NEW STADIUM, BUSY YEAR
Evraz Place looks ahead
They built it. People came.
Now what could possibly be next for Evraz Place?
Last year was a monumental one in the history of the city’s exhibition ground with the opening of the 150,000-square-foot International Trade Centre and, of course, the 33,000-seat Mosaic Stadium.
Now that the Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL), which operates Evraz Place, has been through Year 1 of those facilities, the next step is improving the experience for patrons, said board chair Sandra Masters.
“Once you get that handled, how do you create an even better experience which is the whole site and even into downtown?” she said. “It’s the collaboration, whether it is the economic development authority or the airport authority, our tenants on site. There’s just nothing but opportunity. We want to review the data for what worked and what didn’t, and there’s adjustments to be made.”
The stadium, certainly, had its share of complaints after opening with a test football game in October 2016 and then through other events in the spring. Bathroom lines didn’t flow smoothly, there weren’t enough water fountains, public transportation issues cropped up, and moving through the concourse was next to impossible early on, particularly during an opening concert featuring Bryan Adams on May 27.
But things seemed better by the time Guns N’ Roses played on Aug. 27. And, other than a snow cornice forming off the roof during a Saskatchewan Roughriders game on Nov. 4, things ran fairly smoothly by season’s end.
But now is the time to look at the next batch of ideas. The Brandt Centre still needs upgrades. Parking is a problem still (ask anyone who has tried to leave an evening event lately). Plus there’s the fact that once a game or show is over at Evraz Place, there’s not much left to do on the grounds.
With Masters in the board chair seat and Tim Reid starting as president and CEO on March 5, the hope is for new plans to develop.
“It’s the reset where everybody gets fresh, gets excited,” said Masters, a credit manager for Richardson Pioneer in her day job. “All the ideas that people have held back because this has been a massive undertaking ... there has been a holding back, it seems. We get some experience and now it’s the outpouring of, ‘We should do this. And we should do this.’
“Parking issues could be helped by something like a second access point with Lewvan Drive. There are many forms that upgrades to the Brandt Centre could take. And down the road, new or changed buildings could be on site.
“It’s going to look largely the same, but it shouldn’t look exactly the same,” said Masters. “The Brandt Centre needs some love and attention. There has to be some analysis of what that looks like.”
One thing the board would like to see look similar is the schedule of events for Mosaic Stadium this year. In its opening year, the stadium hosted two major concerts and a professional soccer match, in addition to the regular slate of Riders games.
So far this year, the Eagles are booked to play as a kickoff to the Memorial Cup on May 17. More shows are, hopefully, still to come.
“We’ve made a concerted effort to invest in winners,” said Masters. “What that means is we pass on some of them. You can go out and buy them but we chose not to do that simply because it didn’t make sense to do that in our first year.
“When you get really good at operations, then you make way better decisions and the risk-reward narrows down.”
Evraz Place ran a $500,000 operating deficit in 2016, and there has been speculation that some of those big events in 2017 lost money for the organization.
The financial statement for last year has yet to come out, but Masters said there were “no huge disappointments in 2017” and “most lines of business were money-makers” leaving REAL on solid financial footing as it looks to expand further.
For now, the plan is to take advantage of the variety of spaces on the grounds for sports, conferences and entertainment.
“That ability to host those different sizes (is key),” said Masters. “Every year, would we like to see two or three (big shows)? Absolutely. And again, it comes down to timing, routing, calendars, those sorts of thing ... because the Riders take absolute precedence.”