Where There's Smoke...

I spend a good chunk of my days reading news stories about hockey, and there was an excellent piece written today by the CBC's Scott Dippel about the Saddledome's crumbling concrete ring around the roof of the arena. The Saddledome is old, and it's a known fact that concrete doesn't last forever. The fact that the Saddledome has started to show its age by having pieces of it fall to the ground shouldn't surprise anyone. October 15, 2023 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Saddledome's opening, so it's likely seen better days and a replacement will be needed in the future. This is the part of the article I found fascinating.

There were two major pieces of news that had been kept as quiet as humanly possible, it seems, before Dippel reported on it today. The first piece of Dippel's reporting to stop me in my tracks reads,

"On Wednesday, the city said it's making progress in talks with the owners of the Calgary Flames on a deal."

Wait a second. After CSEC walked away from the arena deal in December 2021, the city is now "making progress" with the same group that balked at paying for the rising costs of building an arena? Has CSEC finally come to their senses to accept that they'll pay their fair share of the costs in building a new arena?

Dippel goes on to write,

"In May of this year, the city hired three officials from the commercial real estate sector to approach CSEC about the potential for restarting talks on a new arena."

Wait, what?!? The city of Calgary, who refused to pay more than their original figure on this arena deal, has now hired three private commercial realtors to negotiate on the city's behalf with CSEC? It seems pretty clear that the city is footing the bill for the hired help, but at what cost? Who authorized this?

That's likely a question to which I won't get an answer, but let's make one thing clear here: where there's smoke, there's fire. Or, in this case, the Flames. It seems the arena deal which died unceremoniously in December was sparked back to life in May when the city brought in its hired guns to sit down with the Flames' brass. If we're to believe Calgary City Councillor Sonya Sharp who chairs the city council's event centre committee, everything is progressing forward.

"The city, through the third party, is talking to CSEC, and we should all remain very optimistic that that's going to continue," she told Dippel. It seems cooler heads have prevailed on both sides since December as both sides seem, at the very least, to be talking to one another, so there may still be an arena deal in the future for Calgary to replace the aging Saddledome.

It should be noted that the Flames are locked into a lease with the city of Calgary to play at the Saddledome until 2033. If you're doing the math, that's a decade from ending so one would expect a deal, if one can be reached, to be announced in the next few years if they're timing this new arena to be done by the time the Flames' lease has expired. If talks are progressing, we might be closer than we thought we were in December when all talks ceased.

How close are we? That can't be answered until details are released, but having the two sides talk once again might lead to a resolution. I'll still bang the drum that I'm against public funds being spent on a hockey arena that a billionaire wants, and I truly hope that the city of Calgary sticks to the figure they laid out a few years ago of $275 million as their maximum spending. The city of Calgary has other needs that could use $275 million, but this is what the city agreed to pay originally so I would expect that figure to be in play if talks have resumed.

With three hockey teams and a lacrosse team playing out of the aging venue, the Saddledome may very well need to be replaced. As stated above, the costs for a new arena should not go up for the city of Calgary and its citizens, but making major repairs on the current arena is already adding up quickly on the city's ledgers. A new arena seems like the best solution, but cost certainty for a municipal government should never be ignored.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!