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Gary Bettman said he knew six months ago an arena deal would not get done in Calgary under the city’s current administration.

Bettman said a meeting in Calgary with Naheed Nenshi in March made it crystal clear where the mayor’s head is at with regards to the importance of pro sports in a city.

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“When I was with the mayor on March 15, he was describing to me the terms of a deal that I knew were just not from the real world,” said the NHL commissioner in a phone interview from his New York office, mere hours after updating the NHL’s board of governors on the Calgary situation.

“We were having a theoretical conversation about the importance of arenas and major league sports franchises to a city, which he indicated he didn’t believe in. I said, ‘Well … what if the end result of this is that the Flames have to move?’ And he said to me, ‘Then they’ll have to move.’”

“Based on that meeting, I knew (the Flames owners) had no prospect of getting a new building on any terms that made sense. And that being the case, I completely understood their decision to disengage.”