Press conference called for ‘important announcement’ about arena project on Tuesday afternoon

Have the City of Calgary and Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation struck a (second) arena deal? We might find out as soon as Tuesday afternoon. Following City Council’s closed session update on the event centre negotiations, the City announced a 3:30 p.m. MT press conference for what’s being termed “an important announcement” regarding the future event centre (arena) project.

While there’s lots of chatter about the specifics, Postmedia’s Don Braid has flat-out stated that there’s a deal.

The location of the press conference – a block north of the Saddledome on the location originally ear-marked for the new building – seems to be a strong hint regarding what will be announced.

The hand-wringing about when a deal will get done may finally be over. It will likely be immediately replaced with more substantive hand-wringing over the composition of the deal structure itself.

We’ll have more on this story as it develops.