Saskatoon Construction III

[Arts]

Originally Posted by King Ralph

Good thing you won't have to see it from Airdrie

I've always liked this building, specifically for the balconies. I thought it added a bit of an international vintage esthetic, hope they don't replace it with something boring like glass or plain white aluminum.

[Crisis]

^^^^Yeah, I’ve been in Saskatoon since the 1980s and that building doesn’t strike me as offensive. In fact, I had to look up exactly where it is because it didn’t jump out at me - just another nondescript older apartment building.

Sure, it’s an older design & build, but if it’s maintained, there’s nothing wrong with it. It could use some lipstick to freshen it up a bit but I’ve seen far worse. Looks like every unit gets a pretty generously sized balcony, which is nice for the summer months.

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by The Bess

your right roryn1 didn't realize this before lol

https://www.saskatoon.ca/sites/defau..._optimized.pdf

Downtown’s ward should definitely be apart of a portion of City Park and Riversdale. No idea why they made it the way they did :/

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by Crisis

^^^^Yeah, I’ve been in Saskatoon since the 1980s and that building doesn’t strike me as offensive. In fact, I had to look up exactly where it is because it didn’t jump out at me - just another nondescript older apartment building.

Sure, it’s an older design & build, but if it’s maintained, there’s nothing wrong with it. It could use some lipstick to freshen it up a bit but I’ve seen far worse. Looks like every unit gets a pretty generously sized balcony, which is nice for the summer months.

They initially tried to improve the look of them by painting them black last summer, but it seems like after they looked at the change from white to black that they stopped and made this larger change. Lipstick on a pig didn’t suffice - kudos Boardwalk. I sure hope Carlton tower is next and also this summer!

[The S'toon Goon]

https://northerntribune.ca/canadian-...atoon-stadium/

The new prairieland stadium is still alive. Some renders in the article. Says it's a 28 million project with prairieland commiting 2 and the potential CPL team owners committing 2.

[cutchemist42]

I'd rather pay for a downtown arena over this. Fans of the league say teams in this league suffer when not really downtown and I think the location is lame.

Personally writing my councillor to not support this project.

I still think the tax exemption status there is BS too.

[Saskabusher]

Originally Posted by cutchemist42

I'd rather pay for a downtown arena over this. Fans of the league say teams in this league suffer when not really downtown and I think the location is lame.

Personally writing my councillor to not support this project.

I still think the tax exemption status there is BS too.

if your councillor is in saskatoon, they'll have a good laugh. you think they care? It seems you're new to toon-town? anything with a parking lot on a highway is better than downtown and has been for years. why pay the taxes when land is so cheap and the city pays for their own services extensions right to your door? it's crazy to go downtown. the city likes it that way. not sure why as taxes always increase on the homeowners, but I guess the city can say its expanding....

[roryn1]

River Landing is currently too short of a walk.. this would definitely help that though if they are going to provide more infrastructure next to the river. People could even be hoteling downtown and walk there (or back if drinking!). I sure hope it happens in tandem with the arena.

When I lived in Winnipeg their downtown baseball games were a lot of fun. This would be similar to that effect I assume. Definitely easily commutable from downtown hotels/condos. I think this is fine long term vision for our river - continual activities down the entire riverbank. We’re wayyyy too limited on riverside walking at the current moment.

[roryn1]

We should definitely hope for a walking bridge around there too.

[Saskabusher]

i'm okay with prairie land idea for the soccer stadium, really. they already killed horse racing so it's dead land. congrats!

downtown north i hope can still be a dense community, with the arena at that dead parking acne spot right in the heart of downtown, at 22nd E, 1st Ave S, 23 st E, and Pacific Ave. If its anywhere else, they missed the whole point of all their fn expensive surveys with american professionals and anyone else they could throw money at. my 2 cents

[EpicPonyTime]

Any word on whether Prairieland is going to be giving up its tax exemption to get this built?

[roryn1]

I thought this was going by the river but it is not… they’re making some lame fake lake lol. I hope this project gets cancelled

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by roryn1

I thought this was going by the river but it is not… they’re making some lame fake lake lol. I hope this project gets cancelled

The walk from downtown would be close to 4 km and take 45 minutes. Very few people would make that trek. The gold standard for walkability is 15 minutes, or about 1 mile. Since Prairieland park is surrounded by the river and a highway on two sides, and the track is behind a moat of parking lots on the other two sides, the nearest houses are already half a mile away. To walk to the stadium you would need to live southwest of Queen Elizabeth School. I would guess that captures maybe a few thousand people in the 15-minute walking radius, and not all of them will be soccer fans.

Saskabusher is right, the proximity to the highway and wealth of parking is much more important. Saskatoon couldn't care less about being like Vancouver, where Nat Bailey is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood, or Edmonton, where Rodgers Place is in the middle of downtown. No, Saskatoon would rather be like Calgary, where the Saddledome is on the periphery of downtown, surrounded by parking, and conveniently located off Macleod Trail. At least Calgary has Cowboys Casino for Flames fans to visit after a game. Unless the entire soccer stadium can pack into Sports On Tap after a game, all of them will have to drive drunk to some other bar to provide any spill-over benefits to Saskatoon's businesses.

[cutchemist42]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

The walk from downtown would be close to 4 km and take 45 minutes. Very few people would make that trek. The gold standard for walkability is 15 minutes, or about 1 mile. Since Prairieland park is surrounded by the river and a highway on two sides, and the track is behind a moat of parking lots on the other two sides, the nearest houses are already half a mile away. To walk to the stadium you would need to live southwest of Queen Elizabeth School. I would guess that captures maybe a few thousand people in the 15-minute walking radius, and not all of them will be soccer fans.

Saskabusher is right, the proximity to the highway and wealth of parking is much more important. Saskatoon couldn't care less about being like Vancouver, where Nat Bailey is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood, or Edmonton, where Rodgers Place is in the middle of downtown. No, Saskatoon would rather be like Calgary, where the Saddledome is on the periphery of downtown, surrounded by parking, and conveniently located off Macleod Trail. At least Calgary has Cowboys Casino for Flames fans to visit after a game. Unless the entire soccer stadium can pack into Sports On Tap after a game, all of them will have to drive drunk to some other bar to provide any spill-over benefits to Saskatoon's businesses.

In our city, the driving-drunk part will be really true.

This would be a lame arrive-and-drive that other cities have realized is a mistake but it fits with our cities lame tendencies.

[Crisis]

C'mon now, you really think there was ever any consideration of putting this downtown? There's enough difficulty finding an appropriate spot downtown for an arena that could be used 100 per year. No hope for a outdoor stadium that would host a handful of events a year an require a much larger footprint.

How much larger? Take a look at this snip of Regina showing both Mosaic Stadium and Brandt Centre indoor arena. Admittedly, Saskatoon's new arena will be larger than Brandt and the soccer stadium much smaller than Mosaic, but the area required for outdoor vs indoor isn't comparable. I don't see why the soccer franchise wouldn't try to get space at either SMF Field or Griffiths, both of which could accommodate soccer with relatively minor modifications.

[Roquentin]

How many people really believe that this would come in at $28M? Also, the $2M (each) contributions of the owners and Prairieland Park are pitiful. I'm not a fan of this one --- I don't think the city would benefit enough from this subsidy.

My guess is that there's very little money to be made in the Canadian soccer world, and that the owners need a free stadium to make the dollars and cents work. I don't blame the ownership group or Prairieland Park for making this attempt to prop themselves up, but my vote would be Griffiths or bust.

[roryn1]

Yea that’s a lot of money for some basic stands... someone’s gotta pay for their “World Trade Center” branding gaha

I wonder if the BRT/Rail align to this? If not and is expected to be mostly funded by the city then the city may as well build it.. which better not happen

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by Crisis

C'mon now, you really think there was ever any consideration of putting this downtown?

It doesn't necessarily have to go downtown. There is plenty of land in the city where a stadium could fit, and where people could walk or bike to the games.

I think this stadium would be great around the university somewhere. The Huskies football and soccer teams already don't want to share the field, so put a purpose-built soccer stadium there.

North Downtown is an obvious option as well, but why couldn't you build this in one of Saskatoon's new neighbourhoods like Evergreen or Brighton or Blairmore? Those neighbourhoods also have great highway access, and eventually the stadium could be surrounded by homes. And building a stadium district in one of those neighbourhoods with breweries and pubs would make them a lot more interesting.

[FarmerHaight]

Also, Mosaic stadium is a bad comparison mainly because Mosaic has a very large footprint. Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Spain packs 30% more people (44k vs. 33k) into a smaller perimeter (.72km vs. .94km).

Since this stadium only needs to hold between 5k and 8k fans, you could fit this onto the south end of Kinsman Park (without removing any rides), behind the armory and next to Harry Bailey in downtown north, or onto the Winners/Staples/London Drugs lot on 8th street. There are likely some underutilized parks in the city where a stadium used for professional and youth soccer could fit.

[The S'toon Goon]

Originally Posted by Saskabusher

i'm okay with prairie land idea for the soccer stadium, really. they already killed horse racing so it's dead land. congrats!

downtown north i hope can still be a dense community, with the arena at that dead parking acne spot right in the heart of downtown, at 22nd E, 1st Ave S, 23 st E, and Pacific Ave. If its anywhere else, they missed the whole point of all their fn expensive surveys with american professionals and anyone else they could throw money at. my 2 cents

With the city seemingly partnering with the YMCA on a new holmwood recreation facility I wonder if they can find ground on moving out of the downtown location as well. I think the location would work and aside from the YMCA I think the land is mostly the city's? Could be easier than negotiating with the mall.

The mall could capitalize on this venture too as another hotel or condos and parkade could be developed on the site between 22nd and 23rd.

Don't get me wrong though. I'd happily have the arena go in either spot. Toys R Us as well. Just keep it away from potential north downtown development!