CalgaryNEXT ‘not feasible’ in current form: city report

City bureaucrats are saying ‘next’ to the Flames’ CalgaryNEXT proposal.

A report out Wednesday afternoon on the $890-million arena, stadium and fieldhouse proposal for the West Village says it is simply not feasible in its current form.

It concludes the price tag would be about double the earlier proposal, around $1.8-billion, $1.3-billion in taxpayer money, including as much as $140-million to clean up creosote in that part of the city.

The report, which goes to council Monday, says the city and Flames should work to find possible new arena locations around or near Stampede Park.

Coun. Druh Farrell, who predicted the project would cost $1.6-billion when it was first proposed, says West Village is all but off the table after this report, arguing the ownership group will have to come up with another strategy.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that council has already identified that public dollars need to go to public benefit,” she said.

Coun. Evan Woolley has a similar take.

“Every dollar and cent that we spend of public money must be a real benefit to the people who are using it,” he said.

Administration is recommending council ask the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) to respond to the report by the end of May.

Ken King, CSEC CEO, says he still believes their concept is the best, but they’re committed to reading the report and coming back with a comprehensive response in a month or two.

“In fairness, I think if we ask them to have an open mind about what we’re doing, we should have an equal open mind about what they would like us to do,” he said.

He believes there should be competing visions and the one that makes the most sense should win.

“Their [administration] concept would entertain a building only [at the Stampede] and you’d renovate McMahon and you’d build a fieldhouse at the University [of Calgary],” he said. “That kind of moves us off the efficiency. We thought you could save $300 million or $400 million by putting them all together and we still believe that.”

But King concedes CalgaryNEXT always faced an uphill battle but leaned on an old rivalry talking to Sportsnet 960 the Fan.

“When Edmonton opens its doors there’s going to be a different point of view,” he said. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful project they’ve got up there and it’s going to be transformative.”

The idea for the mega-stadium was launched in August for the west end of the downtown core.

The project had a funding plan that proposed the owners to pitch $200-million; the city would add another $200-million for a public field house.

Another $250-million would come from borrowing and from a ticket surcharge.

The final $240-million would come from a Community Revitalization Levy that raises money on future tax growth.

Read the full report here.

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