A divided city council had approved — in a six to five vote — building the arena on the northern Agriplace site, on land owned by the Saskatchewan Economic Development Corporation SEDCO , a provincial Crown. On council, mayor Cliff Wright and mayor-in-waiting Henry Dayday — then an alderman and chair of the arena committee — supported the northern location, as did longtime alderman Owen Mann. Waygood also served on the arena committee. The A. Cole site was rejected resoundingly, by nearly a two-to-one margin, but the debate did not end there.
The day after the first referendum, The StarPhoenix reported that a petition was already circulating in opposition to building a new arena that was expected to boast 16, seats. Louis Blues with the intent of moving the team to Saskatoon. Saskatoon Arena held fewer than 5, people, and many thought — whether wildly delusional or not — that any replacement would need to be large enough to one day accommodate an NHL team.
Despite the unambiguous rejection of the A. Cole site, the city felt compelled to settle the divisive issue for good. A second stand-alone referendum was scheduled for April The second referendum drew more voters — 57, — than the election, which drew 55,, a record at the time.
By the time of the second referendum, it had become clear that a new arena would be built at the Agriplace site or not at all. People have had quite enough of the whole process. Part of the motivation for the northern site was the possibility of expansion. The lobby group behind the Agriplace plan was called Room to Grow. The facility never reached the planned 16, seats. Looking back today, Dayday, who served four terms as mayor from to , acknowledges the dream many had for the northern site did not come true.
I think it fulfilled its mandate as best it could. Another argument in favour of the northern location suggested the exhibition grounds could one day be located adjacent to the arena.
That never happened, either. The entire debate may have boiled down to economics, however, and whose figures people chose to believe.
The Downtown Option Association — which bore the unfortunate and prophetic acronym DOA — spent thousands of dollars trying to sell Saskatoon voters on a concept that is now more widely accepted: arenas belong downtown.
The two sides differed on the cost of remediating the contaminated A. Cole site, which was also slammed by the Room to Grow folks as too cramped with not enough nearby parking. We reserve the right to close comments at any time. Join the conversation Create account. Already have an account? CBC takes a look back at the last arena that called downtown home. SaskPlace was constructed as a replacement for the Saskatoon Arena , a concrete building constructed in Saskatoon's downtown core in the s, and which was in use until , hosting its final hockey game only a week before SaskPlace opened.
Nicknamed "The Barn", the facility had outlived its usefulness some 20 years earlier and had become infamous for leaky roofs and substandard amenities, yet Saskatonians were hesitant to lose the landmark and a number of years passed between the s proposal to replace the structure and the eventual demolition of the Arena and the opening of SaskPlace. In , Bill Hunter , a local sports promoter, attempted to purchase the St. Part of his plan included building an 18,seat arena. Two locations were suggested: the site of a decommissioned power plant downtown, just west of the then-present Saskatoon Arena, and another site east of the city's airport.
Situated in a remote industrial park at the north end of the city, accessible only via highways, SaskPlace was accused of being too inconvenient for seniors and people of limited transportation to access, as opposed to the original downtown arena site which was close to most bus routes.
The city's original plan was to relocate Saskatoon's exhibition grounds alongside SaskPlace as well, but this proposal was defeated in a civic plebiscite following public protest over access and safety concerns.
Plans to build interchanges on the two major access routes into the facility were announced soon after the arena opened, but as of construction has yet to occur. However, in the past twenty years, the city has grown to the north, so that while at the time of its construction there wasn't anything around the arena, it is now surrounded by other buildings. This was considered ironic by many Saskatonians, given Hunter lobbied for the facility to be built in another location.
The city then transferred the 'Saunders' name to a new street in the River Landing redevelopment area—running through the former site of the Saskatoon Arena. There were 2, seats added to the upper deck at the west end of the arena increasing the capacity of the arena at more than 15, The expansion also includes extra washrooms and concessions. The logic behind the move, which parallels the Bills Toronto Series in the NFL , was that although Saskatoon was likely too small to support an NHL team of its own, it would easily be able to sell out the Credit Union Centre for one game each month.
In , the Winnipeg Jets were scheduled to play an exhibition game, but this was cancelled due to the NHL lockout.
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