There's a couple of common features - albeit with exceptions - of big money men and corporations.
Don't use your own money
Don't share profits. 
These people are rich for a reason- they know their business and always ask:
"What does it cost and how much do we make?"
City politicians on the other hand, are rarely from the financial big leagues.
They are dazzled by intangible and subjective benefits such as 'bragging rights'  and 'revitalization'. 
The Edmonton group, and now Calgary could easily have financed the entire project and cut the city out yet chose not to. 
Civic duty? 
As if.
Because it didn't make financial sense. 
That alone should have the pols thinking twice and then a third time. 
A deal built on solid financials is one thing but those "the team gets the profits, the city gets the prestige" deals are a danger.