Today it is being reported by a fellow Calgarian himself, Eric Francis, that the Calgary Flames will get a new arena. The news report stated that the Flames organization, the city of Calgary, and the province of Alberta will all come together to foot the bill. The proposed price tag of the new event facility will come in under $1 billion at $926 million. This comes nearly nine years since the design was originally presented by former Flames President and Calgary sports legend Ken King. The plan is to officially have the ground broke on the exciting new endeavour Monday coming.
As a Calgarian I’m thrilled to report that on Monday the Flames, city and province will officially start the building of the $926 million Event Centre with a sod turning event.
I’m told design renderings will also be unveiled Monday, almost nine years after Ken King unveiled the…— Eric Francis (@EricFrancis) July 17, 2024
Ken King’s Dream a Reality as Calgary Flames to Get New Arena
This is a long-time coming for the Flames organization. The team wanted an upgrade for sometime, and was the dream of King to bring a new arena to Calgary. Back in 2017, at the time, King and the city of Calgary, headed by the mayor Naheed Nenshi, couldn’t find a working model for the project going forward. However, now the time has come. The arena will be built just two blocks from the current site of the Saddledome.
Francis went on to provide some further details of the new facility. The Flames will get a brand new 18,000 seat arena. Furthermore, it will include a community hockey rink, a parkade, and more facilities for hosting indoor and outdoor events alike. The plan is for the Flames to begin play in the new arena for the 2027-28 campaign. By that time, the Flames current home, the Scotiabank Saddledome will be 44 years old. Even though hockey fans can easily picture the iconic, horse saddle shaped barn, it has come to the end of its time. Calgary has needed an upgraded facility for sometime, as had been in the works. The news is welcoming to both Calgarians and Flame fans.
The Beginning of an Era Marks the End of Another
The end of the Saddledome’s reign in Calgary is a bit of a somber one. It was built in order to house NHL hockey and also support the 1988 Winter Olympic games. Moreover, the old Calgary Cowboys of the World Hockey Association were in fact, unable to join the NHL, along with the Edmonton Oilers, due to the reasoning that the previous arena was too small. Therefore, the Saddledome was necessitated for NHL hockey. The move from Atlanta came in 1980, as Canadian businessman Nelson Skalbania came up with the $16 million. It may not seem like a lot today, but was the most ever paid for an NHL franchise at the time. You may recall Ryan Smith recently purchased the Arizona Coyotes to move to Utah for a whopping $1.2 billion.
The Saddledome has seen some name changes (Olympic, Pengrowth), and some memorable events, including the 1989 Stanley Cup winning Flames. But this will spell time for a new chapter in the Flames history. With many recent moves that saw the Flames go from a cap ceiling to floor team sparking a rebuild, the new arena comes at the perfect time.
Main photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
