With the City of Calgary officially calling the CalgaryNEXT proposal untenable, the Flames sports district project as it is currently envisioned seems dead in the water. What's more, this outcome seemed inevitable given how completely CSEC had lost the PR war in the period between their campaign launch and the city's rebuttal.
Regular readers here know I am fundamentally opposed to the public subsidizing major arena projects like this one, because the economics and risk associated them always overtly favour the team and not the taxpayer. Aside from flagrantly transgressing the principle of public dollars for public benefit, the CalgaryNEXT pitch had three fatal flaws that ultimately doomed it:
- It didn't properly consider the city's perspective.