The Scotia Place Event Centre Committee, which was struck three years ago, held its final meeting on updates to the project on Thursday in city council chambers before being handed over to the city’s Infrastructure and Planning Committee for direction until completion.
“I think what’s important is that as of today, we’re on time and on budget, and tariffs haven’t impacted this project,” said Event Centre Committee Chair and Ward 1 Cllr. Sonya Sharp, who last week announced she will be in the race for the mayor’s chair in this fall’s election.
Addressing the question of how or if US-imposed tariffs will have on future work, City of Calgary Project Lead Robert Hunter told the committee efforts are being made to finalize contracts and acquire building materials with Canada-based companies.
Hunter said an $80 million contract for steel was secured, with raw materials coming from Europe to be manufactured in Hamilton, ON, adding electrical and concrete contracts were awarded locally.
Regardless, some required products and materials can only be sourced through suppliers in the US.
“Ones that we still have to look at are literally seats, video boards, sound systems, that are almost 100% US sourced,” said Hunter.
Hunter told the committee 90% of the shoring and excavation work has been completed on Scotia Place.
“It is the start of all the below-grade that has to occur, and it’s a very significant amount of below-grade work,” he said. “Hopefully by the early fall or later in the year, we will be back up to grade level and people will be able to see as the steel starts to go up.”
“Now it’s our responsibility to get it built and get it finished on time and on budget,” Hunter told reporters after the meeting.
The construction site is expected to be enclosed in 2026, allowing interior construction to begin.
The construction schedule, if kept to time frames, is set to be completed, with doors opening in the fall of 2027, prior to the start of the 2027-2028 NHL schedule.
In its final meeting, the event centre committee heard that $232 million of the project’s estimated $926 million total cost has been spent to date and should the budget be exceeded, agreements in place say any additional costs will be split 50-50 by the City of Calgary and Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC), owners of the Calgary Flames.
Ticket tax
Patrons to Scotia Place will be picking up a significant portion of the costs, with a 9.5% tax included on every ticket sold to events in the venue.
The agreements in place say CSEC will pay the city $17 million per year for 35 years, escalating by one percent per year. The payments include $7 million a year for rental fees and a $10 million facility fee each year, for a total of approximately $708 million over the course of the agreement, which says CSEC can use money from the ticket tax to cover the facility fee.
That means approximately one-third of CSEC’s payments over the 35 years will come from the corporation, with the balance coming from the ticket tax, which is a carry-over from the original agreement between the city and CSEC, before it was dissolved by incoming Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
The city was prioritizing financial returns from a larger project than the arena, said Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager of infrastructure services, including the creation of an entertainment district with new businesses and the development of several parcels of city land around Scotia Place.
When asked about the optics of CSEC using the city's ticket tax revenue to cover its obligations, Thompson said the city is comfortable the way the deal is structured.
"We're going to get our money back," he told CBC. "We are going to get money back from the development around the area, and then as the area develops out, we'll generate (property) tax revenue."
Thompson added if there are any future interruptions to the revenue from tickets, CSEC would still be obligated to make its annual payments to the city.
Additionally, the arena agreement stipulates any ticket tax revenue above $10 million, which CSEC can use to pay the city, will go into funding the maintenance costs and Scotia Place upgrades in the future.