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Sutherland said the city needs to look at “several options” for the project.

“We need it to work in some fashion, especially when it comes to the field house,” he said.

Coun. Richard Pootmans said the new piece to the CalgaryNEXT debate is to what extent the project could be folded into an Olympic bid.

“I know there’s very limited appetite from the public to support in any large or meaningful way the project, it seems, so I’m not quite sure what the potential impact of the Olympics might be. I think that’s a whole other set of criteria to consider.”

Coun. Sean Chu sees CalgaryNEXT as a “great project” — as long as it doesn’t require any tax dollars.

“I don’t think that the taxpayer should be the one footing the bill,” he said.

Coun. Shane Keating said he doesn’t have any concerns about the location of the concept or the city fronting $200 million for a field house.

“I think if they could find a way to fund this outside of that $200 million, then I don’t see a bit of a difficulty moving forward on that concept,” said Keating.

Meanwhile, Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said in order for the project to move forward, the corporation will have to “pull some spectacularly better numbers than we’ve seen out of their hats.”

The original $890-million CalgaryNEXT proposal announced last summer called for a new hockey area, covered football stadium and field house in the West Village.

ycole@postmedia.com