No New Arena for Edmonton Oilers in pipeline anytime soon –NHL News Update
Edmonton Oilers might have thought that over four years of lobbying for a new arena in downtown Edmonton would finally payoff when the news broke that the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise would receive the needed funding from provincial and federal
governments for a new home stadium.
The rumours cleared up as soon as they broke out as both governments declined on the offers, suggesting that such money was not available to fund private sports teams in the federal treasury.
"Unfortunately, we don't have any type of funding for a private hockey team or arenas", said Canadian Member of Parliament, Rona Ambrose, when asked about the proposed project.
Ed Stelmach, the provincial Premier of Alberta confirmed during an event he attended in the city of Calgary, that there would be direct dollars flowing into the arena since it was a private sector business and tax payer’s money could not be used in such
a way.
What Stelmach did agree to although was that if anything around the arena concerning the government could be further improved on, the city of Edmonton and the province of Alberta will jointly work for their solution, including light rail transit (LRT), water,
sewage and matters of such nature.
The biggest confirmation came from Canadian Prime Minister himself, Steven Harper, who also supported the same view as the provincial government.
In the proposed project, $100 million would come from either the provincial or federal government, while $125 million from the city of Edmonton, $100 million from Oilers owner Daryl Katz and the final $125 million from a ticket tax.
"The racing event already gets enough sponsorship money", said Ambrose. "They need to run this race without government money".
After such bold refusals, the people of Edmonton, who vastly support the project according to a number of electronic and manual surveys, are still hopeful that their requirements and wishes will one day be answered. According to them, downtown Edmonton could
use such an facelift, which would ultimately benefit the city in every way possible.
Seeing how popular hockey really is in Canada, according to many, it is only a matter of time till the finances from public treasury are released and Edmonton will get a new stadium.
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