Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:26 pm Posts: 9156 Location: Left Field
I am so sick and tired of this ploy.......get the taxpayers to pay for it while all the fat cats sit back and drink it in. Every time the Flames need something they threaten to move. Its getting old.
Be careful...its a different world then the last time they threatened this.
Burke said he felt the city should have been thankful for the proposal, another point of contention for Nenshi.
“We should say thank you for the opportunity to spend $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion of taxpayers’ money on private business? I don’t think so.”
The Flames released a statement from King later on Wednesday:
“Brian Burke runs hockey operations for the Calgary Flames and he and many Calgarians have strong views about this topic. However, he is not our spokesperson regarding a new events centre for our city. We remain committed to our dialogue with the city and very optimistic we will get to a positive conclusion. We admire everyone’s enthusiasm on this subject.”
That poor bastard. Some reporter probably just sat there and fed him drinks until he pried an opinion out of him. Albeit a shitty one.
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Unfortunately I do not think you will ever see this go away. If anything, it's gonna get worse.
It's pretty sad when you think about it. And I don't think the main culprit is greedy sports owners or even the sycophant politicians who enable them as the two items up above claim. It's us.
Think about it--we have no problem raising taxes if it means keeping a pro sports franchise in town, but scream bloody murder if it's for something dastardly, like, say, education. Mind you, the tax increases to pay for one stadium vs. boosting an education budget are not necessarily comparable, but it's strange that we as a society seem to treat such a frivolous entity with such importance.
What really sucks is that despite the taxpayer money, corporations STILL get to slap their ugly-ass names on the building.
I am becoming more and more adamantly opposed to any public funding for professional sports facilities. Their owners have access to multiple revenue sources to build the stadiums they need to maintain their market positions in their particular sport. If they don't then sell the team to someone who does. The threat to move only stands up because they can find another governmental entity that will give in to their demands. The worst part is that professional sports stadiums are considered modern enough only if they undergo massive updates every 10 to 20 years now. The teams are starting to abandon buildings that are, in some cases, only 30 years old. The Detroit Pistons have left their own building, The Palace of Auburn Hills which opened in 1988 to move back down to Detroit to share the new arena with the Red Wings opening this fall because the Palace is considered obsolete by today's NBA building standards. To the Palace's original builder/owner, Bill Davidson's credit, he built the Palace with his own funds. The new Little Ceasars Arena does not receive direct taxpayer money but does receive some a form of public funding that deals with immediate vicinity property tax redistribution.
There have been interesting articles published that show what becomes of publicly funded Olympic venues after the games have concluded leaving the host city under an overwhelming amount of debt with useless facilities rotting into the ground. The Greek debt crisis can at least, in part, be attributable to the building of venues for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Interestingly, the I.O.C. is beginning to find it difficult to get bids from enough cities for future games as nobody believes the rosy income projections predicted by the I.O.C. for the necessary venue construction to host an Olympic Games.
Here are photos of abandoned Olympic venues from recent host cities.
_________________ Bíonn macalla ag an bheatha sa tsíoraíocht. Liverpool FC: 2019 and 6-time Champions of Europe. 2020 and 19 time English Premier League Champions YNWA. JFT 97
Government subsidizing entertainment industry is just nuts, always has been. I was always proud that Canada never went this route like the USA did. Hell when the Sens building was built, they actually had to pay for their own off ramp to access it. Local government saw no need other than the stadium and refused.
Until Edmonton, what a great waste of taxpayer money. And now Calgary? Saddledome is still a good stadium. Let the Flames move or pay for it themselves.
_________________ Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:26 pm Posts: 9156 Location: Left Field
This is ugly looks like the Mayor of Calgary has drawn the line with the team. Big separation between the two. Perhaps the Flames end up in Seattle but I think that's just smoke and mirrors. Flames should remain in Calgary either way. Spector says turn your ears off if moving talk comes up!
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This is ugly looks like the Mayor of Calgary has drawn the line with the team. Big separation between the two. Perhaps the Flames end up in Seattle but I think that's just smoke and mirrors. Flames should remain in Calgary either way. Spector says turn your ears off if moving talk comes up!
Buttman weighs in.....not sure where the "consequences" part comes in the article header but whatever.
Quote:
"One of the dynamics here that strikes me as a different, particularly say from Edmonton, I don't get a sense from the city that there is a commitment to or a belief in the importance of having the right infrastructure and having a major league sports team," Bettman told reporters. "I don't see the same level of city commitment here that I've seen in other places.
Stay strong city of Calgary make those rich bastards fund their own arena!
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Buttman weighs in.....not sure where the "consequences" part comes in the article header but whatever.
Quote:
"One of the dynamics here that strikes me as a different, particularly say from Edmonton, I don't get a sense from the city that there is a commitment to or a belief in the importance of having the right infrastructure and having a major league sports team," Bettman told reporters. "I don't see the same level of city commitment here that I've seen in other places.
Stay strong city of Calgary make those rich bastards fund their own arena!
By commitment he obviously means "free money and infrastructure". Maybe the city would be more amendable to helpign out with infrastructure if a bunch of rich dudes paid for their own damn arena?
Flames rejected Calgary’s arena plan because taxpayers would’ve gotten paid back Posted on September 14, 2017 by Neil deMause Following Calgary Flames CEO Ken King’s announcement on Tuesday that his team was going to take its arena-negotiating ball and go home, the Calgary city council voted yesterday to release the city proposal that King had called “spectacularly unproductive.” The details aren’t public yet, but the basics, according to Toronto Metro:
An estimated $500-600 million in construction costs would be shared one-third by the city, one-third by the Flames, and one-third by a ticket surcharge. The city wanted to get its third repaid either by new property taxes or by getting a cut of arena revenue. That’s … perfectly reasonable? That second item would be, in fact, required by law if this were Seattle, and in any event “We’re splitting the costs, let’s split the revenues” is a sensible proposal in any world other than the sports one.
The Flames owners, according to Metro, “balked” at this, and asked for an exemption from property taxes on top. That wasn’t going to get a deal done. So while the talks may have been “spectacularly unproductive,” that doesn’t appear to have been the fault of Mayor Naheed Nenshi or the council.
LOL. There isn't much left to say about what a bunch of greedy fucks (and now liars) the owners look like after this.
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