Some minor details need to be resolved.
The saga of the National Hockey League’s Calgary Flames’ ownership quest for the construction of an arena has ended and shovels are in the ground. But Flames’ ownership is waiting for the Calgary Planning Commission to give the final approval of the arena plan and that is expected to occur. Flames’ ownership desire for a new arena started around a decade ago. In 2021, the city and the hockey team ownership broke off an engagement that would have seen the construction of an arena. Flames’ ownership did not want to pay for cost overruns of the construction, after all Flames’ ownership agreed to pay half of the estimated $608.5 million Canadian cost. The arena project was dead but arena projects never die. This arena project is going to cost more money because of global inflation and higher interest rates than earlier arena proposals.
Flames’ ownership pushed Calgary city elected officials to fund a building for years. Flames’ ownership wanted a revenue generating arena but needed to get some public loonies from the city to subsidize the building’s cost. In 2017, the Flames’ ownership threw in the towel and decided to end talks with Calgary elected officials and said they were going back to the old arena. The owners would move the franchise somewhere, perhaps Québec City because there was no use staying in an old barn but cooler heads prevailed and the two sides spoke again. In 2019, the two sides reached an agreement to build an arena. In 2021, the two sides hit a speed bump delaying construction. In July 2021, it was full speed ahead for a new Calgary Flames’ building. But the deal was not completed. The two sides walked away from the table and then returned to talk. The Calgary Flames’ owners waited and got a deal with government funding.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
