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Where does the NHL fit in all this?

“We have never been encouraging of this project,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told the Post’s Bruce Arthur on the weekend.So there’s that. Meanwhile, the months that have passed since the proposal was first announced have seen the Phoenix Coyotes sign a 15-year lease to stay in Arizona and the New York Islanders agree to move to Brooklyn. Quebec City, meanwhile, is already building an arena and Quebecor, which is part of that project, just became major partners with the NHL by buying French-language broadcast rights. It is now way ahead of Markham on the next-franchise list that the NHL says doesn’t exist.

But if not the NHL, then what?

Mr. Roustan and Mayor Scarpitti have long insisted that the GTA Centre doesn’t need an NHL team to make business sense. They promise a schedule of 130 events such as concerts and conventions that could make it lucrative. Further, Mr. Roustan has mused about attracting minor-league or junior hockey tenants and has also floated the idea of minor-league basketball. But, minor-league teams do not require 20,000-seat stadiums. The American Hockey League Toronto Marlies, for example, have only twice in the last nine seasons averaged more than 5,000 fans per game. The NBL of Canada, meanwhile, very rarely draws more than 4,000 fans for any of its games. Former MLSE president Richard Peddie has been skeptical of the business case, noting among other things that modern arenas are heavily reliant on revenues from their luxury suites — but that an arena without a major tenant would find those next-to-impossible to sell.

Any other concerns?

Several, but we’ll end with this one: Markham’s plan would designate the GTA Centre a municipal capital facility, making it exempt from property taxes and development charges. In theory, the city would be foregoing millions of dollars in annual revenues. In exchange, Mr. Scarpitti said, the city would be allowed to use the building for community events such as food festivals, and it might be open for residents to use as a place to go for walks, and also it could provide shelter in the event of a natural disaster.