It's not easy being an Oilers fan

An artist's concept drawing of the new arena for the Edmonton Oilers. It sure looks world class, 
but class does not extend to building it with the tax dollars of Albertans 
who will never afford the ticket price of an NHL game.

It's not the easiest thing, being an Oilers fan these days. Well, perhaps not the most fanatical fan, but everyone needs a favourite team, and the Oilers have been my team since before they entered the NHL. For a long time now, that's meant tempering expectations with patience. Next year always seems to be a better place.

But with the lockout begun, this year doesn't look to be like the next year that last year promised.

There being no NHL season to distract us, we spend our hockey energies watching the Oilers owner Dary Katz in his game of nerves with the City of Edmonton, on the building of the team's new arena. In this contest, I'm backing Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel and his council. 

The city has already pledged plenty of city resources and money into the project, with no guarantee that their ratepayers will see a return on money already invested. So Mandel and city alderpeople are balking at another $6 million subsidy the Oilers owners group says had always been part of their agreement with the city.

The $475 million project to replace the aging and inadequate Rexall Place hinges on an unrealized promise of $100 million in backing from the province. We have had three provincial premiers who have categorically declared that's not going to happen. But, as governors the world over have famously said: what's $100 million?

Supporters of public investment in professional sports facilities will tell you $100 million is far less than the tax revenue the province would reap from income and business taxes from all the economic activity that surrounds a pro sports franchise, plus taxes on booze and gambling returns that flow on game days. The same argument is applied to the host city -- and Edmonton's city council agreed to the tune of $125 million.

A world-class city needs a pro sports team, the theory goes. And what big shot businessman wants to invest in a city where you can't buy luxury box seats, and write them off as a company expense?

Mandel and council are confident a majority of taxpayers support them this far, if grudgingly. Well and good. Being world class is a laudable goal.

But I don't buy the economic arguments, and neither should Alberta taxpayers. CBC Radio has already reported in various NHL cities about how bar and restaurant owners are laying off staff, since their revenues are expected to drop during the NHL lockout. Those are real jobs, real lives affected.

They compose a valid local business argument, but it's not evidence of loss for either the city, the province or their general taxpayers.

Economics dictate that all money in an economy is always eventually spent. Even money sitting idle in savings -- think of the mountains of cash held by big corporations -- even that must eventually be spent. There's a law somewhere that dictates that. If I perish with $10.82 to the good, my heirs will jointly spend it. You can't take it with you.

Therefore, even though restaurants, bars and stores that sell overpriced NHL jerseys will suffer, the money they would have gained will be spent -- and taxed -- elsewhere. Economic activity around NHL hockey will drop during the lockout, but activity in a hundred other areas will gain.

If this game between Katz and city council goes badly wrong, the Oilers might leave town. That would leave fans like me in a sad quandary (I can't even think about being a Flames fan without some degree of pain). But it would not hurt taxpayers like me in the least.

On the other hand, putting my tax money into the pockets of millionaire team owners and millionaire players is a dead loss. There's zero profit to be made, and that's money that could be better spent making Edmonton and Alberta world class in other ways.

Either outcome in this game makes it even harder to be an Oilers fan. But on the whole, I'd rather the team supported itself through ticket sales, TV revenue and merchandizing, than tax dollars.