"Talks to replace the 34-year-old Saddledome have stalled even though, as The Globe and Mail reported, the city is considering kicking in financing for a third of the $500 million cost of redeveloping a new rink."

This is a bit misleading. The City is planning to LOAN the $500 million and it will have to be paid back. On top of this Nenshi wants the team to pay property tax on the arena which would pretty much wipe out the teams entire profit margin. Other culture venues don't pay property tax so why should the arena? I don't care how pretentious you want to be, Hockey is an important part of canadian culture and should be treated no differently than the arts and other cultural centers.