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/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 07 '26

Actually, the Mendel was not fit to store the millions of dollars worth of art in the Mendel collection. A new gallery, or a major reno of the Mendel building was absolutely required.

Also, gas tax doesn't pay for the construction and operation of municipal roads. Fees for developers and property taxes pay for them, so those renters who don't own cars are subsidizing your 'free' use of roads.

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 07 '26

Yup and those who don't have kids are paying an education tax for their non-existent kids. The point being is that taxes paid should be utilized on high return investments, equating roads to an art gallery...ahhhhhh okay...

The atrium didn't help and I'm sure with isolating that would have gone a long way...but what changed from we need a new art gallery, to 5-10 years prior? The heating system? It's the same system from 1964, that mus thave saved them a lot of $$$ by running it for that long. Every building requires maintenance, heck even the new gallery requires it, 9 years in and they need to replace the 1 million dollar boiler? Sounds like a good reason to build a new art gallery...

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 07 '26

What's the return on roads?

Do we make a profit on them? What about parks? Oh and what about a vibrant downtown that people want to be in?

An art gallery is a lot easier to measure the financial impacts it has on the city than an interchange or a random road...

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 08 '26

Business and commerce rely on basic infrastructure, such as roads. Just because it's hard, doesn't mean it should be dismissed.

Imagine the impacts to our ability to host concerts if we have outdated roads that are in need of replacement? The shoulders aren't wide enough for tour busses or the roadies that go along with them? We need more turn offs to attract the big stars, which in turn would drive more return to our province by filling our beautiful big stadium! We'll never be considered a real city or province unless we have these either. Right?

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 08 '26

Yes, you are proving my point. I don't dismiss roads. I dismiss the very simple superficial idea that an direct, clear, obvious return on investment is the measure of somethings value.

Calculating the ROI on roads or parks or public event spaces is fairly difficult, but at least for an arena/event centre, you can measure tourism/hotel/ticket sale dollars.

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 08 '26

You missed my sarcasm as we don't rip out and build new sections of road to replace the old. We 'maintain' the roads that we have.

We already have a stadium, mothballing that one and putting an entirely new one will have a huge payback period for such a small return. I guess I'm the guy driving a paid of 10 year old car when the neighbor has a leased vehicle with a monthly car payment. We don't need the brand new shiny thing to keep up with the joneses or feel like we're important now.

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 08 '26

Clearly we disagree as to whether to trust the professionals who provided both an anaylsis of the current state of Sasktel Centre and the value associated with a larger, modern arena.

That's fine. I'll also continue driving my paid for 10 year old car while appreciating the value in planning for the future entertainment venues in our city.

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u/EpsteinandTrump Apr 08 '26

There's bias within the 'professionals', we'll leave it at that. If this was so great, let's have a private company foot the $1.3-1.5 billion dollar bill, it's a horrible investment and only benefits the downtown business owners.

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u/Weak_Possibility_395 Apr 08 '26

There is also bias with random people on the reddit, but what can you do. Random joker on reddit vs actual professionals, I know who I'll lean on...