Rogers Place | ?m | ?s | Katz Group | HOK

What do you think of this project?


  • Total voters
    25
Winter Daze Festival December 26-January 5 in Ice Plaza for the World Juniors


Just seems like Ice District and this whole development can not catch a break. So many factors have derailed the progress and plans for programming, proposed businesses and people living here.

Now World Juniors and the planned festival are really going to take a hit with combo of the virus and the extremely cold stretch of weather coming for the next two weeks.

Still, things are moving along.
 
I am confident that new structure will be found to make it amenable to both parties. It's too important a project for the City to let slide; this is all part of the musical chairs.
 
This is no different than when they were trying to get a deal for Rogers place. So many Edmontonians with the same fear "taxes paying for billionaires".

Its hard for people to understand the full benefit of a state of the art stadium/arena in their downtown core.

Just look at how Edmontons downtown has changed since Rogers place. No chance a lot of what got built, gets built without rogers place.

Calgary will eventually get a deal done. The current flames owner could sell the team, but the team can not be moved without Bettmans approval and I don't see him moving the flames. Its impossible to convince him to move Arizona. Calgary is a revenue positive team so they aren't going any where.
 
This is no different than when they were trying to get a deal for Rogers place. So many Edmontonians with the same fear "taxes paying for billionaires".

Its hard for people to understand the full benefit of a state of the art stadium/arena in their downtown core.

Just look at how Edmontons downtown has changed since Rogers place. No chance a lot of what got built, gets built without rogers place.

Calgary will eventually get a deal done. The current flames owner could sell the team, but the team can not be moved without Bettmans approval and I don't see him moving the flames. Its impossible to convince him to move Arizona. Calgary is a revenue positive team so they aren't going any where.
Except that there are still other U.S. markets far larger than Calgary that Bettman would like to see a team.
 
Except that there are still other U.S. markets far larger than Calgary that Bettman would like to see a team.
Yes but there are also U.S. market teams that are revenue negative.

He is not going to move a team that makes the league money. He will do another expansion team before he moves a revenue positive team.
Also Battle of Alberta is good marketing for the league and has a long history. It makes no sense for the league.

This is just a flex from Flames owners
 
I'd love it if the arena deal actually fell through for good, but I doubt that's the case given the usual games rich owners play to get their way (as others have mentioned with Katz threatening to cancel the arena deal when the Oilers were negotiating with the COE).
 
This is no different than when they were trying to get a deal for Rogers place. So many Edmontonians with the same fear "taxes paying for billionaires".

Its hard for people to understand the full benefit of a state of the art stadium/arena in their downtown core.

Just look at how Edmontons downtown has changed since Rogers place. No chance a lot of what got built, gets built without rogers place.

Calgary will eventually get a deal done. The current flames owner could sell the team, but the team can not be moved without Bettmans approval and I don't see him moving the flames. Its impossible to convince him to move Arizona. Calgary is a revenue positive team so they aren't going any where.

You can both hate corporate welfare and also realize that the arena was a net benefit to the City.

The reality is, these companies/owners can easily afford to pay 100% of the cost of these developments, they just choose not to because they're able to use a huge piece of the cultural identity of a City as a bargaining chip. It's gross to me that 100s of millions of dollars of taxpayer money go toward making rich people richer.
 
You can both hate corporate welfare and also realize that the arena was a net benefit to the City.

The reality is, these companies/owners can easily afford to pay 100% of the cost of these developments, they just choose not to because they're able to use a huge piece of the cultural identity of a City as a bargaining chip. It's gross to me that 100s of millions of dollars of taxpayer money go toward making rich people richer.
It is frustrating in ways, but private companies also take risks that we as tax payers don't want to take. Business is a gamble and you can lose a lot of money or make a lot. That risk brings returns. I'm not advocating for corporate handouts, I ethically disagree with billionaires. But its the world we live in. Digital + global has unleashed a new level of wealth potential that most of history hasn't seen due to geographical constraints.

Best we can do is build relationship that encourages philanthropy, investment in their city or hometown, and creates wins/wins. Same way a potential employee can demand more pay if they bring a lot to the table, guys like Katz has the bargaining chip because the oilers carry such benefit to the city.
 

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