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Edmonton: New downtown arena financially feasible

Combine a $5 ticket surcharge with a $100-million contribution from Edmonton owner Daryl Katz, and you’ve reached the point where a new downtown Oilers arena is economically viable, say city officials — raising the stakes on new-arena discussions in the city.

“A new downtown arena with an increase in the number of seats and other amenities can increase the revenue available to the team, thereby enhancing the team’s financial competitiveness,” the report says. “As well, existing city financial commitments to the operations at Rexall Place may be transferred to the operations of a new facility.”

The city already subsidizes Rexall Place to the tune of $6 million annually. Combine that with a ticket surcharge, the Oilers’ contribution and the Canadian equivalent of tax-increment financing (it’s called a revitalization levy, which would divert new property taxes from the arena area to the project), and you have funding for a new downtown facility that would cost upwards of $450 million.The revitalization levy may end up generating far more revenue than is currently projected: currently the expectation is that $500 million in new development would occur in the area, but Katz has already proposed a billion dollars of development on his own.

The next step in the process: Katz himself may appear before the Edmonton City Council next week to more fully flesh out his proposal.

RELATED STORIES: Katz: I will spend $100 million on new downtown arena; Edmonton: Cheaper to renovate than to build new downtown arena; Oilers arena zoning hearing delayed; Katz group submits arena application to Edmonton

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