Saskatoon Arena Preliminary Spec Revealed

[hockeyguy0022]

Saskatoon preliminary specs just dropped as well...

Phase 1
15,900 (bigger then Sasktel centre currently, and MTS/WPG)
Lower bowl - 9,084 (seats/suites)
mid 1,116 (suites/box)
upper = 5,700

Expandable to 18K with 2100 upper bowl seating expansion

Premium seating

Lower bowl
4 bunker suites
6 luxury suites
24 theatre box

Mid bowl
40 luxury suites
64 loge boxes
200 club seats

Same design/project crew as Edmonton, and the numbers are very similar overall in terms of section/bowl size. I assume the top levels would be standing/or something similar before the addition of 2100 to get to 18K

Click to read more...

 

[Jedub]

Saskatoon preliminary specs just dropped as well...

Phase 1
15,900 (bigger then Sasktel centre currently, and MTS/WPG)
Lower bowl - 9,084 (seats/suites)
mid 1,116 (suites/box)
upper = 5,700

Expandable to 18K with 2100 upper bowl seating expansion

Premium seating

Lower bowl
4 bunker suites
6 luxury suites
24 theatre box

Mid bowl
40 luxury suites
64 loge boxes
200 club seats

Same design/project crew as Edmonton, and the numbers are very similar overall in terms of section/bowl size. I assume the top levels would be standing/or something similar before the addition of 2100 to get to 18K

Saskatchewan River Pirates incoming

 

[hockeyguy0022]

Saskatchewan River Pirates incoming

Everyone complains about "no rink" etc... well.....it's basically going to be the same as edmonton minus some of the fancy finishings to start (more or less).

 

[Jedub]

Everyone complains about "no rink" etc... well.....it's basically going to be the same as edmonton minus some of the fancy finishings to start (more or less).

Now all that's left is to add a million residents!
Edit - Ok, maybe 600K will do.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Now all that's left is to add a million residents!
Edit - Ok, maybe 600K will do.

A million more people would be good, but a bigger one would be adding one person... with a billion dollar check on hand.

Let me know if/when anyone connected to Saskatoon has that kind of money burning in their pocket.

 

[Jedub]

A million more people would be good, but a bigger one would be adding one person... with a billion dollar check on hand.

Let me know if/when anyone connected to Saskatoon has that kind of money burning in their pocket.

Would that be enough to add a NHL team to a city of 300k people? Maybe if the guy owned the whole town in addition to the team, but how could they possibly sell out the arena?

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Would that be enough to add a NHL team to a city of 300k people? Maybe if the guy owned the whole town in addition to the team, but how could they possibly sell out the arena?

I doubt it, but it'd open the door to a conversation and I'd venture a bet that more than a few owners would be open to a team anywhere if that meant that they got $31,250,000 for it, or however they divy it up if it wouldn't be a 32-way split.

But still probably not.

 

[Skidooboy]

Would that be enough to add a NHL team to a city of 300k people? Maybe if the guy owned the whole town in addition to the team, but how could they possibly sell out the arena?

no. Winnipeg has trouble and it's almost 900K mil if you count Winnipeg selkirk etc.

 

[Jedub]

I doubt it, but it'd open the door to a conversation and I'd venture a bet that more than a few owners would be open to a team anywhere if that meant that they got $31,250,000 for it, or however they divy it up if it wouldn't be a 32-way split.

But still probably not.

No way in hell would this work, barring financial shenanigans of Russian-scale proportions.

 

[Yukon Joe]

A million more people would be good, but a bigger one would be adding one person... with a billion dollar check on hand.

Let me know if/when anyone connected to Saskatoon has that kind of money burning in their pocket.

There is money in the province of Saskatchewan, but no I haven't heard anyone coming forward connected tl the NHL being in Saskatoon.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

There is money in the province of Saskatchewan, but no I haven't heard anyone coming forward connected tl the NHL being in Saskatoon.

Oh yeah, I have no doubt that there are a load of rich folks in Saskatchewan. Heck, I live in a farming area of Illinois and have in-laws that worked in seed supply and for Caterpillar, so I'm well aware of how huge Nutrien is in Saskatoon.

But, Warren Buffett lives in Omaha, and yet there are no major pro teams there because he's obviously not interested.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

It's clear markets around N.A. are gearing up for a round of NHL expansion in the near future.

Which might actually be good news for the Coyotes.

As an aside (this is the mega-thread after all, if I couldn't add in random asides, I wouldn't be here), I think Saskatoon would be an interesting candidate if they found an owner with that proposed building, but the problem comes with corporate support.

And it's clear that's the building is being built for NHL dreams IMO. You don't put up a 15,000+ arena for WHL and to host one (or two at the most) world juniors, which probably could have come with a 10,000 seater anyways.

Remember those final seats are by far the most expensive to build.

 

[JimAnchower]

Remember those final seats are by far the most expensive to build.

And you get by far the least amount of revenue for those seats.

 

[Jedub]

It's clear markets around N.A. are gearing up for a round of NHL expansion in the near future.

Which might actually be good news for the Coyotes.

As an aside (this is the mega-thread after all, if I couldn't add in random asides, I wouldn't be here), I think Saskatoon would be an interesting candidate if they found an owner with that proposed building, but the problem comes with corporate support.

And it's clear that's the building is being built for NHL dreams IMO. You don't put up a 15,000+ arena for WHL and to host one (or two at the most) world juniors, which probably could have come with a 10,000 seater anyways.

Remember those final seats are by far the most expensive to build.

Seems like a fantasy to me. I'm all for it, but Saskatoon can't support an NHL team unless the ticket prices are very low, or unless sellouts just don't matter.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

Seems like a fantasy to me. I'm all for it, but Saskatoon can't support an NHL team unless the ticket prices are very low, or unless sellouts just don't matter.

Oh, I don't think it will work at all in Saskatoon - I just think it would be interesting to see what would happen from an outside perspective though, and would love a Jets/Sask rivalry in the NHL.

I could rant about the problems in Winnipeg is having right now all day, but fundamentally it all comes back to a key lack of corporate dollars, and an inability to properly make up for that in other ways - which would be much worse in Sask.

But I'm not the one building a 15,000+ seat arena in Saskatchewan, so clearly SOMEONE thinks it will work there.

I'm wondering if this is (much like the story in Winnipeg was), provincial/municipal governments adding on extra funding to make an NHL-worthy arena, instead of a minor-league one. The operator of the building isn't going to say no to that.

As an aside to the aside (god I love the megathread), sellouts don't really matter in today's NHL. They don't matter in any market looking to maximize ticket revenue. If I were running an organization, and you asked me to get the most out of attendance at our games, I'd aim to have 100-500 seats empty every night, and I'd rather not sell 1,000 seats than sell out.

I personally think there are more important things than maximizing ticket revenue, but then again, I don't work at a big NHL building or in trying to run any kind of business.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

A bit of a source:

Document provides clues about proposed Saskatoon arena

A proposed new arena could have an eventual seating capacity of 18,000.

saskatoon.ctvnews.ca

Almost assuredly just for the WHL Blades when it comes to hockey, though its potential existence will certainly be brought up as an option in internet discussions going forward.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

What do the Blades need 16K seating for, when building smaller would be orders of magnitude cheaper?

Someone thinks they can attract an NHL team with those specs.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

What do the Blades need 16K seating for, when building smaller would be orders of magnitude cheaper?

Someone thinks they can attract an NHL team with those specs.

They already have a huge arena, so it's not as enormous of an increase as one would otherwise think. Also would let Saskatoon host bigger events and concerts and assuredly a Memorial Cup or two.

A too big WHL arena seems more likely than an NHL team in a market that makes Winnipeg look huge by comparison, imho.

 

[Yukon Joe]

As an aside to the aside (god I love the megathread), sellouts don't really matter in today's NHL. They don't matter in any market looking to maximize ticket revenue. If I were running an organization, and you asked me to get the most out of attendance at our games, I'd aim to have 100-500 seats empty every night, and I'd rather not sell 1,000 seats than sell out.

I personally think there are more important things than maximizing ticket revenue, but then again, I don't work at a big NHL building or in trying to run any kind of business.

I suspect you're wrong - you do want sellouts very much.

The reason is you want that feeling of scarcity. If you know there's always tickets available you'll leave buying your ticket until the last minute. And then maybe it's cold that day so you wind up not going at all.

If the games always sell out - now you need to get your ticket well in advance. So now you're guaranteed to go.


[meant to be two separate posts]


Saskatoon Blades are huge in that city.

They're not going to sell 15k tickets on a regular basis, but for special events or playoffs no problem.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

I suspect you're wrong - you do want sellouts very much.

The reason is you want that feeling of scarcity. If you know there's always tickets available you'll leave buying your ticket until the last minute. And then maybe it's cold that day so you wind up not going at all.

If the games always sell out - now you need to get your ticket well in advance. So now you're guaranteed to go.

With the rise of the online re-sale market, tickets are always available anyways.

And to be clear, I don't think that pricing model change was a net positive for teams and fans.

I actually think it was really stupid and short-sighted, but teams wanted to jack up their revenues, and saw an easy way to do it based on the math of demand and fixed supply.

[New post]

I am willing to be proven wrong/convinced the other way on the matter of "actually Saskatoon needs a 16k capacity building for junior hockey" but I'm hesitant to just believe it whole cloth.

Those extra seats are so expensive to build, and would give you so little revenue, only to be needed 5-10 times in the entire buildings lifespan?

(World juniors, memorial cup×2, big curling event x3)

For everything else, a 10,000-seater would be just fine, and probably would get a bunch of those events anyway.

 

[BMN]

(World juniors, memorial cup×2, big curling event x3)

For everything else, a 10,000-seater would be just fine, and probably would get a bunch of those events anyway.

Total devil's advocate argument here (I don't particularly think its a strong likelihood), but would attracting more concerts etc. be a motivation for the capacity?

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

Total devil's advocate argument here (I don't particularly think its a strong likelihood), but would attracting more concerts etc. be a motivation for the capacity?

Its not impossible - not sure how many tours are gonna put Saskatoon on their tours that would need it.

It could be they've heard from concert promoters they would come to Saskatoon if there was a building.

Maybe constructing those extra seats isn't as expensive as I think it is.

 

[hockeyguy0022]

They have the NLL.... Rush regularly sold out pre-covid.
Not just the blades.

 

[RR44]

I suspect you're wrong - you do want sellouts very much.

The reason is you want that feeling of scarcity. If you know there's always tickets available you'll leave buying your ticket until the last minute. And then maybe it's cold that day so you wind up not going at all.

If the games always sell out - now you need to get your ticket well in advance. So now you're guaranteed to go.


[meant to be two separate posts]


Saskatoon Blades are huge in that city.

They're not going to sell 15k tickets on a regular basis, but for special events or playoffs no problem.

You'd think the Blades are huge but their rather pitiful 4,972 average attendence in a 15,000+ building this season for the #1 team in the CHL isn't surprising. Saskatoon's avg attendence the last 5 seasons are including this season: 4972, 4506, 3390, 3605, 3911.

The only games they sold out last season in their playoff run to the semi-finals was vs Regina in the 1st round due to Bedard. Saskatoon is an event city...the citizens have no problem going to see Garth Brooks 5 nights straight w/15,000+ or IIHF World Juniors in a -30C New Year's Eve night Canada vs USA before a sellout. But try to get 6000+ to go watch the Blades on a weekday and it's "the arena is too far, it's a pain to get to" excuses come out.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Man I remember when sask place was built