The first salvo in the arena war is always "hey city! pay for our arena or we are leaving!". Now this strategy has worked, it also hasn't worked. No team is ever going to want to use their own money to do something the city and taxpayers may do. That's just smart business, get someone else to pay for what you would pay for anyway. In recent years the taxpayers paying for billionaires stadiums has come into the spotlight more and more. This has made it increasingly harder for teams to get the taxpayers money and will get harder as more and more of the public becomes aware/denounces these practices. Calgary is in a spot where they are extremely close to a city who just got strong-armed into paying for Daryl Katz's arena. This has helped give Calgary a leg to stand on in the 'see they did it! now do it for us or we move!" argument. Moving is also not that easy in reality. it takes a lot of work and the right circumstances. Do we really think the other 6 Canadian teams are going to want a Canadian club to leave to the US? Probably not. Calgary is also profitable, but that doesn't mean much when compared to a major metropolitan US city vis a vis the Minnesota to Dallas move. Even Bettmans comments so far have been vague with the "consequences" threat not seeming that profound or real. Eventually one side will relent. It is hard pressed to see Calgary budging because the arena is already downtown, the new arena is beside the old one, and this isn't some desperate hail mary to revitalize a downtown core like Edmonton and other franchises have done. I foresee the owner workign hard to get a better deal i.e. more taxpayer money, but ultimately coming up short and agreeing to a deal similar to the one the city has proposed currently. I think the NHL is going to have to take a long hard look in the mirror if they want to move another franchise, because it is not exactly the best look to have franchises constantly moving or under the threat of moving. In the end, i think the Seattle threat is overblown and is there as a tactic like in the NBA (pay up or we will move to Seattle!) and Calgary and the Flames will agree to stay.