Calgary city council votes to move ahead with arena negotiations

Following a lengthy closed-door meeting and some spirited debate, Calgary city council voted late Monday night to move forward with negotiations with the Calgary Flames on a new home for the hockey club.

Up to this point, the Flames and the Event Centre Assessment Committee have been chatting in broad strokes about what a deal could look like that would meet everyone’s needs. The committee’s “terms of reference” have bounded the conversation, as has the work done by the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation on the Rivers District Master Plan – the sales pitch is an arena (or “event centre”) would be an anchor tenant in a cultural and entertainment district and draw in outside investors to the area. (Though this model has generally worked in terms of leveraging government investments in the adjacent East Village redevelopment, the notion of building an arena or stadium to draw in additional investment has historically had spotty results.)

A couple weeks back, the committee approved a term sheet for negotiations between the two sides. Effectively, the term sheet sets the parameters for what the city needs to have in an arena deal. At the time, it was also mentioned that a funding source had been identified for the project. In other words, the committee and city administration ironed out out what parameters – financial and otherwise – that they were comfortable with including in a proposed deal.

Long story short, from everything that’s been discussed to date:

Given that the “big picture” discussions preceded the term sheet and the identification of a funding source, it’s natural to suspect that these discussions influenced them. That said, previous negotiation history was always going to play a part here, so the term sheet probably represents the things the city wants in the deal that they think they can get.

Monday night’s vote now authorizes formal negotiations between the committee and the Flames. Given that they’ve been talking already, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly a deal could come together given that both sides have probably staked out their respective bargaining positions in their previous informal discussions.

For those who tend to get a bit nervous – and who are hoping that the city doesn’t sell off the proverbial farm and harm their ability to fund basic services – no deal can be finalized without being approved by city council. Part of Monday’s meeting was also discussion of a public engagement plan, which would follow the sides coming to a tentative deal.

The two sides are talking turkey now. The fact that things have progressed this far is a good sign, in terms of getting a new building for the Flames. But given the hesitance shown by several members of City Council given the uncertain provincial and federal political climates and the fairly hefty financial commitment the city’s already making towards the Green Line LRT, it’s hardly a done deal.