In an ideal scenario for the city, the Calgary Flames would pay for their entire new building on their own. Given the state of the franchise and economy, that probably wasn’t in the cards. The worst-case scenario was the city paying for everything.
The tentative arena deal struck a balance in the middle, but some of the little details might sweeten the pot a little bit for the city.
Building the building
Direct building costs are estimated at $550 million, split evenly between the Flames and the city at $275 million apiece. The design of the arena is obviously still a work in progress, but their aim is to produce an “up to 19,000 seat facility” as well as a secondary (practice) arena – the size of the main building and potential for the smaller area are dependent being able to bring them in on budget.