Didn't stop them from knocking down Georgia Dome.
ATL is a weird city. They also knocked down Turner Field, which was the Olympic Stadium used for Track back in 1996. 20 years and it got ripped down.
Phillips Arena got a massive reno less than 20 years into its existence.
CTC and GSRA are both fine arenas. Just that their location sucks. If you could pick it up and move it, they would both be fine arenas for another 20 years.
I personally hate the attitude of the NHL when it comes to arenas. They are huge capital expenditures and they seem to think that cities are more than happy to dump hundreds of millions of tax dollars to fund them every 2 decades. Business 101 is location, location, location.
Firestone wanted to have some major development around the CTC in Kanata. But, honestly, I recall Burke back when he was the assistant to Quinn in Vancouver and he said that the Canucks wanted a downtown arena because that's where people worked. So, makes it easier for the majority of fans to get off work at 5pm, grab a bite to eat, then head to the arena.