Brian Burke says Calgary Flames will leave city if team doesn't get new arena

Calgary is attempting to douse the flames created by president of operations Brian Burke saying the NHL team will leave the city if it doesn't get a new publicly funded arena.

"We're not going to make the threat to leave. We'll just leave," Burke told a business luncheon at the Canadian Club of Calgary on Wednesday. "We still have a building that was built in 1983, the oldest in the league by more than 10 years."

In response, Ken King, the president and CEO of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, which owns the Flames, said: "Brian Burke runs Hockey Operations for the Calgary Flames and he and many Calgarians have strong views about this topic. However, he is not our spokesperson regarding a new events centre for our city. We remain committed to our dialogue with the City and very optimistic we will get to a positive conclusion. We admire everyone's enthusiasm on this subject."

Last year, Calgary administrators concluded the Flames' CalgaryNEXT pitch slated for creosote-contaminated land in the West Village was not feasible, and could cost as much as $1.8 billion with taxpayers having to pay up to two-thirds of the tab, according to postmedia.

The Flames introduced a second proposal to build a new arena in Victoria Park, just north of the existing Saddledome.

"They (talks) continue," King told 660News.com in Calgary in May. "They have been largely productive and we expect and hope they will continue to be productive. We're talking about all aspects of it and obviously, dollars and cents is an integral aspect of it. Everything is on the table for discussion."