Markham, Ontario, held a public meeting on its plans for building a $325 million arena on Wednesday night, and local residents seem to be asking the same question that's been puzzling me:
"What I have seen so far, everything is wonderful, actually it's grandiose, and that's not my concern at all. The only issue I have is who’s paying for it. And I don’t like the answers there," said Donna Bush, vice president of Markham Village City Ratepayers Association.
Moving past what may be the first-ever use of the word "grandiose" as a positive, what do we know about who'd be paying for the arena? The city and a private developer (GTA Sports and Entertainment) would each put up half the construction cost. Of the city's half, "most" of it will be funded by "surcharges on new condominiums and apartments," according to the Globe and Mail, with the rest coming from lease payments, parking fees, and a share of ticket sales.
That sounds like a rather stupendous (not meant as a positive) amount of money to be raised by fees on new housing development — as Openfile notes, it's about $2,000 per city household, and only new ones would be paying the fee. And what happens if development slows, or arena revenues are less than expected with two arenas competing for events in the same market?
If any answers were provided at Wednesday's public session, they didn't make it into the press reports. Any FoS readers who were there and can provide an eyewitness account, by any chance?
from Field of Schemes http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2012/06/4996_public_info_ses.html
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