Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[GreatTallNorth2]

It's crazy to think what Saskatoon is spending downtown on an arena and convention centre. That is some serious cash. Seems Saskatoon and Regina are much more ambitious than a lot of the Ontario cities that have greater populations. Maybe it is a combination of Ontario being so "Toronto-centric" and the smaller cities thinking they have to be less ambitious "because we are not Toronto". I compare London as the Grand Rapids type city. Grand Rapids is 2.5 hours from Detroit and London is similar distance to Toronto. Yet Grand Rapids is far more ambitious with building attractions, sports facilities, etc.

[EpicPonyTime]

Me thinks the reason they are deferring the decision is because they don’t want to spend that kind of money. That’s a MAJOR price increase over the $500 million that has been thrown around for the new arena. I don’t think there’s an appetite from voters to spend a billion on this.

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

It's crazy to think what Saskatoon is spending downtown on an arena and convention centre. That is some serious cash. Seems Saskatoon and Regina are much more ambitious than a lot of the Ontario cities that have greater populations. Maybe it is a combination of Ontario being so "Toronto-centric" and the smaller cities thinking they have to be less ambitious "because we are not Toronto". I compare London as the Grand Rapids type city. Grand Rapids is 2.5 hours from Detroit and London is similar distance to Toronto. Yet Grand Rapids is far more ambitious with building attractions, sports facilities, etc.

Part of it is that Saskatoon and Regina are the two primate cities in SK and each serve massive rural hinterlands as the urban service centres.

So an arena project in Saskatoon is about building an amenity not just for Saskatoon, but basically all of Saskatchewan. That's still only 1.3M people, but given our isolation Saskatoon is the only place that's going to have this sort of thing for a vast expanse of area. This isolation and being the only show around is why the city punches above its weight on certain things relative to its size, like its dining scene or having an incomprehensibly world-class art gallery.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Echoes

Part of it is that Saskatoon and Regina are the two primate cities in SK and each serve massive rural hinterlands as the urban service centres.

This stands out a lot when comparing to Ontario where a large-ish city might only be the largest in a small area. Provinces direct a lot of spending in Canada, and Saskatchewan will tend to pick Regina or Saskatoon for amenities, while London is far down the list in Ontario, and most major regional amenities (ROM, AGO, sports venues, etc. etc.) go to Toronto.

It is part of why comparing populations of cities (or suburbs) in isolation only gets you so far and it's silly when you see people commenting that Brampton or Surrey are some of the top cities in Canada we should see on tourist guides, or a "Tier 3" Chinese city happens to be defined as including 4 million people in some sort of statistical area so it's more important than Brussels or Frankfurt.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

It's crazy to think what Saskatoon is spending downtown on an arena and convention centre. That is some serious cash. Seems Saskatoon and Regina are much more ambitious than a lot of the Ontario cities that have greater populations. Maybe it is a combination of Ontario being so "Toronto-centric" and the smaller cities thinking they have to be less ambitious "because we are not Toronto". I compare London as the Grand Rapids type city. Grand Rapids is 2.5 hours from Detroit and London is similar distance to Toronto. Yet Grand Rapids is far more ambitious with building attractions, sports facilities, etc.

I wouldn't call it ambitious. I would call it crazy. Both cities have good bones but, there's alot they could do for less monetary incentives to be more attractive than going the sports and convention center route. One is so overvalued right now and the other is overbuilt.

Que the stadium whores...

[someone123]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I wouldn't call it ambitious. I would call it crazy. Both cities have good bones but, there's alot they could do for less monetary incentives to be more attractive than going the sports and convention center route. One is so overvalued right now and the other is overbuilt.

There has to be some discussion of financing and it depends on contributions from levels of government or tenants.

I don't know all the details for the Saskatoon project but the $1B seems to be for the mixed-use development, not $1B for a sports building. Also worth noting that you increasingly see "sticker prices" which include long-term operating expenses (for say a 30 year period). Nothing wrong with that but it needs to be thought of differently and isn't comparable to capital spending numbers alone.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I wouldn't call it ambitious. I would call it crazy. Both cities have good bones but, there's alot they could do for less monetary incentives to be more attractive than going the sports and convention center route. One is so overvalued right now and the other is overbuilt.

Que the stadium whores...

I think it's completely bonkers considering they already built an NHL capacity arena for their WHL team.

While I do think Saskatchewan could actually support an NHL if they called them the Saskatchewan Roughriders, I don't think the NHL will ever embrace the idea.