If it’s beyond our means, it’s beyond our needs.
The city, the Saskatchewan government and the Saskatchewan Roughriders football club said Tuesday that a lack of federal funding means the proposed multi-purpose entertainment facility won’t go ahead.
If it’s beyond our means, it’s beyond our needs.
The city, the Saskatchewan government and the Saskatchewan Roughriders football club said Tuesday that a lack of federal funding means the proposed multi-purpose entertainment facility won’t go ahead.
Notice how lately proposed arenas everywhere have been marketed as “multi-purpose entertainment facility” to justify government funding?
Yet in Qubec we have the below at:
http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article1925232.html
Quebecor to partner in development of NHL arena in Quebec City
SEAN GORDON
The City of Quebec has picked its partner for the development of its new multi-purpose NHL arena, and it is Montreal-based media conglomerate Quebecor.
Mayor Regis Labeaume and Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau held a news conference in Quebec City on Tuesday afternoon to officially announce that Quebecor will be the new 19,000-seat arena’s manager and naming sponsor.
The agreement in hand, Péladeau said he will now turn his attention and financial resources to trying to attract an NHL team to occupy the building, which is slated for completion in 2015.
Though Labeaume spoke to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman ahead of the announcement, both men were quick to insist that no assurances have been given that any of the league’s financially-strapped teams (ie. the Atlanta Thrashers) will shortly be up for relocation.
“We have no guarantees, for now, on the part of the league,” Péladeau said, adding he plans to carry on his dealings with Bettman “with the utmost discretion”.
Under the terms of the deal, which is to run 25 years, Quebecor will pay $33-million in cash for naming rights to the $400-million facility, a number that will jump to $63 million if an NHL team ends up playing in the building.
The agreement specifies that the city will receive an average annual rent of $3.15-million if there is no hockey team, and about $5-million with one.
Quebecor, which estimates its total financial commitment over the life of the deal to $190-million, will also pay between 10 and 15 per cent of its profits from concert revenues back to the city, depending on whether there’s a hockey tenant.
Labeaume said the deal means that even without a hockey team the city’s effective financial participation in the arena would be about $57.5-million, or about $600,000 per year over two decades.
“We wanted the best deal we could get . . . and as time went on the offers improved,” said Labeaume, who is also proposing a $4 ticket fee to help maintain city revenues.
According to the city’s projections, the municipal coffers will actually make a $12-million profit if a hockey team were to be attracted.
Péladeau indicated the city will remain the building’s owner – the city pledged that QMJHL Remparts and the Tournoi International de Hockey Pee-Wee will be tenants – and it appears the municipality and Quebecor will share the financial risks associated with running the building.
“This is and will continue to be a publicly-owned facility that will belong to the people of Quebec,” said Péladeau.
Labeaume indicated that the city’s exposure to eventual deficits will be limited to one half of the average annual rent.
“We will never be out of pocket,” Labeaume said.
The province has already pledged to plow in as much as half the construction costs. Ottawa has refused to commit to supporting the project unless “sizable” private sector contributions were made, the announcement will clearly increase the pressure on the federal Conservatives, who risk losing several of their six Quebec City-area seats, to kick in some money.
Péladeau has made little secret of his desire to own an NHL team, and his arrangement with the city, which must be approved by council, effectively ensures that he will have first crack at bringing a team back to the city, which lost the Nordiques in 1996.
Rival conglomerate Bell was reportedly also involved in the bidding – along with Evenko, the concert promotion owned by the Molson brothers, their partners in the Montreal Canadiens – but in the end Péladeau, whose company recently won regulatory approval to launch a specialized cable sports network, appears to have won out.
No! No! Say it isn’t so!
I mean, can’t you promise to build it out of corn stover, wheat straw or something like that
I mean, wouldn’t there be room on the roof for enough solar panels to power an incubator to hatch the eggs of the crtically endangered lesser prairie chicken?
Like, you folks desparately need an importation of the enviro-parasites that infest our very own Queens’s Park…Seriously!
Loss be damned – it’s all about helping out our countrymen! (Sorry, countrypeople)
What a bunch of whiners and losers… We have a chance to build a great building here and the morons want to cancel it. There is being a conservative and then there is being a democrat saying to to everything that does not directly line their own pockets and then pretending to be a conservative.
I guess we should not have gone to the moon either, or developed the atom bomb, whatever.
To many lazy people just say no because it is the easy choice.
One of the requirements of the P3 application is that there be private money on the table. It’s not enough that there might be companies out there willing to sponsor or buy naming rights, they have to be willing to take the risk on the facility just like the other partners.
I don’t view the federal government not making the decision yet as an issue. I view it as an issue that the province and the City of Regina has had 9 months to find some private partners and none have stepped forward to help the bid.
If the facility is going to go forward, then great, but I don’t like the hand-wringing and finger pointing over whose fault it was that the federal government won’t give us money for it. I hardly think that the federal government gave anybody money to develop the existing stadium, so why should it be necessary that we get money now to replace it?
Bah, did you just compare a dome for the rough riders to the moon race or the Manhattan project?
Of all the ‘great’ things the government could do with out funds I would never put a stadium on that list.
Nothing against you Saskatwachidees, but I do not want my federal tax dollars paying for sports arena in Saskatchewan … not even multitasking ones.. I would find it too costly to attend anything that far away from Vancouver Island. Or is it just my money you want?
And I REALLY don’t want my bucks building anything in Quebec whatsoever.
Stupid Rough Riders should play in a corn field. Riders suck!!!!!
First of all the Stadium should not be built in Regina but in Saskatoon the largest city in the province! There isn’t a stadium in Saskatoon large enough for the U of S Huskies football fans and the CFL team is called the “Saskatchewan” Roughriders
For a P3 partner the unions should be approached along with the private sector. The unions have scads of money they siphon from the economy and they will insist it be built with union labor.
I have never seen a union contribute to the GDP and it could be built a lot cheaper without the union leaching dues off the top.
The people that built the facilities in Beijing I am sure could be used to build it half price or for free in exchange for citizenship.Their cousins built our railroad rather efficiently.
No federal tax dollars for sports.
Sports fans should pay for their own entertainment.
As a Saskatchewanian and a Riders fan, I would like to see a covered stadium in Regina, only not with federal funds. We don’t need no stinkin’ carpetbaggers involved.
Come up with a solid plan for the stadium. A solid number, then begin to raise the money. The rider fans would all be glad to drop a looney in a can on a store counter, have raffles, auctions, whatever. I think the province would kick in some, afterall, they’d get it all back in taxes. The business communities would likely kick in too. As to actually ownership, it would be the province, or the people. No investors looking for returns. All money would be donated. All profits returned into keeping the facility in good working order. I’m sure smarter people than me could think of other ways to raise the funds as well. If you want it bad enough, you’ll get it eventually.
Just a simple man’s opinion. Others may vary.
I’m glad Saskatchewan asked and I’m even happier that Ottawa didn’t say yes. At 3% of Canada’s population, Saskatchewan would have set a precedent for $3 billion in federal funding across the nation. Now we can set the precedent for “no-thanks, we can do it ourselves.”
I would not support an arena in Regina given its proximity to the rest of the province. The only way it would have made a little sense was Saskatoon and even then…….
It is really hard to justify it at this point given our size. The time will come but maybe not just yet.
I would rather the feds save that money and pay out drought stricken farmers. This way, we can spend the winter in Hawaii.
430-million
That’s a lot of telemiracles.
That’s $430 for every soul in the province, most of whom will never set foot in the building.
I’m glad the adults are in charge and ready to say no to this kind of nonesense. If a bank or an investor won’t fund this, why should I be forced to?
If we look at the constitution there should be no federal money for any stadiums. Local projects should be paid for by local money. The reason most democracies are bankrupt is that all levels of government spend on things that are not their jurisdiction.
I would gladly pay some money towards building a new stadium in Calgary if it meant i didn’t have to sit on the cold steel benches at McMahon to cheer on the Riders.
So this means you didn’t submit the application to Ottawa in French, did you?
What’s wrong with Taylor field?
The Riders have been losing there successfully for 50 years!
Seriously though…how about a Children’s Hospital or a highway upgrade?
It’s just football and sticking with an old stadium just adds to the character of the sport.
No tax money, zero, for tiddly winks arenas, yodelling emporeums, hoola hoop colloseums, square dancing pavillions or football stadiums.
If you want a facility, work for it.
Regina screwed the bid with help. The 3P is the best way to go but they could not decide what they were going for. Private businesses do not commit money on a dream. You have to show where the money is going and how much you want and what for. That is why the left doesn’t like business..no surprises.
mark me down as a happy camper also.
don’t want my tax dollars going for this either.
now if the cwb would just disappear also…
What Terry said at 4:11.
It is unfortunate that Saskatchewan does not have a high profile wealthy entrepreneur like Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau to help fund a facility like this.
Quebec also has more than ten times as many people to patronize a facility like this.
So, I guess that all the people in the province will have to do it if the plan is revived.
The people of Saskatchewan should count themselves lucky. I’ve been in BC Place stadium, and – trust me – there’s nothing more depressing on a beautiful Sunday afternoon than going into a cavernous warehouse with blue-green warehouse lighting and an encho-y PA system.
Football is an outdoor sport. The thermoses, the blankets, the numb toes, the camaraderie are all part of the fun.
I blame Quebec. Once they started talking about getting fed money to build an arena and hopefully lure a NHL team back there, the “me too” wagon got very crowded. Halifax is also doing the open musing of an arena and/or stadium with tax dollars.
To everyone with their hand out I say no flickin’ way should you be getting my tax dollar to be entertained. And sorry to the ‘Riders but you too. Government should not be in the entertainment business, period.
If this is such a viable business proposition like you hear Gormley talking about then the private money would flow to it. They don’t seem to be too gung ho over this.
There is only 1 tax payer whether from federal, provincial, municipal, it comes down to the same guy paying at each level. So here’s a plan. 1 million people in Sask. Need $400 mil. Each person taxed $400 payable over the next 5 years. That should cover it.
That’s if this is so important to the people.
There is NO justification to build a domed stadium for a minor league sport(the CFL) that has 9 play dates a year.
I don’t even think there is one for Toronto which has a MLB team and a CFL team which has 90 play dates a year.
After all, the CFL isn’t like the NFL: threaten to move or shut down if it doesn’t get it’s way.
There is just one Taxpayer no matter how many governments you ask to kick in money….
Jeff says… “how about a Children’s Hospital”. What the hell is a children’s hospital? When I was a child you had to be on your death bed, by gum, to even get into the hospital. There were no visitors allowed under age 16. Can’t they simply add a wing to an existing facility?
the opiate of the masses presented under cover.
hardly makes for the tough iconic Saskscratcherwan fan of the past does it .they would have to build it and air condition it to -20
all levels of government spend on things that are not their jurisdiction. ”
hi m.
correct. the full truth is that government is attempting by fiat to *make* it their jurisdiction.
oh, and ‘they ALL do it’.
no tax dollars should be used for sports @4:07 by Oz
no tax dollars should be used for museums, theater or any other form of entertainment as well… what ya say to that..
west of the fifth – Now that is a good point. However those that support the arts are far more adept at procuring funding and protesting long and loud if that funding is not to their satisfaction. This is due to decades of practice. Sports fans … not so much.
Although in tough economic times, spending tax dollars on a stadium might not appear to be the best use of funds, however, there never seems to be a problem with writing a $1.6 billion cheque to the CBC every year.
Just imagine what could be accomplished if we could just find the cajones to chase the CBC hog away from the public trough.
“no tax dollars should be used for museums, theater or any other form of entertainment as well”
Agreed. And add “the arts” to the list.
Ah but it’s Regina. God bless Reginians, but the big difference between Saskatoon and Regina, well Saskatoon looks like it was built for business, and Regina for government entitlement.
Center of the Arts, Royal Museum, RCMP museum, First Nations Campus, Science Centre. My last time there (January) all of these monuments built at my expense were virtually empty.
That said, mark my words, Wall will announce the revival of the project, funded entirely in SK, within days of winning the next election in November. And if the Feds go to the polls this spring, and Harper gets a majority, the feds will be in to.
If it is a good investment, then I am sure the private sector can fund it. My taxes are high enough already.