• Calgary spending $537 million in taxpayers’ money for hockey rink
• Alberta spending $330 million in taxpayers’ money for area surrounding the new sports arena

LETHBRIDGE, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation spoke out against the Alberta and Calgary governments’ move to spend $867 million in taxpayers’ money on a new sports arena.

“Taxpayers money should not be paying to build new arenas for wealthy sports teams,” said Kris Sims, Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Professional hockey players are paid millions of dollars and the Flames franchise is worth hundreds of millions – they shouldn’t be taking money from struggling taxpayers.”

The Alberta government and City of Calgary announced $867 million in funding for the construction of a new sports arena in Calgary.

The City of Calgary is spending $537 million to build the hockey rink while the provincial government is kicking in $330 million for the transit system and bridges around the area and for a smaller amateur sport arena next to the bigger professional one.

The facility is intended to host games for the NHL’s Calgary Flames hockey team along with other events.

In 2019, the City of Calgary had agreed to split the cost of building a rink with the Flames owners, spending about $275 million each. That price tag later ballooned to $608 million before the deal was scrapped.

“Politicians should not be hitting up the taxpayer to bank roll arenas for big league sports teams,” said Sims. “The costs for this project ballooned quickly last time around and there’s a huge risk taxpayers will hit with runaway bills on this project.”

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