Mandel to update city council Friday on Bettman meeting

EDMONTON - Mayor Stephen Mandel is met in New York this morning with Oilers owner Daryl Katz and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to try to hammer out a deal for a new downtown arena.

The meeting started at 10 a.m. and continued on into the afternoon at the NHL headquarters.

Katz proposes to build an arena for the Oilers on the north end of downtown, but has not been able to agree to terms with the city or secure funding from the province. Bettman called the meeting last week to act as a facilitator between the city and the hockey club.

Mandel and the city manager met Tuesday with Bettman, but the mayor would not speak publicly about what transpired. He is scheduled to address the media after today’s meeting.

Mandel is expected Friday to update city council, but no vote has been scheduled, even though the Oct. 31 deadline is less than three weeks away.

At the council meeting Wednesday morning, four councillors said they would be unable to attend Friday’s meeting.

The meeting is for information purposes, chief financial officer Lorna Rosen said. However, there will be “timing challenges,” given that councillors will also be away toward the end of October, she said.

The next regular council meeting is Oct. 26. “I don’t have any better sense about how we will achieve what we want to achieve by the end of the month, if there is something to achieve,” Rosen said.

Several councillors agreed reluctantly to approve scheduling the information meeting, saying they want all their colleagues at the table for further talks.

“I’m prepared to support this for one reason,” Coun. Ben Henderson said.

“The sooner council can be briefed on this and brought up to speed, the sooner the public can be briefed on it and brought up to speed … God knows, we have been leaky as a sieve on this.”

While there are no plans to make decisions this week, city officials said it could happen, although Coun. Don Iveson said such a move would be “irresponsible.”

Update: Vinesh Pratap provides an update on Wednesday's meeting:

New York arena meeting update by Global Edmonton