Mayor Aftab Pureval and other Cincinnati leaders are voicing their thoughts on a new Cincinnati arena, responding to businesses at The Banks who want it at its current site.The study just doesnt think that thats realistic, although, let me be clear, no decision has been made on a site, Pureval said at a roundtable hosted by the Cincinnati Rotary Club in Mount Adams.The meeting comes one day after business owners at The Banks wrote an open letter pleading for city officials to put a new arena at the location of the nearly 50-year-old Heritage Bank Center instead of relocating it. A November feasibility study determined that Cincinnati should build a new arena in one of two locations: south of TQL Stadium in the West End or near the Duke Energy Convention Center on land that will be freed up by the Brent Spence Bridge reconstruction.FC Cincinnati President Jeff Berding said he views the plea to keep the arena at The Banks as an indictment on the neighborhoods development.The Banks is a disappointment. It's not what it was intended, he said.Berding said he started The Banks Working Group during his time on city council.Why am I bringing this up in the context of the arena? Because the site that Heritage Bank is on is prime real estate, and we need to get more out of it than were getting now, whether its an arena or likely not, because the study said its too expensive, he said.He clarified that hes not suggesting the arena gets moved and the existing site withers, he said it needs to be in some way leveraged to improve The Banks.Regardless of the arenas future location, Berding said The Banks needs a new plan and vision. The city recently issued a Request for Proposal to further develop the area.We need to do better by them in this community, he said.Berding is working on his own major projects. FC Cincinnati is embarking on a $300 million development near its stadium in the West End. That project is just a few blocks north of the citys convention center, which is undergoing $240 million in renovations aimed to enhance the citys ability to attract major conventions and events.This is going to transition and transform the way that we as a city are able to sell conventions, sell events, bring those to Cincinnati, and continue to bring those over and over and over again, said Julie Calvert, president and CEO of Visit Cincy. Where the stadium should go is the least pressing question, Pureval said. The hardest question is how it will be paid for, he said.My plan is to work with the county and identify what is the best opportunity for us to put forth some public dollars and have some, some matching private dollars to make this a reality, Pureval said.The mayor, who was initially skeptical of the need for a new arena, said hes emphatically for it even without a major league anchor tenant.Weve got to do everything we can not to kick this down the road again, but to come together as a community, have a call to action and decide, Yes, we're doing it, and that needs to happen now, Pureval said.The mayors planned funding approach will differ significantly from the previous two stadium projects on the riverfront, which were largely funded by taxpayers.Berding said those projects left a bad taste for many.There's no way that this needs a new tax on local residents, Berding said.The former city council member said private individuals have contacted him saying they would love to invest in an arena because they work in other cities.It's going to be public-private at a much greater percentage than what was happening on the riverfront, Berding said.With multiple developments moving forward, as the city still waits to hear about its bid to host the Sundance Film Festival, Pureval said he believes Cincinnati is on the cusp of a golden age for Cincinnati.We should be winning the next decade. We should be winning the next couple of decades, said Pureval.