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Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime
I disagree entirely. The small city attitude is reflected in many aspects of the city, including the bridges, the fight over revamping the transit system, the arena (but muh parking), and infill (demonstrated by the recent NIMBYism found on Broadway).
The Blades have never been a major draw to Sask Place. The Rush are the first team to draw consistent sellouts to the arena.
Saskatoon is in an interesting position, because although the arena is large in context of the city, it is the main arena for the entire province. So if a major tour is going to stop in Saskatchewan, it will be there. Saskatoon has had a pretty good success rate at not only attracting big shows, but selling them out (17K to Metallica this year is a great example), so really I don't believe there is a reason to reduce the seating. If they reduced the seating I think it would put Saskatchewan's appeal as a major concert stop in jeopardy (although to be fair, the age of the arena is doing that as well).
It works for one of the main tenants, and for a majority of concerts, so why should it be reduced for a tenant that has never been a huge draw in the city?
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You can reduce the number of seats in an arena and still have similar capacities for most concerts. Concert tours like Metallica which have a 360 degree concept are in the minority. Most concert tours use a 180 degree concept for which seats beside the stage and behind it are tarped off. Examples of arenas that have an unbalanced seating (continuous lower bowl seating, but no upper bowl seating at one end) are Budweiser Gardens in London and the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. For most concert set-ups they have a similar capacity to the Sasktel Centre. It is also worth noting that both draw more concerts and sell more ticket than Sasktel.
https://www.pollstar.com/Chart/2018/...Venues_628.pdf
Despite their continued dominance, the Rush saw a softening in their attendance last year, especially in the playoffs. I suspect that will continue this year. As such, a slightly smaller capacity with unbalanced seating might be the best bet in Saskatoon.
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