Rogers Place

Rogers Place is a multi-use indoor arena under construction in Edmonton, Alberta. It will mainly be used for ice hockey and other indoor sports, as well as music concerts. Construction started in March 2014, and is expected to open before the 2016–17 NHL season, the arena will have a seating capacity of 18,641 as a hockey venue, and 20,734 as a concert venue. Once completed, it will replace Rexall Place as the home of the NHL's Edmonton Oilers. The arena will be located at the block between 101 and 104 Streets and 104 and 105 Avenues. Public transit access to the arena will be provided by the Edmonton Light Rail Transit system (through the Metro Line extension, opening mid 2015) and Edmonton Transit System buses.

Planning and funding
The arena building was initially estimated to cost $450 million. The City of Edmonton was to pay $125 million, the Katz Group was to contribute $100 million, and $125 million was to come from a user-paid facility fee. The remaining money was expected to come from the province or federal agencies. Estimated cost then increased substantially during continued discussions to a current estimated price of $480 million for the arena, and $604.5 million for the entire project.

On October 26, 2011, the Edmonton City Council approved a funding framework for the arena by a vote of 10 to 3. However a year later, with costs escalating and the Katz Group making increasing demands, the city passed a motion to end negotiations with the Katz Group and to seek out a new deal or find other options but would still be open to communicating with Daryl Katz for future talks.

A new agreement was reached on January 23, 2013 between the two parties on moving forward with the arena. Construction of the new arena is due to break ground in the summer of 2013.

On May 15, 2013, the Edmonton City Council passed a deal that will see the city of Edmonton and Oilers owner Daryl Katz each put in more money to offset the $55 million shortfall needed to build the new downtown arena. Katz will chip in an additional $15 million through the Edmonton Arena Corporation and another $15 million will come from the Community Revitalization Levy (CRL).

On December 3, 2013, Rogers Communications announced that it had obtained a 10-year naming rights deal for the new arena, which will be known as Rogers Place. The deal expands on Rogers' existing sponsorship deals with the team.

The arena will be funded by the following sources:
 * $279-million from the Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) and other incremental revenues (increased parking revenue, reallocation of existing subsidy paid to Northlands and new taxes from business in the arena)
 * $125-million from ticket surcharge on all events in the new arena
 * $137.81-million from lease revenue for the Arena
 * $23.68-million in cash from Edmonton Arena Corporation
 * $25-million from other government sources

On February 11, 2014, it was announced that the project was completely funded, and would go ahead.



Real estate impact
As of December 8, 2014, $2.5 billion in downtown development have been directly connected to Rogers Place. In March 2014 Brad J. Lamb announced $225 million of investment planned to build two new condo towers. The towers are directly correlated to the arena going ahead. In addition to Brad Lamb's proposed condos, in early 2015, preliminary drawings were released to the public showing development of three residential towers between 103 Avenue and 104 Avenue on 106th Street to be developed by an Ontario real estate development company. These towers would accommodate approximately 1,300 dwellings.

Rogers Place is estimated to increase the value of real estate within a 1.6km (1 mile) radius by hundreds of millions of dollars, according to University of Alberta economist Brad Humphreys. The Edmonton Arena District is the fastest growing arena district in the history of similar mega-projects

Rogers Place was tied to a "hospitality explosion" even before ground was broken as operators were setting up their operations in anticipation of the new arena. In early 2014 there were far fewer options to lease or purchase as competition mounted.