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“I’m OK with it,” Jones said. “I can understand people wanting to make money off of it and right now they’re not because it’s a giveaway and it probably costs them a lot of money a year to give away a suite for every game.”

The Flames declined to respond to questions Monday about the terms of the new deal.

Davison said he won’t miss the suite access since council members may have other options to entertain guests or thank volunteers.

“It’s not like it’s accessible to you at all times,” Davison said. “You might get access once a year to it. It’s good; we like to take members of the community or presidents of the community associations or people that have provided great volunteer service to the city, so it’s a nice sort of give-back. But if we can do that differently, I think there’s much more benefit to that.”

Photo by Dean Pilling / Postmedia

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he’s rarely used the Saddledome box, mostly due to scheduling issues.

“I have used it for community volunteers and city staff who’ve gone above and beyond over the course of the year. They’ll get a random phone call from me saying, ‘The mayor would like to take you to a hockey game,'” Nenshi said. “The problem is I’m super cheap because I find the catering very expensive, so they get popcorn when we go.”

But Nenshi said there may be alternative access or benefits provided to council in the new agreement. “As far as I understand, there is a different way of recognizing community in the proposed deal,” Nenshi said, adding that it could involve a distribution of a number of game tickets to council members.

Coun. Jeromy Farkas said he has never used the Saddledome box suite and argues Calgarians won’t be missing out when the perk is eliminated in the new building.

“I have no problem with the city not having an entitlement that way,” Farkas said. “This box, the present box, my understanding is that it was more an entitlement for the politicians, which is not necessarily a community benefit.”

Edmonton city council members do not have dedicated access to a suite or tickets to Oilers games in Rogers Place, according to a spokesperson for that city.

mpotkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @mpotkins