Calgary Flames could leave town if new arena talks fall apart: president

No threat of relocating Flames? Bill Macfarlane speaks with Ken King, Flames president and CEO, who says his recent comments were misconstrued.

Calgary Flames president and CEO Ken King says he wants to set the record straight about the future of the franchise in Calgary, while also saying he’s not willing to rule anything out.

King’s appearance on a Toronto sports talk radio station set off a firestorm of speculation last week when he seemed to suggest the team would move if it can’t strike a deal for a new arena.

“There would be no threat to move, we would just move, and it would be over. And I'm trying my level best to make sure that day never comes,” King said in the March 29 interview.

That comment, he says, was in response to a question about threatening to leave Calgary and has been unnecessarily exaggerated.

The team has been anxious to leave the Scotiabank Saddledome for several years now. The aging arena first opened in 1983 is the third oldest active facility in the NHL, after the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit (1979) and Madison Square Garden in New York (1968).

King is said to have been mulling the move out of the “aged out” stadium that he says “doesn’t work” for the team since the early 2000’s. But he told CTV Calgary that threatening to leave the city has never been on the table.

“I said we would not threaten to move, and I mean that. Which of course never rules out anything, but we are not threatening people. It’s not how we do business,” he said on Saturday.

The Flames and Calgary City Hall are weighing several options for a new home for the franchise. Tensions are rising over the location.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi declared a proposal in the city’s West Village, dubbed CalgaryNext, “dead” last week. King disagrees, saying talks are on pause while another location in the city’s Victoria Park district is being considered.

Nenshi has previously expressed scepticism about pouring tax dollars into a new stadium, but appears to have warmed to the idea more recently.

“I am confident that a new project that has public benefit for public money exists,” Nenshi said in a statement on Saturday. “The owners of the Calgary Flames have repeatedly assured Calgarians that they would not threaten to move the team, and I assume that they have not shifted from that position.”

King said the team will work with the city to develop a project that benefits both sides. But if a deal cannot be reached, he said the logical conclusion would be to explore all options.

“Our guys are not threatening people,” he said. “If they do (decide to move the team out of Calgary), they’ll just announce that.” King again added that his comment should also not be misconstrued as a threat.

He believes any future deal will largely ride on how much value councillors are willing to place on a new arena and event centre in the city. He says an estimate is far from decided.

“They are trying to understand themselves how important the infrastructure is, and whether or not it is important enough for them to get behind,” said King. “We just need a place to play.”

With a report from CTV Calgary’s Bill Macfarlane