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Top Flames stories of 2024: The Flames announce relocation to Red Deer on April Fool’s
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Ryan Pike
Dec 31, 2024, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 30, 2024, 19:41 EST
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Welcome to our countdown of the top Calgary Flames news stories of 2024, where we will be counting down our most-read stories of the year in the days leading up to 2025.
The Calgary Flames will be playing in Calgary for a long, long time.
They originally relocated to Alberta in 1980, playing for three seasons in the Stampede Corral before moving to the Olympic Saddledome in 1983. They’ll be moving to Scotia Place in 2027, with the initial 35-year lease term running through 2062. (There are contractual provisions to potentially extend the lease past that initial term, though.)
But on April 1, in our annual April Fool’s post, we revealed that the Flames had decided to relocate to Red Deer for the 2024-25 season.
Here’s a snippet:
Bean noted in his remarks in the release that while the opening of the new arena in 2027 will undoubtedly make the city an attractive destination, Red Deer’s proximity to the Donut Mill on Gasoline Alley would provide a larger incentive for prospective free agents to join the Flames franchise. The relocation continues a decades-long trend, dating back to the Flames’ relocation from Atlanta, of the hockey club gradually moving closer and closer to the Donut Mill.
The release was fairly light on concrete details, such as where the Flames would play in Red Deer – presumably the Enmax Centrium – or what would happen with CSEC’s other teams, the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers, Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen, National Lacrosse League’s Calgary Roughnecks or Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders. All of those teams, presumably, would also desire increased proximity to the Donut Mill.
The Flames are, of course, not relocating to Red Deer. But during a year where our most consistently-read pieces were our ongoing arena coverage, it was pretty funny to see so many of our readers having fun with the concept of the Flames being lured to central Alberta by the Donut Mill.
You can read the full story by clicking here, and be sure to tune in each day until Dec. 31 for the rest of our countdown!

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