The plan to bring a new Oilers arena to downtown Edmonton “took a massive step forward Friday,” as Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel’s plan that the Katz Group “drop its non-compete demand from Northlands, has come to pass,” according to David Staples of the EDMONTON JOURNAL. The Mandel-Katz proposal was “hammered out in New York on Wednesday,” and the city council will vote on it Oct. 26. The council “agreed to purchase the 16 acres needed for the arena district.” Mandel praised Oilers Owner Daryl Katz “for his willingness to bend on the issue of the non-compete clause.” Mandel: “They bent, we bent, and we came up with what I think is a fairly good balance.” Katz Group execs repeatedly “made it clear to the deal’s main players how much they wanted and needed that non-compete clause.” The lack of one would mean the Katz Group would “be in competition with its archrival, the government subsidized entity of Northlands, which has the capacity to undercut the new arena on all kinds of concerts and events.” Edmonton also “got a commitment from the Katz Group to go with a ‘design-build’ model for the arena, meaning that the contractor will guarantee the price of the” $450M building. The Mandel-Katz plan “contemplates the city paying $20 million over 10 years to buy City of Edmonton advertising at Oilers games” (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 10/15). In Edmonton, John MacKinnon noted if the deal is approved, “design work would proceed immediately and take about a year.” The Oilers’ lease at Rexall Place “expires at the end of the 2013-2014 NHL season.” The amended deal “involved tweaking Katz’s [C]$100-million contribution to the total cost.” The team will pay C$5.5M “a year on a 30-year lease, a feature borrowed from the financing model for the Consol Energy Center.” The “lightly reworked deal involved the City proposing a ticket surcharge to be paid by Northlands for events it stages at Rexall Place.” Mandel said that “that would level the playing field, so neither rink had a competitive advantage on pricing for concerts” (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 10/15).
BREAKING IT DOWN: In Edmonton, Peter Adler wrote, “The Katz Group won’t be asking for the non-compete clause, and that’s a victory for the city? You’ve got to be kidding: that demand has been illegal from the get-go, and it dawned on the Katz Group leadership at long last that this might end up in court, where they would lose, plain and simple.” Anyone equipped “with basic knowledge of economics will tell you that private and public money do not mix.” If Katz is “so convinced that his club’s arena downtown is going to be the proverbial goose that lays golden eggs, he should go for it.” Himself, “with outside (but private) help, doesn’t matter.” But "not with a cent of public money" (EDMONTONJOURNAL.com, 10/15).
