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An ambitious plan to replace McMahon Stadium with a new field house and adjoining practice facility was put before city councillors behind closed doors Monday, with former mayoral candidate Bill Smith behind the push.

The McMahon District Development — Calgary Rising is proposing the project as a collaboration between PBA Land and Development, the University of Calgary and the City, with the hopes of collecting up to $67 million in property taxes annually.

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“There’s a great opportunity here to combine two pieces of land and create a development in conjunction with the city and the university . . . with a goal to have this pay for itself through tax revenue,” said Smith, a Calgary lawyer and former president of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party who ran against Mayor Naheed Nenshi in the 2017 municipal election.

“We have several strategies in place to get support and funding from the private sector, but we want to be sure we have support first,” Smith said.