Many people including one of the architects behind the first arena report are frustrated a new arena isn’t moving forward.

When Lyle Best chaired an arena feasibility study in 2008, he expected progress after the study was completed.

On Thursday he said that hasn’t been the case and he’s not overly surprised city council decided to end negotiations with the Katz Group.

“I thought this time last year when the guys got back from New York that it looked good, but then I didn’t see a lot of signs that we were progressing,” the Edmonton businessman told CTV News.

The decision to cease talks came unanimously Wednesday after the Katz Group turned down Mayor Stephen Mandel’s invitation to attend the council meeting.

The idea was the group could explain why they believe negotiations are stalled.

Instead, in a public letter sent out Tuesday Daryl Katz stated the two sides can’t agree on fifteen outstanding issues.

In a news release on the Oilers website Thursday the chairman of the Katz Group responded to the council decision.

"We are concerned about the implications of the motion passed yesterday by City Council. We do not yet have a view on what comes next, but we remain hopeful that there is a solution that achieves the mutual goal of securing the Oilers long-term sustainability in Edmonton,” Katz wrote.

“It’s frustrating. We travelled all across North America looking at the solutions and arenas and that kind of thing. To think that we’re right back to the drawing board is frustrating,” said Best.

That drawing board could see the city building an arena without the Katz group.

“There is a lot of things we are going to have to look at if we are going to build it ourselves,” said Councillor Kim Krushell adding there is the option of finding other partners.

With that idea comes a word of caution from the vice president of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “I can understand why so many people say let’s build it ourselves. At this point he (Katz) is not putting any money in, let’s try that. The problem with that is you lose all your negotiating power,” Scott Hennig said.

There is also the potential to lose the main tenant of the arena but Mayor Mandel said council will work to prevent that.

“We all value the Oilers, we all want to keep them in a successful franchise,” he said.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman weighed in Thursday on the end to negotiations. “I think everybody needs to take a deep breath. The Oilers need a new arena, the city of Edmonton needs a new arena and I’m hopeful that despite the breakdown in negotiations, reason will prevail and we’ll get it to the right place,” Bettman stated.

City staff will research all options over the next two weeks and will present the findings to council.

With files from Kevin Armstrong