Calgary Flames brass finally put the rumours to rest on Tuesday and unveiled plans for a new sports facility to be built on the edge of the Bow in the city’s southwest.

The Flames met with season ticket holders first to lay out the plans and then held a news conference at the Archie Boyce Theatre at Stampede Park at 2:30 to launch the project.

The CalgaryNEXT facility in the West Village will provide room for the Flames, Stampeders, Roughnecks, Hitmen and University of Calgary Dinos.

It will include an arena, multi-sport fieldhouse and other facilities to host major events and entertainment acts.

“This is an integrated building, this is not an arena sitting beside a field house, sitting beside a stadium. Integrated means that it has all shared services. It even means that when we construct it, which will be about a three year build period, that you can’t phase it. You can’t build one and then the other and then the other, it is fully integrated,” said Ken King, Calgary Flames President and CEO.

The proposed budget for the entire project is $890 M but officials say it could cost up to $1.2 B if the sports facilities are built separately.

Financing for the project will be broken down as follows:

  • $240M Community Revitalization Levy
  • $200M Community Sports and Entertainment Corporation
  • $250M Ticket Tax
  • $200M City Fieldhouse

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi released a statement on the CalgaryNEXT proposal saying that the plan is intriguing and that he is pleased the Flames are engaging the public in the process but that there are a number of challenges including:

  • The proposal has not been part of The City's comprehensive capital planning process, and does not form part of the plan, under which the City's capital funds are fully allocated through 2018. 
  • The proposal includes incorporating The City’s proposed (and much-needed) fieldhouse into the facility. However, that project, while a very high priority for the City, remains unfunded.
  • The funding proposal includes a $250 million “ticket tax”, but it is unclear if The City will be asked to provide the upfront financing for this. 
  • The proposed site requires significant expenditures to remediate the environmental contamination there. That remediation is also unfunded. 
  • In addition, the proposal requires the contribution of land, a community revitalization levy and significant investments in infrastructure to make the West Village a complete and vibrant community.

The Mayor says that the project requires significant public funding and that there is currently no money in the city's coffers to cover those costs.

"I have said for a long time—and continue to strongly believe—that public money must be for public benefit and not private profit. The question for Council, the ownership group, and all Calgarians is whether this proposal meets that test," said the mayor in a statement.

He says the city will "work cooperatively with the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation and the other orders of government to determine whether this project is viable."

King says the site does have some creosote contamination and that the group considers this an opportunity to clean it up.

“The remediation of the site is a gift. The site is not going to get cleaned up unless there’s a catalyst, unless there is a group that are prepared to broker an arrangement between the three levels of government,” said King. “We want to take the City of Calgary, the provincial government and the federal government and get them in a room and we want to understand that under the current situation, nobody is going to deal with this remediation but can we as a group, can we sit down and can we talk about not pointing fingers and not talk about blaming who did what, and can we talk about a group effort to clean it up.” 

The Saddledome is one of the oldest arenas in the NHL and was opened to the public on October 15, 1983.

The facility has seating for over 19,000 fans and holds about 150 events per year but has run into problems with booking some acts in the past because of the aging and out-dated infrastructure.

For more information on the CalgaryNEXT project, click HERE.