The Great Flooded North

I'm hearing the Saddledome is going to be a total loss. Do the Flames have a contingency plan for playing elsewhere for a year? Other than sharing Edmonton's barn.

 

Sounds like there were plans for a new arena being discussed beforehand. But given the rivalry between the cities (not just in hockey, but the CFL as well), why do I sense they'd rather play pond hockey than in Edmonton?

From the Sunday Calgary Sun:

I spent a few days in Calgary about 10 years ago. Beautiful place, hope it recovers.

 

By total loss, Ken King was not referring to the structure, just everything in it. He is already saying they will be ready to go for the start of the season, or shortly thereafter, and says they will be working closely with the NHL on a scheduling contingency plan. If worst came to worst, I could maybe see them playing a couple of games in Saskatoon, Red Deer or Regina. Much smaller buildings -- Saskatoon I think seats about 11,000 and would be the biggest of the three by far -- but it would carry some regional pride with it. Cities would definitely open their doors to them. And as much of a rivalry as there is with the Flames, I can't see the Oilers telling them to go take a hike if a few dates needed to be worked out early in the season at Rexall.

There are whispers about the Flames wanting to build a new stadium, but there is very little chance of that happening within this decade with any kind of public financing. Both the province and the feds told the Oilers to go fly a kite on government funding, while the City worked with Katz on funding and got jacked around for about four years. Finally everything is in place. Calgary's mayor has already made it clear that the city has zero interest in putting public money towards a new stadium. Rexall was also built in 1974 while the Saddledome opened in 1983 and is a much better facility than Rexall in many respects when it comes to being able to handle major events, even just the nightly hockey game. The Oilers were really able to get the city on board as the new rink will anchor the downtown revitalization project. I love the city, but their downtown has been horrible since the 60s and 70s and has been a topic of how to reinvent it since. The rink will be part of a major entertainment district, along with a whole of whack of other shit. Entire project will run in the billions, the rink itself is about $475 million. Calgary's downtown core needs no such revitalization. But since the Oilers are getting a new building, of course the Flames want one too. Maybe they'll be able to get the city on board a little bit now, but I doubt it as priorities will be on fixing everything else.

 

And here's a perfect sum-up of Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/leanne-shirtliffe/10-reasons-to-love-nenshi_b_3488230.html

 

Alright, for those who need a feel good story, especially out of all the flooding -- in my view speaks to the good in human nature, regardless of which disaster.

A orphans at an orphanage in Cambodia, who heard about the flooding in Calgary pooled their money together and asked that it be donated to the Red Cross efforts in Calgary.

They do have several Calgary connections, including the orphanage's founder and several big contributors, but a group of them also came to Calgary a few years ago and put on a few dance performances in and around the city and so a number of them have a personal tie to the city.

The juxtaposition of it is pretty wild, the poorest of the poor donating to those in one of the richest cities in the world, but damn if it didn't make me feel good, even for a few minutes.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Cambodian+orphans+donate+help+Alberta+flood+victims/8584043/story.html