Yesterday Edmontonians learned that the city council voted yes to proceed on a $450 million arena, of which the city is funding $305M; they need the province to fund $100M; and I guess that means Katz is funding only $45M of it (great deal for him, by the way, but not the point).
On the very same day, it was announced the federal government had pulled the plug on funding a new Royal Alberta Museum.
I’ll tell you, I’d rather have the museum. Well, I’d rather have both, but the funding model for the arena is completely screwed up.
Still not the point.
Everyone keeps on batting words around like “world class” to justify the arena. I can tell you, having just visited Chicago for a couple of days, that there’s one thing that’s undebatable. And that is this – Chicago is a “world class” city, and it has nothing to do with any hockey rink – it’s the museums, and the culture, and its architecture, and its people, that make it so. Hockey rink – no way in hell.
I’ll shut up now.
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