EDMONTON- City officials have confirmed NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was in Edmonton on Friday, for a meeting with the city.
In an interview with local radio station 630 CHED, Councillor Bryan Anderson hinted the meeting may mean good news for those who are in favour of a new downtown arena in Edmonton.
“(Bettman) was involved in talks between the City Manager, the Mayor and the Katz group and the talks were positive,” Anderson said. “I think we’ll see the results on Wednesday at the city council meeting.”
“I think what we need to do is in public hear from our City Manager as he lays out the results of last week’s meeting and council will have to decide whether or not the hopefully agreed upon items are good enough to support moving forward,” he added.
Anderson says at this point in time, all fans can do is wait to see what transpires at the city council meeting on Wednesday.
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“If you’re in favour of having an arena you’ll probably feel good and if you’re against having an arena you’ll probably feel not so good,” Anderson explained.
On Friday, a blog in the Edmonton Journal suggested significant progress has been made by both sides of the debate.
Journalist David Staples wrote, “There is no done deal on Edmonton’s downtown arena project, but I’m hearing significant progress has been made between the Katz Group and the city. Only a fraction of the outstanding issues remain to be resolved between the two groups, and a deal could well be in place by the time council meets on the issue on Jan. 23.”
Negotiations on the downtown arena resumed in December, after the Katz group dropped some of its demands and asked for talks to continue.
An update on the status of the arena negotiations will be presented to city council on Wednesday.
With files from 630 CHED and Postmedia News.
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