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City council refused Monday to officially label the Flames’ ownership group’s proposed $890-million CalgaryNEXT project dead while voting in favour of continuing to explore an arena replacement in Victoria Park.

Both elected officials and the head of the Calgary Flames organization expressed enthusiasm for the so-called Plan B, which would see an arena located just north of the existing Saddledome on a two-block site south of 12th Avenue S.E. between Olympic Way and 5th Street S.E in Victoria Park.

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“If we can make a deal in Victoria Park, we will,” Ken King, the CEO of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation that owns the Flames, Hitmen, Roughnecks and Stampeders, told reporters after council’s decision.

“And if we can’t, then we’ll revisit whatever options are available to us.”

Monday’s meeting marked the first chance Calgary’s elected officials have had to publicly discuss the Victoria Park option that’s been on the table since April 2016, when a city report concluded the CalgaryNEXT pitch slated for creosote-contaminated land in the West Village could cost $1.8 billion and was not feasible.

Councillors spent more than an hour Monday grilling Michael Brown, CEO and president of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (a subsidiary of the city) and deputy city manager Brad Stevens about the Victoria Park plan, for which no renderings or price tag have been revealed.

Despite enthusiasm for a Saddledome replacement in Victoria Park, and acknowledgment that CalgaryNEXT is still not feasible, elected officials voted 12-3 against a pitch from Ward 11 Coun. Brian Pincott asking city administration to cease any further consideration of the CalgaryNEXT concept in the West Village.