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Flames to get new Calgary arena as team ownership teams up with city, province to fund $1.2-billion project

A new arena for the Calgary Flames will be built thanks to a new deal between team ownership, the city and the province of Alberta.

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A new arena for the Calgary Flames will be built thanks to a new deal between team ownership, the city and the province of Alberta.

Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. and the two levels of government today announced the $1.2-billion (US$880 million) project, which includes $800 million for the arena itself. Other parts of the project include infrastructure such as transit upgrades, parking and road improvements, much of which the province plans to cover with up to $300 million in funding. The province will also pay $30 millon to cover half the costs of a new community arena as part of the project.

Calgary's city council voted unanimously to approve the deal, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said.

The Flames' current home, the Scotiabank Saddledome, opened in the fall of 1983 and is the second-oldest arena in the NHL, although the oldest one — Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena, which hosted its first events in 1962 — was extensively redeveloped for US$1.15 billion to house the Seattle Kraken starting in 2021.

The Flames and the city previously reached a deal in 2019 for a new arena, but team ownership pulled out two years later due to increased costs. The initial deal for a new arena was worth $550 million split between the two parties. That estimate had risen to $634 million when the Flames pulled the plug on it in December 2021.