[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I really think maintaining Sasktel Centre (and maybe renaming it the Gordie Howe Arena) while also investing in a more reasonably sized downtown arena is a better plan.

Like, Saskatoon isn't going to grow into an NHL market by the time this new, downtown arena reaches its expiry date either, so it just seems excessive to spend a huge amount more on a 16,000+ seat hockey rink, when they could build something really nice with around 10,000 seats for a lot less, without demolishing Sasktel Centre.

Personally, I think an NHL team could actually work in Saskatoon (if they called them the Saskatchewan Roughriders) because Sask is that crazy for the Riders and Sask probably is the most hockey crazy province in all of Canada... but the NHL doesn't think that way.

Regina's stadium for the Riders being largely funded by taxpayers was incredibly divisive and many people were against the idea from the get go, even some very big Rider fans. Maybe I'm overestimating how much less it is to build a 10,000 or so arena is compared to an NHL scale 16,000+ arena, but I'm sure it would be quite a lot less.

Still think it's outrageous that Regina built the nicest football stadium in the country and couldn't even get a single World Cup match out of it. Yes, I've heard all the "not enough hotels" argument, but I counter that with there's more than enough Rider Fans across the province to fill up their stadium for a few football matches in the world's biggest sporting event.

Canadians was let down by Toronto and Vancouver getting all the matches, but I get that's mostly due to FIFA and their excessive requirements for host cities.

A World Cup game in Regina; seriously? The city is too small; as is the stadium; plus no suitable hotel and not enough hotel rooms. Winnipeg doesn't even have a suitable hotel for visiting NHL teams.