Council votes for report on both CalgaryNext and Plan B by fall

There are blue and red lines in hockey, but the ‘starting line’ was the main focus of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation Monday at the city council.

Flames President and CEO Ken King gave a presentation and took questions on the CalgaryNEXT project, in his latest pitch for a new arena, fieldhouse and events centre in the West Village.

“Would the City like to be our partner and would they like to embrace the notion that we have here and see if we can make it work?”” King told council.

In the end, council voted 12-3 for CSEC, the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation and other stakeholders to meet over the next three months and for city administration to return with a report for both CalgaryNEXT, as well as Plan b, which would put a new arena on the Stampede Grounds.

The report will come in October.

Part of King’s presentation was refuting the City’s estimate the project would cost $1.8 billion and that it was really at $1.3 billion.

He took multiple questions on team ownership and if they would be open to either fronting more money and opening up their books.

King said those are elements that could all be discussed at the negotiating table.

“I wanted to have a good hearing, I want the public not to depend on media clips about taxpayers’ money for hockey players, of which this distinctly is not a discussion,” he said.

On the discrepancy between the team’s figures and the city’s, Mayor Naheed Nenshi told reporters it really doesn’t matter.

“That’s half a billion dollars; it’s a big difference,” he said. “It would still make it more expensive than the west LRT, it would still make it the most expensive public works project in Calgary’s history. So, obviously there’s a lot more questions including who has got $1.3 billion.”

During the question period, Nenshi and King went back and forth over how much public money would go into the project, including if the City did not have to pay for the site remediation, which has been pegged around $300 million.

“Even with the best of all possible worlds, you’re asking for $600 million in public money,” Nenshi said.

“We’re not actually asking for anything, what we’re proposing is that we have a discussion about what should be asked for,” King replied.

After the vote, King said he thinks council will have a more sound idea of what to do.

“Not withstanding the complexity of our proposal, that it continued to be reviewed and saddle up beside Plan B and we can learn more about that and we can make an informed and thoughtful decision,” King said.

King also reiterated the group’s willingness to discuss Plan B, which would put a new arena on the Stampede Grounds.

Nenshi said one of two things will happen in the fall.

“Either everyone will agree that Plan B is better of West Village is better and here’s a path forward or we’ll have the exact same discussion we had today,” Nenshi said. “Council was willing and I’m willing to take the risk to see that another 90 days of talking might get us closer to some sort of concensus that we can then talk to the public about, because ultimately it’s the public who makes the decision on this.”

CSEC’s original proposal suggested the City pay $200 million, the Flames $200 million, a Community Revitalization Levy would add $240 million and a ticket tax would pay $250 million.

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