Calgarians have had over 24 hours to consider what the 890 million dollar arena project means to a polluted part of downtown. The CalgaryNEXT facility will be located in the West Village.
The area used to be home to the Canada Creosote Company which exists today as Domtar. It left behind dangerous pollution that has been temporarily corralled from leaching into the river but will have to be fixed before any development can take place.
Calgary Flames President Ken King hopes the province will help pay to clean up the site but Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci won’t speculate on what the province might pay until it receives a formal request.
Calgarians continue to wonder whether it makes financial sense to build CalgaryNEXT. While some believe it’s a good investment; others say the price of oil is too low to consider the arena project at this time.
Who’s going to pay for CalgaryNEXT continues to cause friction. Many Calgarians don’t think it’s fair the Flames ownership group is paying less than one quarter of the cost. However King says, “That's actually not accurate. There's 450 million dollars in private equity going into this.”
Mayor Naheed Nenshi says there is no money in the city’s coffers to cover the cost. Ward 12 Councillor Shane Keating agrees, “ There's no way the city could be taking out a 240-250 million dollar loan and then getting paid back from the Flames organization.”
CalgaryNEXT would replace both the Scotbiabank Saddledome and McMahon Stadium and means Calgary could host any concert, tournament or sports event. The project includes a covered stadium, an arena, practice rink and an Olympic track.
