Calgary Flames and city to restart arena negotiations

The city council has voted in favour to restart conversations about negotiations for a new arena with the Calgary Flames.

Another off-season meaning more arena talks. After around September/October, the Calgary Flames and the City of Calgary have stopped talking about negotiations for a new arena after they couldn’t come to an agreement with financial decisions.

On April 24th, councillor Jeff Davison filed a Notice of Motion regarding the negotiations in hopes of them restarting Calgary’s new ‘event centre’. Yesterday, the city council voted in favour to restart those negotiations.

Via Calgary Sun:

"“We’ve sent a strong signal today that says we have a strong contingent on council that wants to have a conversation,” said Coun. Jeff Davison, who helped pitch the plan to re-start negotiations with Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. (CSEC) with “new faces” around the table.“I hope that today’s vote signals that we’re ready to talk and hope they respond,” he said."

The panel would include three councillors, the city manager, and the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) President. With the subpanel including the Calgary Economic Development (CED) Board chair and the CMLC board chair. By those ‘new faces’, it would be politicians at the table, which would be different than their previous negotiations.

In Davison’s original notice, he put forward that the Event Centre Exploration Committee (ECEC) must report back to the City Council no later than June 30, 2018. Meaning these talks will be starting up again rather soon.

"“I think there were comments made on both sides that didn’t help the negotiations. And, I think, backs got up,” said Coun. Shane Keating on Monday.  “What we have to do is remove that: sit together, have a pleasant conversation about realities, benefits to both the city and the organization, benefits to the residents (and) I think you do that in a very non-threatening, non-aggressive manner.”"

We have talked so many times about these arena negotiations. I’m getting tired of them. If you’re unaware, we have articles that might help. In September, CSEC President Ken King basically threatened to leave the city, but he was mainly just being strategic about the timing, which can be found here. He then later held a presser about the deal which can be found here.

Next: Former notable fourth-round picks

Let’s hope these talks actually get somewhere this time.