Monday afternoon and everyone down by the Saddledome is photo-ready happy as they pull back the curtain on the new arena, the event centre, Scotia Place.
They’re tickled pink over the vision of a rocking culture and entertainment district next to the arena by the Stampede in Vic Park.
Over a billion bucks buys you that kind of optimism.
Meanwhile, in a few days we are told, Calgary city hall will actually give us some idea of how much the first phase of the Green Line LRT is going to cost.
The first phase was pegged at $5.5 billion. Some say the real number is closer to $8 billion.
And that’s only for the part of the line that won’t go to the deep southeast where most of the people live and won’t go across the river heading north out of downtown where most of the other people live.
After the arena rollout, David Duckworth, big bossman down at city hall, says by the end of the month we should see some Green Line arithmetic.
He doesn’t have the exact date.
Duckworth mentions how those quarterbacking the Green Line have a dashboard with green, yellow and red lights showing the state of different parts of the project.
“Cost is red,” says Duckworth, pointing out transportation mega-projects face “massive inflationary pressure.”
“So we’re doing our job to try and manage that and mitigate that.”
The provincial government isn’t handing out more cash. The city is still talking to the federal government about more money.
One thing is clear from city hall’s main man.
“There’s no more big stuff. There is none. It’s Green Line, event centre, BMO Centre, where we’re funding partners, Arts Commons. The next biggest one would be the field house we’re talking about,” says Duckworth.
“After that it’s mostly just maintaining the infrastructure we have.”
Asking for a friend, what about a replacement for McMahon Stadium?
Duckworth nods a No.
When it comes to Scotia Place, Duckworth feels they’re in a really good place while closely eyeing the costs.
“The biggest challenges we’ve had lately is construction inflation over the last few years has been significant.”
But he says the Scotia Place was “designed to be built on budget.”
On this day Mayor Jyoti Gondek is waxing poetic about Blue Sky City, Calgary’s downtown and the culture and entertainment district next to the arena with music and restaurants and bars and celebration in the air.
For those who’ve been around, about 15 years ago Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville and its 10,000-square-foot outdoor patio was going to anchor an entertainment district with a main street complete with balloon artists and stilt walkers.
There was solid talk of a new arena.
For Gondek, this time is for real. With the arena will come more dough. Lots of it.
“Some investments fuel others. Having an event centre here is going to get us more investment. This is simply one more thing to make sure our economy stays strong and we’re able to generate interest and investment in this district,” says the mayor.
“I think Calgarians, now that they’ve seen the design, are going to understand more about why we said this was really a city-shaping project.
“There are so many places and spaces for people to experience this particular building and this district.”
Then there’s a newshound who points to one of your scribbler’s columns and wants some answers from Sonya Sharp, a councillor who is a big booster of the arena.
In the recent column, Sharp said some of her fellow council members were going after “shiny stars” and not sticking to the basics of delivering services to Calgarians.
The newshound tells Sharp the arena is a “very shiny and expensive star.”
Sharp says buildings like Scotia Place are critical.
“I wouldn’t call this a very shiny star,” says Sharp.
“We’ve got to build these projects to keep Calgarians here and bring people from around the world to invest in our city.”
Sharp also says a city hall nose count shows 86 per cent of Calgarians are looking forward to the new arena.
And so the arena is a go, with city taxpayers on the hook for half of any cost overruns.
The city isn’t thinking cost overruns. But now it’s on to the Green Line.
There will be no photo-ready smiles on the day when we get an update on that deal.
“Green Line is a different project. You’ll hear about that shortly. It’s different,” says Duckworth.