NHL Flames lose political fight to Nenshi over arena

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on October 21, 2017.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi won a third consecutive term on Monday, confounding pollsters who predicted his political demise was imminent.

Nenshi, who was voted world’s top mayor by the World Mayor Project in 2014, was reported to be down between nine and 17 percentage points to challenger Bill Smith in multiple polls by Mainstream Research, whose president Quito Maggi acknowledged major “polling failures” after Nenshi’s re-election.

No kidding. Nenshi ultimately won the race by seven percentage points.

This wouldn’t be the first time in the past couple years that polling agencies have miscalculated — on an even greater scale, few predicted that Donald Trump would become U.S. president or the United Kingdom would vote to leave the European Union.

What was unique for a municipal election was the array of powerful forces aligned against Nenshi returning to power, most prominently the Calgary Flames ownership, who didn’t appreciate the mayor’s hardball tactics during negotiations for a new arena in downtown Calgary.

The cost of replacing the Scotiabank Saddledome was pegged by the city at $555 million. It offered to pay $185 million, including the cost of demolishing the current arena. The Flames would then directly pay another $185 million and the other $185 million would be raised from a 35-year ticket tax financed by the franchise.

The team’s offer was for a $500-million project, which it said would cost the city $225 million and the Flames $275 million.

However, the club demanded the city offer free transit for those attending events at the new arena, which would cost the city $10 million in foregone revenue every year. They also wanted Calgary to fund the ticket tax, despite including it under the team’s costs.

The Flames ownership disingenuously claimed they weren’t playing politics with the new arena.

But the team’s vice president, Gordon Norrie, tweeted his support for Smith on the day of election from his official @CalgaryFlamesVP account.

He also repeatedly accused Nenshi of “arrogance” throughout the election campaign.

And Norrie wasn’t just acting as a rogue executive.

After Nenshi’s re-election, the Flames director of communications Sean Kelso tweeted that Nenshi is worse for Calgary than Trump is for the U.S.

Echoing Norrie, he added “#arrogance” to his tweet.

Both men are, of course, entitled to their opinion, but to claim that they weren’t trying to put their thumbs on the scale for Smith is simply untrue.

National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman also joined the fracas, blaming Nenshi for the impasse in negotiations, suggesting that the Flames may have to leave town if they don’t get their way.

The negotiations will undoubtedly continue. The costs of moving a popular hockey franchise outweigh the benefits.

Just ask Winnipeggers.

The Winnipeg Jets were relocated to Arizona in 1996, rechristened as the Coyotes, and declared bankruptcy in 2009. The Coyotes remain a financially-troubled franchise, but the failure of the Atlanta Thrashers brought the Jets back to Winnipeg in 2011, no doubt a costly endeavour for all involved.

Back to politics, Nenshi now has a mandate to ensure taxpayers get the best deal from a large company that can afford to pony up significant sums of cash for a new arena.

As Jen Gerson wrote in Wednesday’s National Post, “the idea that taxpayer funds should prop up a new building so billionaire owners can make extra bank on luxury boxes just doesn’t bring a tear to my eye.”

Nor should it.