Way, way back in 2005, in the aftermath of the NHL’s lockout, the Calgary Flames began informal conversations with Calgary’s municipal government on the development of a new home arena for the hockey club.

In 2027, just over two decades after talks began, Scotia Place will open roughly a block north of the Flames’ current home, the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Back in October, former Ward 11 city councillor Jeromy Farkas – a life-long Calgarian and avowed Flames fan that grew up in Dover – was elected Calgary’s new mayor. And unlike his three predecessors in that position, there are no looming or lingering arena negotiations to tackle. The deal is done, construction is well underway, and the saga of the Flames’ new home is nearing the finish line.

Farkas sat down with FlamesNation at Calgary’s city hall last week to discuss the many, many developments in and around Scotia Place.

“Yeah, all things old are new again,” said Farkas. “It’s nice to be moving forward, and the event centre is really critical when we think about Calgary getting ready for the two-millionth Calgarian. We’re on the cusp of being a city of two million people, and that begs a lot of challenges, opportunities around infrastructure services and everything like that. And the event centre is one big piece of an overall bigger picture when we’re thinking about nearly $20 billion of public and private investment that’s happening in Calgary’s downtown over the next five years.”

Farkas is in a pretty unique situation as mayor. During his first term on city council, between 2017 and 2021, he cast three votes against the first incarnation of the arena deal – the initial approval vote, a subsequent consideration vote and a subsequent budget revision vote – and he’ll likely be one of the dignitaries officially opening the facility in 2027. (He was not part of the council that unanimously approved Scotia Place’s funding arrangement in 2023.) He noted his criticism of the prior deal was based on accessibility and community benefit, and acknowledged the spin-off benefits of Scotia Place’s pact.

“Well, and firstly, to be clear, I’m a big fan,” said Farkas. “My difficulty was always just the terms of the deal. And, you know, people say the devil’s in the details, and there’s a lot of heartburn over the terms of the deal. But whether you agree with it or not, in Calgary, a handshake means something. The deal is done. We are continuing forward. And regardless of whether you like the terms of the deal, this facility is something that every single Calgarian is going to benefit from.”

If you’ve driven between Stampede Park and City Hall lately, or will be driving in that area over the next few years, you’ll notice a whole lot of construction. Scotia Place is currently under construction north of the Saddledome. The upcoming Autograph Collection hotel just broke ground on the west side of Stampede Park. The W and JW Marriott hotels are set to begin construction in the near future across the street from Victoria Park LRT station. The Glenbow Museum is set to reopen later in 2026 after an extensive renovation. Olympic Plaza and the Werklund Centre (formerly Arts Commons) are being extensively renovated as well.

And that’s in addition to all the stuff that’s already been built in the area… and the Green Line, which will have a station located a block or two to the north of the new arena as part of the province’s developing rail strategy.

Suffice it to say, Scotia Place will be opening in a much different context in 2027 than the Saddledome did in 1983.

“Well, if this new facility is just a new Saddledome, we’ve already failed,” said Farkas. “But the good news is that we’ve really succeeded already in terms of some of the spin-off benefits, the local opportunities for real estate development. This is the anchor of a larger district, and we’re already seeing international interests that we otherwise would not have ever attracted to Calgary in terms of the real estate play that’s happening nearby. But then also the local community benefit.”

“We’re thinking a lot about place-making. We’re thinking about a lot of how we can better activate Calgary’s downtown year-round every night of the week. And that’s a central part is Calgary’s downtown for a long time has been a place that, you know, you come down from 9 to 5, and maybe every once in a while you catch a game or you catch a show. But our objective is to have every single day of the year, activations, place-making, events, festivals, something going on at all times. And we’re succeeding significantly in that. There’s a lot of work to do, but for us to get it across the line, it’s going to require investments like the event centre and others to be able to get it done. And, you know, it’s not just vibrancy. It’s also addressing some of the root causes of crime and social disorder. So having more people on transit, having more people in the immediate area, there’s spin-off benefits for the local retailers, for the local coffee shops, as well as around safety and crime issues. So, again, you don’t have to necessarily be a Flames fan or even step foot inside this new facility in order to be the recipient of some very significant benefits for the city and the province and the country overall.”

If it sounds ambitious: yeah, it is. But when you consider the types of events that the BMO Centre expansion has helped the city land, events that haven’t been to Calgary before, adding Scotia Place (and the lengthy list of other investments in the downtown area) could make the city even more competitive for those types of big events.

In this context, yeah, the city is spear-heading a lot of spending aimed at fixing Calgary’s downtown as part of the broader downtown strategy. But the strategy is as much about bringing people from across Canada to the area as it is about folks from across Calgary.

“Calgary is on the cusp of being a truly international city akin to New York City, to Toronto, to Vancouver and others,” said Farkas. “And there’s some growing pains associated with that. When I think about welcoming the 2 millionth Calgarian, I think that that’s at once frightening but also exciting. It’s a challenge if we’re not prepared, but it’s an opportunity if we are. And Event Centre, BMO Centre, all of these other investments are demonstrating that we are ready, that we’re leaning into it. We have a plan and we’re going to make it not just as a facility, but we’re going to make it as a city.”

There’s still work to be done on Scotia Place, but Farkas noted that everything remains on schedule for the facility’s 2027 opening.

“I’d say we’re on track, on budget, on time, and excited for, you know… it’s less than two years.”

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