Oilers’ $480-million new arena will be completed next year. The capital city’s tax-backed loan, ticket tax and parking revenue will cover much of its cost.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi and councillors have openly opposed subsidizing professional sports buildings with public money, although some are now showing a willingness to spend tax dollars on the project if the public field house is included.
“If there was a proposal that incorporated a field house and a football stadium, I would be open to discussions about public funds,” said Ward 13 Coun. Shane Keating.
“The reason I’m saying that is the City of Calgary is looking at building their own indoor field house that would work for amateur sports across the board,” Keating said.
Council deemed the field house, which could include an enclosed track and sportsplex for badminton, basketball, soccer and other sports, a public project with an estimated $202-million price tag.
The project sits atop City Hall’s unfunded infrastructure priority list.
“We have to build one,” Jones said. “We’re the only major city in Canada that doesn’t have a multi-purpose sports field. Edmonton has two of them.
“The problem is we don’t have $200 million sitting around doing nothing,” he added.
A city-owned agency is hiring a consultant to study the scope of environmental contamination in the area west of downtown, which was the former home of a creosote plant and has long posed an environmental headache to potential developers.
Previous estimates have put the cleanup costs at between $50 million and $300 million — a cost Keating said the city shouldn’t bear.
“If the Flames organization is looking at that type of thing, that would have to be part of their responsibilities as well,” he said.
“That’s part of the deal,” Keating said. “They can’t build there and actually expect the city to do the clean up.”
Meanwhile, community associations near the land being touted for the new megacomplex are forming an alliance so a united front can be presented as the plans are unveiled.
Representatives from communities including Scarboro, Sunalta and Shaganappi have formed a group dubbed the West Village Neighbourhood Alliance and met a few times over the last six months to discuss the implications of a major sports development in the neighbourhood.
“We don’t know what this announcement is going to be … but we do think we need to work together, if we want to have some input in this process,” said Sunalta Community Association president Nick Twyman.
“We’re in a wait-and-see mode right now … I know the communities that are most directly affected, we’re keen to be engaged and see where this thing goes.”
Currently home to auto dealerships and a Greyhound bus station, the West Village land being touted for the project is located in Sunalta, a small community Twyman said is mostly made up of multi-family dwellings, a lot of rental accommodation and a significant immigrant population.
Social disorder, homelessness, poverty and crime are all existing problems in the neighbourhood, said Twyman, who wants the community to have a say on the potential new major development that will be moving in.
“We don’t want Sunalta to end up like the area around the Stampede grounds right now. It’s a wasteland down there,” he said.
Gary Young, president of the Downtown West Community association, said he’s “cautiously optimistic” as he awaits Tuesday’s news.
Young said traffic is already a major issue in the neighbourhood and will be impacted further by the development.
“We’re right next door (to West Village). Getting traffic in and out is the major thing. Hopefully people will use the transit system to get there,” he said.
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