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    Wednesday, March 26


    In real life Six Meetings Before Lunch asked my opinion on a new arena for the Edmonton Oilers, what with all the hubbub (I'm not sure hubbub is a real word, like brouhaha) around the new report recommending a $450 million new downtown arena. Not being a native Edmontonian nor a committed fan of the Edmonton Oilers (I still hope they make the playoffs of course) I'm not terribly invested in the conversation. I do not want to say I am indifferent - after all when they say "public investment" they really mean "Duncan's tax dollars" but I do not have a strong desire one way or another. However, two thoughts from opposite arguments:
    1. I'm too lazy to figure out inflation pre-1988. StatsCan has it following 1988, at an average of 2.5% a year - let's assume it was like that between 1974 to 1988. Rexall Place was built 34 years ago at a $19.4 million, with our 2.5% annual inflation that works out to $45 million in 2008 dollars. Is the new stadium really going to be ten times the arena Rexall is?
    2. If Edmonton, centre of the Alberta oil sands boom and an epicentre of Canadian hockey awesomeness can't have a modern, fantastic hockey arena, why does Broward County in Florida get one? Or the massive American Airlines Centre in Dallas at a cost of $420 million?

    Labels:

    posted by Duncan @ 8:28 AM  

    6 Comments:

    • At 11:13 AM, Blogger Toby said…

      Perhaps they should put the arena in Red Deer like they did here...

       

    • At 11:28 AM, Blogger Allie said…

      Naw, they already did that with our airport!

       

    • At 11:29 AM, Blogger Allie said…

      Oh and btw, being ex-military, I personally adore the word brouhaha.

       

    • At 11:07 PM, Blogger Six meetings said…

      I'm hoping to post on this at some point later this week when the credit card payment debacle dies down. I'm intrigued by the proposal from what I've read... and the question for me is will "Duncan's tax dollars" lead to more of other peoples tax dollars reducing the reliance on "Duncan's tax dollars" by spurring new economic development. There is little doubt a new arena will lead to development, but the question is will it make a public investment feasible.

       

    • At 8:09 AM, Blogger Allie said…

      Or the Oilers any better? :P

       

    • At 2:40 PM, Blogger Six meetings said…

      That too.

       

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