As a dedicated Oilers fan, I would love to see them playing in a brand new barn. But the way the Oilers and Mr. Katz are going about getting this done does give me a certain pause.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHDJrVggOtU&
In this video, reference is made to arena/stadium projects in 4 American cities which have all revitalized the downtown core. On the face of it, that sounds great. But once you scratch past the surface, I think there are a lot of differences.
Let's look at the first case. In Los Angeles, the Staples Center was build by the company AEG. According to ballparks.com, this company itself invested around 85% into the project, with the city on the hook for a much smaller percentage.
In Columbus, the builders actually rejected an offer to raise the sales tax 0.5% by government, so they could fund it privately.
So we can see that while in both cases these facilities might have revitalized downtown cores, they were done in a way that's opposite how the Oilers would like to fund ours.
As for the other 2 cases - In Indianapolis, their stadium, which has been open since 2008, is apparently already needing a bailout to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. In this case, this stadium was called "the most heavily subsidized professional sports stadium in the nation." Not the model we would like the follow.
(http://www.heartland.org/publications/budget%20tax/article/24305/New_Indianapolis_Stadium_May_Already_Need_Bailout.html)
The last city cited was San Diego, home to Petco Park. Apparently, after funding the new facility, the city has been hooked into paying for not just the loan repayments, but also the cost of operations. They expect to lose upwards of 7 figures a year.
(http://sandiegonewsroom.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39281:too-big-to-fail-the-politics-behind-petco-park-and-why-san-diego-should-by-wary-of-its-new-stadium-ambitions&catid=110:city-of-san-diego&Itemid=34)
So in these 4 examples, we see that the two funded with public money have not turned out the way we'd want here in the city. And the two success stories were done with private investment.
I'm not sure that this all means. But I think we need many more details from those involved on what will happen. Not just vague comparisons to other cities, which have their own unique issues and problems.
For more detail on this, check out a posting by Jonathan Willis at another site. He was the one who pointed this info out first, and does so in much more detail than I have here. It's an interesting read.
(http://oilersnation.com/2010/2/25/daryl-katz-thinks-you-wont-bother-checking-what-he-says)
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The financial equation it terms of whom and how this new urban development is funded is the key issue for many people. I believe that if that if this new entertainment district is to be erected for all the residents of Edmonton then there has to be public money involved. There are many different models that can be used to fund such a project, and I do feel that the Katz Group does have to be clearer on how they would like to see this projected funded.
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