We have a (tentative) arena deal: agreement on ‘fundamental terms and conditions’ reached

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an agreement on a new home for the Calgary Flames. The Flames, Calgary Stampede and City of Calgary announced an agreement on “fundamental terms and conditions” at a press conference at City Hall on Monday night.

Discussions between the Flames, the Stampede and the City have been going on in various forms since 2013, with the previous rounds of chats regarding the CalgaryNEXT proposal hitting the ditch in early 2016 and a previous incarnation of a building in Victoria Park screeching to a halt in summer 2017.

But talks reignited with the creation of the Event Centre Assessment Committee in late 2018, leading to formal talks picking up speed in early 2019.

The agreement sees both the Flames and the city contribute $275M to the project. The city’s portion will be funded from a mixture of city reserves and leftover funding from prior infrastructure projects.. The key caveat is that the city will own the new building, with CSEC leasing it for 35 years and assuming all operations costs. Additional costs include $3M in land costs and $12.4M for demolishing the Saddledome. They will also not relocate during the 35 year lease.

The arena appears to be located just a little bit north of the Saddledome, occupying a stretch of land along Olympic Way SE between 12th Avenue to 14th Avenue. It will reportedly hold up to 19,000 seats, and may include a “second smaller arena,” according to the graphic put out by the city. No designs have been revealed just yet, but construction should begin in 2021.

A larger size of that chart is available here.

The deal is not official yet, but can be made official at next Monday’s council meeting.