An open house of the SaskTel Centre was given Monday in the hopes of showing residents why a new arena would be a welcome upgrade in Saskatoon.
Briana Mackow, the premium experience manager for the SaskTel Centre gave a tour of the building, highlighting many of the issues seen in the building, noting it was built back in 1988.
She said the original capacity for the building was 7,800 people, but was expanded to fit 15,100.
“We’re at a critical point right now where we’re seeing the potential of losing opportunities if we don’t consider this infrastructure in an urgent sense,” said Steph Clovechok, CEO for Discover Saskatoon on Wednesday.
She said they are making some compromises that are affecting both the visitor experience as well as the performers’.
“Right now the SaskTel Centre team really has to work around a lot of old, outdated operational systems within their building.”
Mackow noted they’d like to have more accessible seating, as well as a larger concourse area and entrance space to allow people to line up within the building.
She said if they were looking at a new facility, they’d want about three times as many points for food service in the building as well.
Mackow talked about the section of the building where there are only women’s washrooms, noting if a man is sitting near that section they need to walk almost to the other side of the building to access a washroom.
“We don’t have the capacity to change the bathrooms at this point, we have as many stalls as we could possibly have in the building,” Mackow said.
She said they wouldn’t want to lose any stalls at this point, but they also just don’t have the space to create new washrooms.
The tour went over the luxury suites in the building, with Mackow saying there was a need for more.
She said the suites were added in after the building was established, pointing out issues like a pillar being in the centre of one of the suites, and there not being a private level for the suites.
She said the SaskTel Centre makes a large portion of their money from premium spaces, noting money from concert tickets goes to promoters and artists with a small facility fee going towards the arena.
“Without the suites’ products we would not have been profitable last year.”
Mackow also highlighted several different features found in other arenas not found in Saskatoon.
She talked about the only elevator in the building, noting it was only a passenger elevator that couldn’t be used for freight, saying they’d want a dozen elevators in a new facility.
“You can imagine it’s a very busy elevator.”
The tour also worked its way into the concession areas, with Mackow comparing the cooking concession to the same one you’d would see in a small town rink.
“Not a lot of room to move back here.”
She also talked about how the roof is too low at the SaskTel Centre.
“Since tours have been getting more and more complex, they’re bring in bigger screens, they’re bringing in more lighting, they’re bringing in pyro, they’re bringing in all sorts of different types of things.”
She said the SaskTel Centre has about 52 feet to work with, while more modern arenas are closer to 80 feet.
Mackow said many tours have to come in an extra day to get shows up in time because of the restrictions of the rigging.
She said the HVAC system is an original from 1988, noting it can get pretty hot in the building if it’s a sold-out show.
The City of Saskatoon said the first round of public engagement around the Downtown Event and Entertainment District wrapped up in May, with initial designs for the event centre to be presented this month.
Public feedback on the initial designs will be sought during summer and fall, with a review of the draft designs to follow.
It was noted in a city council meeting back in May that feedback on those designs will be presented in the Decision Report, and a recommendation will be put forth in November that could be accepted, another option selected, additional information requested, or a decision to not proceed at that time, with further reports and engagement planned for 2024.
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