West grandstand demolished at old Mosaic Stadium

It’s the end of an era for one of Saskatchewan’s most well-loved buildings. Friday, just after 2 p.m., the west grandstand at the old Mosaic Stadium came lurching down. Now, it sits toppled over, a mangled mass of metal, rubble and memories.

The stadium was host to many memories for fans young and old.

“It’s kind of sad seeing it come down, but that was awesome, that was epic,” said young Riders fan Mason Johnston.

“You felt your heart sink a little bit because it’s coming down towards you, and you want to step back, even though it’s a hundred and something feet away,” Wayne Warner, who came to watch the demolition, said.

“And then the rumble on the ground… We were standing on the back of my truck, and it’s got suspension, and you can still feel it.”

According to officials, everything went according to plan except a delay of over one hour.

“It was a little tougher to get it torched the last bunch of columns, and then we had a bit of a technical holdup on placing of the cable on one of the columns,” Ian Bartels, Budget Demolition’s president, said.

The structure was pulled down by two 45 tonne excavators.

“Previous couple weeks we’ve been pre-cutting the structure, there’s strategic cuts in the front columns, and with a beam tying them all together,” Bartels said.

For all the technical talk, there are thousands of memories held in the minds of Saskatchewanians. June Botkin was one of the hundreds of people who gathered to watch.

“It’s important to see the end of an era,” she said.

“It’s a very important moment in city history.”

-With files from Jules Knox