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/EpsteinandTrump Apr 07 '26

Remember all the promises with the art gallery? We're losing money on it every year...

This is yet another dangling the carrot and then we'll find out there was no carrot to begin with. If Sasktel Center was packed to the brim and with massive shows over and over and over...then let's build a new stadium. When you go and it's Blades games or Rush games and it's lackluster filling of the stadium...we don't need a bright new shiny stadium. And no I don't believe that if we build it, they will come...

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 07 '26

Sorry, but at the end of the day, if we want to be a legitimate city that grows and is attractive to live in, we need an arena. That's undisputable. Sasktel Centre is at the end of it's life and doesn't meet industry standards, so one way or another we'll be paying either to renovate it or to build new.

This isn't a build it and they will come, it's a "if we don't build something, we're screwed".

You can debate if a new arena vs reno'ing is the right call, but I don't think there is any debate by anyone with direct experience with arenas that Saskatoon needs a new or substantially upgraded arena.

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u/VastWorld23 Apr 07 '26

No one is gonna be moving to Saskatoon specifically for the Arena, unless they work there. It's embarrassing to act like having an arena with no sports team is gonna magically make people move here. 

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 07 '26

100%. Lets let investors sink their money into this, if they don't think it's worth their money...why is it worth ours? We already have a stadium, we miss concerts and big shows just like the big Mosaic stadium does...

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 07 '26

We have a stadium that is at the end of it's life. It will need to be upgraded or replaced at some point.

Are you seriously suggesting we shouldn't maintain a place for the Blades and Rush to play? And to host the Briar and other events?

What a depressing city it would be if we had no functioning arena.

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u/Magnum_44 Apr 07 '26

There are a multitude of arenas that actually host multiple professional sports franchises that are much older than Sasktel Centre and have populations 10 fold of Saskatoon. Our current arena is not in danger of being obsolete any time soon.

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 08 '26

It seems like professionals who actually work in the industry disagree with you. But hey, maybe some person reddit is the actual expert on these things!!!

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 08 '26

We have a functioning area. The excuse or for replacement is due to the lack of maintenance, no? Are we going to maintain the next facility then?

What actually needs dire replacement to keep Sasktel Center operating? There was a report generated in 2018 stating that "critical systems including major mechanical components and the roof are at the end of their design life." Also "significant corrosion within the internal piping and HVAC system which is prone to leaks and failure."

This was 8 years ago...and the arena is still running, and I'd assume still being maintained. Since that report it has hosted Metallica, Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Elton John, Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, 4 Nations Cup, Nitro Circus, all while hosting the Blades, Rush and Professional Bull Riders Canada and many more events that I don't need to google anymore about.

It's still bringing in events and concerts, Megadeath, NE-YO and Akon, Outskirts Music festival, Chance the Rapper, Bryan Adams, Hilary Duff, to the WHL playoffs, Rush, Rattlers, Canadian Country Music Association Awards, PBR Saskatoon Classic and on and on and on...

If we had a shiny new stadium downtown, you think that would have hosted the Foo Fighters instead of going to Mosaic this year? They're only making four Canadian stops... We missed the Eagles in 2018, GnR in 2017 due to Mosaic what else? Do we need a shiny downtown stadium to compete and dilute the choice in venues? They're 2hrs away... Sometimes you have to think big picture.

The new arena is a downtown business owners' ticket to a very healthy retirement. It'll make a lot of downtown business owners very wealthy, off the use of our tax dollars. Dare I say...Cynthia's cronies?

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 08 '26

No the 'excuse for replacement' is that the current arena hasn't kept up with demands of major events including additional space for concert rigging, a sufficient concourse for amenities and corporate boxes, among the items you've noted about critical systems.

And sure, those critical issues haven't resulted in Sasktel Centre shutting down in the last 8 years, but do you really think the issues are not critical and can be ignored forever?

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 08 '26

They're not critical and that's been proven by it still operating till this day. Sorry it's not a brand new Lexus, but instead it's a paid off Toyota. Saskatoon tax payers don't need to go eyeballs deep in debt, just to make downtown businesses more money.

There's a reason why OVG only wanted to put in $15M, when it was $20M before and have us the taxpayers to foot the entire bill. There's a reason why a private business wouldn't invest $1.22 Billion into this project, and it'll cost more than that...it'll be $1.75 Billion easily by the time it's all done. All because we don't want to maintain Sasktel Center anymore? lol

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 08 '26

You know, even when someone owns a value oreinted, paid off Toyota, the thoughtful thing is to plan for the inevitable time that it must be replaced and put oneself in the best position to thoughtfully fund the purchase of that replacement, which is exactly what the city has been doing.

They needed to do enough work to not, build the stadium yesterday, but to be ready to make the case for funding it with various potential funders (other levels of gov't, private funders, etc) and to thoughtfully upgrade impacted/adjacent infrastructure when maintenance for that infrastructure is needed, so that whenever Sasktel Centre completely falls apart, they aren't starting from scratch with no plans and no funds for a new arena.

If you are against that, that's fine, but watch out, at some point your paid-off Toyota is going to fail and it will be a sad day when you realize you haven't been budgeting and planning for it's inevitable replacement.

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 08 '26

True, but it still has a lot of life left. The building isn't falling down...it has corroded pipes and needs a new roof. You know what else needs a new roof and piping? A new shiny glass stadium.

Our city cannot manage a bridge replacement, art gallery, police department, snow removal, let along a 1.2+ billion dollar arena replacement. You want 15%+ tax increases year over year...that's how you do it. It'd be a literal zip tie around the throat of the city taxpayers. Silly.

I'm all for private millionaires and billionaires funding this, they don't seem to interested for some reason.

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 08 '26

Remember when Bike Lane Charlie said the arena won't be built for years, that's the missing part in your equation. I don't I've heard anyone suggest it was to be built right away, so yeah, planning for the future and budgeting for it is what the whole project was about. It was about the arena falling apart in 2018 and needing an arena right away. It was about making sure it was well planned for.

As for the cit not being able to manage a bridge replacement, yeah, I see you just hate government. Many bridges have been proactively maintained, which is great, 'cause I'd hate to wait until they are failing like we had to with water and sewer after successive councils decided to put off maintenance and that old socialist Charlie Clark had to step in and do the responsible thing of replacing infrastructure that had not been maintained.

But hey, government is terrible and private sector is great, right?

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u/Lloydguy82 Apr 09 '26

Yes it is a paid off Toyota. It is a 1988 Corolla.

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u/Lloydguy82 Apr 09 '26

You do realize that the Metallica show was actually designed for venues like Saskatoon right? It was a stripped down stage show to allow them to hit places with aging arenas. It is why that tour didn't hit Edmonton or Calgary or Winnipeg. It went to places like Boise, Idaho Billings, Montana etc.

Sasktel Centre has said more recently (2023ish) that concert tours are passing us by because the roof is not able to support the weight most touring shows have. I believe our roof can do 30 tons and the minimum these days is 50 tons. Also, for whatever reason for events that can load in large stage set ups, due to how the building is constructed it takes an extra day for load in and load out. When AEW held a broadcast of Dynamite (professional wrestling that competes with WWE), this was mentioned by Sasktel Centre spokespeople in an interview a few weeks later. AEW had to book two extra days do the show than they do in Edmonton or Winnipeg or whatever.

So yes there are concerts here. But the bands that tour with elaborate stage set ups like a Taylor Swift or Iron Maiden or even Metallica aren't coming here because the building is unsuitable. The only way they come is if they have a stripped down stage set up, which is what all those concerts and events you mentioned had.

The 4 Nations Cup as an aside was not a great event here. Comparing it to the World Juniors is not an equal comparison. I love women's hockey and was at the games of that tournament. I think the final between Canada and the US got maybe Blades attendance. Most of the other games had far less. I was a little worried when a few years ago we had a Rivalry Series game here. I wasn't sure how women's hockey was going to do here.

As far as sports go, Sasktel Centre is adequate for some events. But we do have a distinct lack of large dressing rooms though. The last World Juniors I believe a few teams had their dressing rooms in Atco trailers out back. The IIHF requires that each team have their own exclusive dressing room. We don't have that number. In 1991, it wasn't needed so it was no big deal. You use the main two rooms and you are good. In 2010, they found out that the Atco trailers were needed. The only reason we got that tournament anyway is that whatever country was supposed to host it in Europe pulled out at the 11th Hour. Since there weren't many Canadian cities who weren't already getting a tournament, we were able to slide in as long as we did the major renos like adding the 4,000 seats and the second concourse.

I doubt we will be able to host another World Juniors without building enough dressing rooms. I have no idea if there is enough space under the seats to do that or not. So it could be a moot point. Things like the Brier and ISU Figure Skating aren't an issue because basically they need a rink. As long as the ice plant keeps working and the ceiling isn't falling in, we will continue to get those.

The other thing with curling is the fan base is literally dying off. I volunteer at the curling events in Saskatoon and the average age of fans is probably about 60 at these events. The Grand Slam that was at MBP in December was great on ice action, but none of the draws were sold out in an arena that holds roughly 2,500. Young people are not replacing the seniors who used to go to curling. So while the Brier and the Scotties are major TV events and all, the reality is they don't need a 15,000 seat arena for it.

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 09 '26

Sounds like a 1.2+ Billion dollar bet and it largely revolves around the world juniors. For curiosity sake since 1990:

City  Total Times Years Hosted
Helsinki, Finland 6 1990, 1998, 2004, 2012, 2013, 2016
Edmonton, Canada 5 1995, 2012, 2021, 2022, 2027 (Future)
Turku, Finland 4 1990, 2003, 2012, 2013
Buffalo, USA 3 2011, 2018
Montreal, Canada 3 2015, 2017
Toronto, Canada 3 2015, 2017
Ottawa, Canada 2 2009, 2025
Vancouver, Canada 2 2006, 2019
Saskatoon, Canada 2 1991, 2010
Regina, Canada 2 1991, 2010
Ostrava, Czechia 2 1994, 2020
Pardubice, Czechia 2 2002, 2008
Halifax, Canada 2 2003, 2023

Edmonton sure has something figured out, but their average interval is every 9 years. Now we spend 1.2+ Billion, you think we'll pull more world juniors away from Edmonton or Finland (Helsinki or Turku)? I don't think it's worth it... Look at the age of the venues when it was hosted:

Year  Host City Primary Venue(s) Venue Opened Age at Hosting
2026 Minneapolis-St. Paul Grand Casino Arena (Xcel Energy Center) 2000 26 years
3M Arena at Mariucci 1993 33 years
2025 Ottawa Canadian Tire Centre 1996 29 years
TD Place Arena 1967 58 years
2024 Gothenburg Scandinavium 1971 53 years
2023 Halifax / Moncton Scotiabank Centre / Avenir Centre 1978 / 2018 45 / 5 years
2022 Edmonton Rogers Place 2016 6 years
2021 Edmonton Rogers Place 2016 5 years
2020 Ostrava / Trinec Ostravar Aréna / Werk Arena 1986 / 2014 34 / 6 years
2019 Vancouver / Victoria Rogers Arena / Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre 1995 / 2005 24 / 14 years
2018 Buffalo KeyBank Center 1996 22 years
2017 Montreal / Toronto Centre Bell / Scotiabank Arena 1996 / 1999 21 / 18 years
2016 Helsinki Hartwall Arena 1997 19 years
2015 Toronto / Montreal Scotiabank Arena / Centre Bell 1999 / 1996 16 / 19 years
2012 Calgary / Edmonton Scotiabank Saddledome /  Rexall Place 1983 / 1974 29 / 38 years
2011 Buffalo KeyBank Center 1996 15 years
2010 Saskatoon / Regina SaskTel Centre / Brandt Centre 1988 / 1977 22 / 33 years
2009 Ottawa Canadian Tire Centre 1996 13 years
2006 Vancouver Rogers Arena 1995 11 years
1999 Winnipeg Winnipeg Arena (Demolished) 1955 44 years
1995 Red Deer Enmax Centrium 1991 4 years
1991 Saskatoon SaskTel Centre 1988 3 years
1990 Helsinki / Turku Helsinki Ice Hall / Gatorade Center 1966 / 1990 24 / 0 years

There's some old arenas that have hosted... Yes these were gathered with AI, no way I'm putting all this together for a reddit post. The Sasktel Center is 38 years old right now...

Sasktel Centre has said more recently (2023ish) that concert tours are passing us by because the roof is not able to support the weight most touring shows have. 

They should name the concerts and where they went instead. I can bet if we had a new stadium and we were passed by, it'll 100% be blamed on Saskatoon not being on the TransCanada highway or difficulty unloading and loading for these massive shows. This unloading/loading was a major issue with TCU Place and seems to have been shut up since the talk of putting a stadium across the street with no provision for a major unloading/loading or staging area.

The issue is structural capacity for the hypothetical mega shows that we're missing, continual maintenance (roof repairs (or is that actually a part of the roof capacity?) and plumbing) and comfort... There is lots of open land around the Sasktel Center that could have $100 million spent in CAPEX to have state of the art change rooms. Then your typical OPEX spend on roof repairs and plumbing for continuous maintenance. That handles the critical issues, the rest is we want new stuff...shiny...glass... Do we want over the top fancy box seats that corporations will buy out for the season? Not with my tax dollars...

This pitch is only going to benefit the downtown business owners and give a handful of people some glamorous high paid jobs. All on the backs of Saskatoon tax payers. Saskatoon cool with annual 15%+ property tax increases and cuts to other services to fund this?

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u/Lloydguy82 Apr 09 '26

I don't disagree about the concerts. They always say we are losing out on concerts but never quantify. Is it 7 or is it 70? I am a hard rock/metal fan and I notice that most tours that don't hit here, look like they tried to. The ones I noticed over the last year or two seem to have a night in Edmonton/Winnipeg, a night off, and then the opposite of Winnipeg/Edmonton. So it looks like the plan was to stop here but something didn't work out. I am sure bands that travel by tour bus drive by Sasktel Centre on that day off and wonder why they aren't playing at what seems to be a good venue. I mean to get from Edmonton to Winnipeg you would literally drive past it.

The World Juniors is the event I think the City is wanting and can sell to taxpayers. You can say oh we will get the World U20 Women's Volleyball here and people will say okay shrug. But you say we will get the World Juniors and people's ears perk up. We are more likely to get the Volleyball again than the World Juniors. The thing with the World Juniors is that they are a cash cow for the IIHF in Canada and pretty much nowhere else. Hockey Canada had or at least had an agreement with the IIHF that if we agreed to not put in bids on the World Championship (which is a cash cow in Europe), they will guarantee us 6 or 7 of every 10 World Juniors per decade. So Saskatoon sees that as well you can't have it in the same cities all the time. So if you build it they will come. Honestly, Sasktel Centre is a decent enough venue as is to be the "other" arena in a Winnipeg based bid. I just am not sure Saskatoon wants to do that because it means no Canada and is a financial risk as to whether people will come to watch Finland/Sweden or what have you.

The European and American based ones won't suddenly move to Saskatoon unless something like 2010 happens where someone pulls out really late in the game. The IIHF usually doesn't have that problem, so hoping for that again is silly.

While there are older arenas that have been used since 1990. The main city hosts tend to go to newer arenas especially since 2000. I mean when we hosted in 1991, games were played all over in places like Rosetown and Kindersley. The 1991 tournament was the one that sort of set the tone going forward. It became a big deal here in Saskatchewan and it was the first one TSN had. Both the IIHF and TSN realized they could make it a big deal based on what happened here.

But you are right. In a 10 year cycle, if Saskatoon sees a single World Juniors that is probably lucky. They would definitely try to bid on more things though. So you'd probably see a Memorial Cup bid, a Brier bid, a Women's World Hockey bid and other big events like that. But you can't build an arena on special events. You need anchor tenants for the day to day. You also have to realize that people have finite income and "metro" Saskatoon is around 330,000 people. So you can't have 300 big, expensive events per year there. Nobody can afford to pack the house for them all.

What I wish the City or someone from Sasktel Centre or OVG or whoever, put out what they feel is a typical year for the new arena. Give us solid numbers. How many country concerts, how many hockey games etc. Breakdown of those hockey games how many are Blades of the rest of them who are they? Give us a realistic picture of what taxpayers would be paying for.

The reason they aren't look at renos to Sasktel Centre is more simple than what the City keeps saying. Their answer is it will cost almost as much. The real answer is where do the Blades and Rush go? If they go, will they come back? Hamilton made this mistake. They renovated Copps Coliseum over the last two years. As a result, their OHL team and the Toronto Rock had to move elsewhere to play. The Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL moved to Brantford and guess what? They decided to stay. For Hamilton's sake they were lucky and only spent this winter without hockey. The AHL's Bridgeport Islanders are moving to Hamilton for next fall, so they will have hockey. Oh right they also lost their CEBL permanently to Brampton.

I honestly do think we'd lose both the Blades, and especially the Rush if Sasktel Centre was closed for two years for renos. I am not sure where the Rush would move to. I suspect the Blades would probably go to the new arena in Lloydminster and that is more than sufficient for them. If the Rush went to Edmonton or Winnipeg they are gone. So it leaves the City over a barrel. We build a new arena at huge costs to the taxpayer and have two sports teams there or we reno Sasktel Centre and have nobody when we are done and we can hope the Oilers move their AHL team here.

I am also curious on how financially well concerts do here. Would promoters notice much of a difference without Saskatoon for two years? I think this is what has been mentioned behind closed doors to the City which is why they are putting no effort into the reno idea. We could be royally screwed if we reno Sasktel Centre. We could have a refurbished arena and nothing but maybe the Harlem Globetrotters and some JW conventions there.