Update on new Calgary event centre expected
UPDATE: Calgary arena deal signed, construction set to start this year. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
Calgarians may feel a sense of déjà-vu as the event centre committee prepares for another meeting on Thursday morning.
It's been eight years since the Calgary Flames ownership first announced plans for a new arena for the team to call home.
That plan, dubbed CalgaryNEXT, promised an arena, multi-sport fieldhouse and other facilities to host major events and entertainment acts, but it never came to fruition.
Roughly two years later, then-mayor Naheed Nenshi proposed a 'plan B' partnership with Flames ownership, with a portion of the project's pricetag to be covered by the city and the rest covered by the team on top of user surcharges.
However, the team shot down the idea, claiming ownership would end up footing too much of the bill.
Fast forward to the summer of 2019, and it seemed like Calgarians would finally see the mega-project come to fruition.
Calgary city council approved a new $550-million plan to construct a state-of-the-art arena with capacity for around 19,000 people.
Construction on the project could have begun a little over two years later, but cost overruns and disagreements over funding slowed the process to the point where the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) pulled out of the deal in late 2021.
In April 2023, the city once again partnered not only with CSEC but also with the Alberta government and the Calgary Stampede to breathe new life into the project.
The agreements, in principle, with the province, Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) and the Calgary Stampede pave the way for creating the Culture + Entertainment District in downtown Calgary, in the Rivers District, including a new and publicly-owned event centre.
The deal is valued at $1.2 billion.
The city is contributing 44 per cent, or $537.3 million, and 56 per cent is being contributed by both the province ($330 million) and CSEC ($356 million).
The province has since earmarked $39 million for things such as land acquisition, site preparation and roads near the future arena.
A new $800-million arena for the Flames to call home is part of the deal, and it comes with a 35-year lease that includes a commitment from the owners of the Calgary Flames to stay in the city, according to city officials.
The exact details of the plan have not yet been finalized, but Calgarians could soon get a more complete look at the deal's structure following Thursday's event centre committee meeting.
Premier Danielle Smith will join Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek at a 1:15 p.m. news conference updating the public on the new event centre.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Universities grapple with the complicated politics of campus encampments
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.
Police order B.C. woman who praised Hamas not to protest for 5 months, says her group
A pro-Palestinian activist group says its international co-ordinator, who was arrested in a Vancouver hate-crime investigation, was released with an order not to attend any protests for the next five months.
Conservative MP says Chinese hacking attack targeted his personal email
A Conservative MP is challenging claims by House of Commons administration that a China-backed hacking attempt did not impact any members of Parliament, because the attack was on his personal email.
Loblaw leaders call criticism 'misguided,' say they aren't to blame for high food prices
Loblaw chairman Galen Weston and the company's new CEO are pushing back against critics who blame the grocery giant for soaring food prices, as a month-long boycott of the retailer gets underway.