Move over Ottawa, there’s a new Canadian city whose professional sports team is at odds with politicians over an arena deal. Late Tuesday night Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek announced that only weeks before shovels were due to break ground on a new 18,000 seat arena, the Flames had pulled out of the deal.
In a series of tweets from her personal account, Mayor Gondek laid out how the City of Calgary was prepared to pay up to $287.5M, however recent overages including environmental costs and sidewalk issues appeared to have upset Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC).
Citing supply chain issues, and increases in material costs during the pandemic, Gondek wasn’t shy about telling Calgarians how she felt about CSEC pulling out of the deal: “The City came to the table to assist with $6.4m in roadways leaving $9.7m for the Flames. Based on this gap, CSEC informed me they are walking away from our deal. On a project worth over $650m, to have one party walk away for 1.5% of the value of the deal is staggering.”
CSEC was quick to respond Wednesday morning issuing a statement where they noted “While CSEC was prepared to move forward in the face of escalating construction costs and assume the unknown future cost risks, CSEC was not prepared to fund the infrastructure and climate costs that were introduced by the City following our July agreement and were not included in the $608.5 million and are not included in the current cost estimate of $634 million”.
As is usually the case when deals of this magnitude fall through, each side is laying the blame squarely on the other. However the real losers in all of this are Calgarians themselves. The project was earmarked to be erected where the current Saddledome is situated in Victoria Park. More than just an arena, the new building was being labelled as an “events centre” whose goal was to revitalize the surrounding area and inject millions of dollars into the local economy. Had construction started on time, the project would have been completed in time for the 2024-25 NHL season.
While there is still an outside chance the two parties return to the bargaining table and come to a mutually agreeable solution, there’s no current plans to try to salvage the deal so it can begin on time. With the holidays just around the corner, expect this issue to get kicked down the road into the new year.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner