Definitive agreements for Calgary’s planned $1.2 billion Event Centre project were released Thursday, with a few notable new components.

The agreements were signed back in October 2023 and at that time the City of Calgary said that the final documents would be made public “in the coming weeks.” Twelve weeks later, the documents were posted to the City of Calgary’s Event Centre website.

There are 16 different agreements posted to the city’s site, covering items like the proposed community rink, the facility fee agreement, land exchange, non-relocation and the project framework agreement.

“Calgarians who review these agreements will see a lot of familiar information,” said General Manager of Infrastructure Services Michael Thompson.

“Much of the information contained in these agreements was released in October 2023 with the announcement of final agreements.”

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, chair of Calgary’s Event Centre Committee, said she was happy to see the agreements released publicly, adding that it’s valuable for citizens to understand the details of the project.

“Work is well underway, and Calgarians should expect to see enabling construction activity begin in the coming months. The next major milestone the public will see is obtaining permits,” Sharp said.

“2024 is going to be a big year for this project and for the area. I will be excited to see more details on the design, and I know many Calgarians will be too.”

One of the ways the City of Calgary is going to be paid back is through a facility fee agreement. According to the documents, there will be a 9.5 per cent ticket tax applied to all tickets for events in the new arena. The City will receive $10 million the first year of the term, and then in each year after that, the previous year’s amount, plus one per cent.

Peter Oliver with Project Calgary, who has been critical of the city’s involvement in the project, said the problem with being reimbursed through a ticket tax is that it’s being paid primarily by those Calgarians already footing the bill for the arena – through their property taxes.

“The ticket tax is paid by citizens of the city who are already paying for the arena right there. They are paying 97 per cent of the upfront cost, 52 per cent of the capital cost over 35 years of combined municipal and provincial contribution, and they’re getting zero per cent of the revenue,” Oliver said.

He also pointed to a suspected increase in revenue, noting the delta between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers is about $98 million. Oliver surmised that the Calgary Flames would at least see a bump in revenue of that much – and over 35 years, that’s a gross revenue boost of $3.4 billion.

“We’re getting zero of that,” he said.

Key parts of the Event Centre agreements

• The City of Calgary will now be responsible for the cost of the Saddledome demolition. Previously, Alberta Minister Devin Dreeshen said that the province would cover the cost. (Editor’s Note: In the provincial funding agreement, also posted, it does refer to project completion – which includes demolition of the site. It doesn’t explicitly state their grant money is to be used for this, however.) The City later clarified that once the Event Centre is complete, the City of Calgary will demolish the Saddledome, with costs covered by the province.

• The Calgary Flames will remain in Calgary for the next 35 years

• If the Event Centre exceeds its budget of $873,600,000, or the community rink exceeds the budget of $52,800,000, they would have to determine how to cover the ‘Eligible Cost Overrun’ through unallocated allowances or contingency amounts, “value engineering,” additional contributions on a 50/50 split for the Event Centre and a 75/25 split for the first $7.2 million overrun on the community rink and then 50/50 after. If they can’t agree, either project could be suspended.

• Under the prior agreement, there were three charities supported by the Calgary Flames Foundation: Hockey Canada, the Calgary Olympic Development Association (WinSport) and Parks Foundation Calgary. Hockey Canada is no longer a part of the beneficiaries of the initial funding term grants, and has been replaced by KidSport Canada.

• The agreement states that the Event Centre, Community Rink and Lands shall be 100 per cent owned by the City.

• The City must cover the costs associated with the subdivision approval process, but also the cost to design, develop and construct the “District Benefits and Off-Site infrastructure” in accordance with Event Management and Road Usage Agreements, but do not apply to the City Maximum Budgeted CR (Community Rink) Contribution, or the City Maximum Budgeted EC (Event Centre) Contribution Amount, “and shall be City Additional Costs” unless otherwise agreed to in writing. (It’s not clear if this is covered by the provincial contribution, or if this is in addition to that cash.)

• Any disputes that can’t be resolved by the Steering Committee, will be sent to an expert mediator. Work would continue on the project, “to the extent commercially reasonable” during a dispute.

• Facility fee outline – (Not summarized due to details)

• The agreement sets out a maximum seating capacity of 19,000 for the new Event Centre.