Nenshi’s election rivals aren’t eager to throw public money at Flames arena, either

That whole “let’s blow up our arena negotiations and hope everyone gets mad at the mayor during the election campaign and forces him to make us a more lucrative offer” plan by the Calgary Flames owners is really not going as planned at all:

• Asked whether he thought Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s plan to split both costs and revenues with the Flames was a good one, opposition candidate Bill Smith said: “There’s still a lot more to be looked at, and one of things I’m waiting to see is where the Flames sit on this … you need to see what the whole deal looks like. … One of the reasons we’re in this situation right now is a failure of leadership. We have a mayor who won’t deal fairly with anyone.”
• Andre Chabot, another Nenshi opponent, declared the city’s plan “reasonable.”
• Nenshi taunted Smith for not taking a position, saying, “If you want to be mayor, you’ve got to tell people who’s giving you money, who you’re working for and, for heaven’s sake, you’ve got to tell people how you’re going to spend billions of dollars. I think it’s kind of important.”

Also, Smith and Chabot are likely to split any anti-Nenshi vote, leaving the mayor likely to win election to a third term. So, yeah, this threat seems to have fizzled. How long you think before Flames CEO Ken King tries having himself photographed at the Seattle airport?