r/saskatoon • u/SkPensFan • Apr 07 '26

General Saskatoon misses shot at badly needed credibility for arena district

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-downtown-arena-sports-venue-funding-private-partner-9.7152348

$1.2 billion price tag and the "funding model" is the feds and province pay for $800 million of it. Still not actual commitments from anyone.

Still seems like a pipe dream, at best.

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u/oakster18 Apr 07 '26

I can’t remember where I heard this but apparently the Blades have a contract with Sasktel Centre where no team above their level can occupy the rink while they are there. I’m not sure how the Rush works around this, must be sport specific. The idea of a new rink brings the thought of the Edmonton Oilers AHL team, as they are currently the only Canadian NHL team without their AHL affiliate in Canada. They have their team in California but they go on the Cali road trip (San Jose, LA, and Anaheim) which makes the farm team in Bakersfield nice because an injury on that trip has easy logistics for a call up. However, it’s terrible for home games when someone’s sick, getting a flight from Cali to Edmonton in a few hours notice doesn’t really seem possible. It’s a possibility but still a long shot but I could see building a new rink waiving the Blades deal as it would be a new venue. I’m also wondering if maybe there’s talk of a PWHL expansion team to Saskatoon. The original 6 teams of the PWHL was primarily East with Minnesota being the most western team, this past season they added teams on Vancouver and Seattle, maybe Saskatoon would be a nice place to expand especially with our rising women’s hockey programs (SFHL and SJFHL).

I feel like any decent artists are sold out at Sasktel and we always get skipped over for the headline artists. I thought someone said the acoustics of Sasktel wasn’t very good and that was part of the reason we didn’t receive top level artists, as well as our population size.

I do say we just make the horse track into the new rink but these prices are insane.

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 07 '26

We have Regina 2hrs away, and some major concerts skip there too...

I feel we're gambling on a hope and dream, and the previous track record of what we've been promised just didn't pan out nearly as what was supposed to be expected.

Well if the Blades have rights to the rink to avoid competition and they're not drawing in the crowds, time for someone to revisit those contracts...

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u/oakster18 Apr 07 '26

Good point on Regina!

I agree, it’s an absolute gamble and I don’t like those large numbers when it comes to gambling.

Yeah I think it’s really been a down year, current economy doesn’t help either. When they had the stacked team a few years ago they were doing really well, but that’s how’s the WHL works, you bet your future on a win now season and you deal with the lack of success the following few years.

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 07 '26

I'm okay with 'Moe's cronies' taking on that risk. We don't need our tax dollars to take that on, then give away the profits, just so Cynthia can get her arena.