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‘Exciting day for Edmonton’ as new Oilers arena gets green light

Image courtesy City of Edmonton

Image courtesy City of Edmonton

On Tuesday, the city of Edmonton and Oilers owner Daryl Katz announced the Rogers Place project has been greenlit to start construction in March of this year, and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016.

From the Oilers:

“This is an exciting day for Edmonton as we move ahead with a project that will help realize our vision of a more vibrant downtown and ensures that the Edmonton Oilers remain a vital part of our city for years to come,” said Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson. “The look of Rogers Place is bold and forward-looking, just like Edmonton. As part of our downtown vision, it will serve as a symbol of our city’s great future.”

The City of Edmonton and Katz Group announced that the $480 million Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for Rogers Place has been met.

“For the Katz Group and the Edmonton Oilers, we have always believed Edmonton’s need for a new arena was a huge opportunity to help transform our downtown into the vibrant, diverse and dynamic community that is the hallmark of every great city,” said Daryl Katz, owner of the Edmonton Oilers. “We couldn’t be more excited to see that vision becoming a reality and I want to thank Mayor Iveson, City Council, former Mayor Stephen Mandel, and the entire team at the City and everyone else who has laboured over this project for years for their tenacity and faith in this project.”

This marks the end of a long, drawn-out and occasionally contentious drama in which Katz confirmed he visited Seattle to “evaluate” the market after talks with the city of Edmonton stalled.

Things eventually got back on track and, in December, an announcement was made that the new Edmonton Arena would be named Rogers Place. So the NHL will soon have two Rogers-branded rinks, the other being Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

According to Tom Gazzola of Oilers TV, Rogers Place will seat 18,641 which, according to this list, would make it the 14th-largest in the NHL.

(Image courtesy the City of Edmonton)