[Echoes]

Saskatoon City Council is likely still a couple years away from making a go-ahead decision on the project. What they just deferred is a decision on the deal with their prospective private partner and future facility operator, Oak View Group. I think the deferral is a negotiating ploy to nudge OVG to sweeten the deal.

The funding plan for the project assumes considerable dollars from the feds and province, which are not committed yet. Signals from the province suggest they'll come to the table, but the feds will be a tough sell. Fed funding is not expected for the arena, so the angle is to get their commitment to funding portions of the convention centre and city-building/downtown revitalization infrastructure aspects of the project.