Interesting read. When he Katz Group were negotiating the arena deal with the City of Edmonton, they brought up the fact that the last three of four privately funded NHL arenas failed (Molson Centre, Corel Centre, GM Place, with Air Canada being the lone success). The Molson's had to sell because they were losing money while the other two examples ended up in bankruptcy. Toronto was stated as too big to fail essentially.
Here's the 2 page document.
https://doniveson.ca/2010/07/24/aren...itch/#comments
What it fails to mention is that Kanata's Corel Centre failed because real estate development plans that were supposed to help fund the arena were blocked by the new provincial NDP government. That NDP also forced the owners of the Sens and Corel Centre to pay for the on and off ramps, which were promised by the previous Liberal government.
In the case of the Molson Centre, the owner decided to forgo naming rights revenue by slapping its own name on the building. The arena was also much more expensive than the others (with the possible exception of the ACC).
Worth mentioning that the ACC included an office tower from the beginning. MLSE later developed the area around the arena a few years after opening.
I don't know enough about Vancouver's situation to comment.