April 20, 2010

Oilers owner pitches arena plan, funding still hazy

Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz officially filed his application yesterday for a $1.4 billion arena-and-development proposal, but didn't provide any more specifics about the most contentious issue, which is who's going to pay for it, and how.

According to the Globe and Mail, this is intentional, or at the very least convenient:

The team is staying tight-lipped, however, on whether it expects the city to pay for the rink — which observers say will smooth the way for the proposal and keep it from becoming a divisive issue in a municipal election this fall. ...

With few details available, no architectural renderings, no funding proposal and a mayor's race that lacks a serious challenger to incumbent Stephen Mandel, observers don't see how the arena proposal could become an election issue.

"The question is, will there be enough information by the time people vote? I doubt it very much … [otherwise] it will turn into a political football and you'd hate to do that before a civic election," said Chaldeans Mensah, a political scientist at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton.

In other words, expect Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel to keep kicking the can down the road in terms of arena funding, at least until he's safely back in office. A QMI Agency wire service report indicates that city review of the application could take more than a year, which would do the trick quite nicely. So long as nobody notices in the interim that the pretty pictures don't come with loonies to pay for them.