Tourism boss backs combined arena, convention centre

Saskatoon is losing bids for events because the city’s downtown convention centre and arena are located so far apart, the president and CEO of Tourism Saskatoon says.

More convention groups are seeking a combined facility or at least two facilities close to each other, Todd Brandt said in an interview Tuesday.

Brandt suggested a new downtown arena could be located on either the existing parking lot north of TCU Place or west of the convention centre, but acknowledged any such project is many years away.

SaskTel Centre, which is located in the city’s northwest, and TCU Place are planning a study to help chart their futures. One of the options it will examine is a combined downtown facility.

“Whether we like it or not, that’s what the groups are looking for,” Brandt said. “Having everything linked and joined is certainly a trend in the market.”

The city recently lost out on a Canadian Standards Association convention because the group wanted a city with a convention centre and arena facility linked or close together, Brandt said.

He cited the Junos, which Saskatoon hosted in 2007, as an event that would likely want convention space near the arena at which the awards ceremony is staged. Trade shows are another example.

Saskatoon is equipped to host 80 per cent of the large conventions staged annually in Canada, or those with 800 or fewer delegates, he said. As the city approaches 4,800 hotel rooms, however, Brandt said Saskatoon needs to start thinking bigger.

He also thinks the upcoming municipal election campaign provides a good platform for a debate on the possibility of a combined facility or a new arena downtown, he said. TCU Place was built in 1967 and SaskTel Centre opened in 1988.

“I think it would be great to know what councillors and mayoral candidates have to say about a facility like this,” Brandt said.

The absence of a possible downtown arena from the city’s growth plan represents a major omission, he added. Mayor Don Atchison agreed. “I thought it should have been part of it right from the beginning,” Atchison said.

Residents were warned more than three decades ago that the city would lose out on millions of dollars of economic activity if the arena was built outside the downtown, and he believes the city has lost out, he said

The city opted to build Saskatchewan Place in the northwest suburbs after a divisive debate and two referendums in the 1980s.

Atchison did not state a preferred downtown location or outcome for the arena debate, but said it’s important to get the information.

“What we really need to do is get the fact-finding mission going.”

The study is not expected to be completed until next summer.

Any new facility is about a decade away — give or take a few years on either side — but now is the time to start talking about it, Atchison said.

“I know one thing for sure is that if we don’t start talking about this right now, it will never happen.”