Councillors react to stadium proposal
Project could cost $ 1.6B once other factors included, says councillor
The owners of Calgary’s professional hockey and football teams billed its proposed $ 890- million sports complex as an attraction that could vault the city to new heights as an international player.
But the pitch delivered Tuesday by Ken King, CEO of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., for the project now known as Calgary-NEXT, drew early skepticism from some city councillors on who will ultimately pay for it.
“Everyone needs to take a cold shower and look at this through a business lens,” said Ward 7 Coun. Druh Farrell.
Farrell estimated the full cost of the project would be closer to $ 1.6 billion once other factors are included, such as necessary infrastructure expenses and cleaning up contaminated land in the downtown west end. The proposed arena and stadium site was once home to a creosote plant near the Bow River. “( There’s) so many unanswered questions,” she said. “What we have seen today is a dazzling proposal that has no substance ... And it’s important that Calgarians are aware of the total cost.”
The sports group, which owns the Calgary Flames, Calgary Stampeders, Hitmen of the Western Hockey League and Roughnecks of the National Lacrosse League, began crafting plans for a new arena as far back as 2007.
The teams are currently playing in some of their respective league’s oldest facilities, as the Scotiabank Saddledome was built in 1983 and McMahon Stadium in 1960.
Flames ownership has complained the aging Saddledome — considered state- of- the- art three decades ago — lacks amenities, such as luxury box space and a larger lower bowl that newer venues have.
Further, several music acts have skipped Calgary in recent years over concerns the infamous concave arena roof can’t safely support elaborate light and sound equipment now used by major performers. “This is on the order of New York, London and Paris,” King told media Tuesday. “If we’re going to be a globally consequential city … this is the kind of thing that we want to contemplate.”
King’s presentation included a graphic that shows the ownership group kicking in $ 200 million, while the city would be expected to contribute another $ 200 million for a public field house — a proposed facility at a northwest athletic park is at the top of the city’s infrastructure list, but is currently unfunded.
The remaining $ 490 million would be raised through a so- called ticket tax ($ 250 million) on users, and a community revitalization levy ($ 240 million).
A Community Revitalization Levy ( CRL) is a loan from the province and used to improve blighted districts. The city then repays the loan through property taxes from new developments in the revitalization zone.
The city first used a similar scheme — called Tax Increment Financing — to prepare infrastructure in the East Village for redevelopment. It’s unclear whether the provincial government will approve a request for a revitalization levy — Premier Rachel Notley declined to comment on the entire proposal Tuesday — or if the Calgary’s city council would support it.
King said he’s had preliminary discussions with the provincial government about a revitalization levy and was unsure whether the group would approach the city to finance the ticket tax.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who is out of the country this month, issued a statement calling the proposal by the Flames organization “intriguing” and said he appreciated the ownership group offering to kick in $ 200 million toward the public project. But any tax dollars spent on the project must be for public benefit, not private profit, Nenshi said. “The question for council, the ownership group, and all Calgarians is whether this proposal meets that test,” he said.
Ward 8 Coun. Evan Woolley, who represents five communities adjacent to the proposed sports complex, supported the city using a CRL to revitalize the area.
“A lot of questions ( remain) around how big that map would look, where the boundaries of the CRL would be, how much money could come out of a CRL and whether that is a route that we want to go,” Woolley said.
“I like this idea because it’s not just an arena plopped in a field,” he added. “It’s a comprehensive, city- building exercise.”
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, considered one of the fiscal hawks on city council, said he was dubious the province would approve a CRL for Calgary-NEXT. Ward 5 Coun. Ray Jones remained concerned over the environmental cleanup of the site but was more optimistic about the project overall.