Saskatoon gets early look at potential downtown arena location

Saskatoon got a sneak peak at a potential arena landing spot today.

The proposed location is south of 19th street on the west side of Idylwyld, close to the farmer’s market.

The potential for the arena to come to Riversdale has nearby business owners, like 9 Mile’s Shawn Moen, excited for the possibilities.

“It’s a jewel of a spot for a great civic amenity and you know you see a lot of dynamic developments happening all over Saskatoon and my reaction when I saw the report today was, well why not Riversdale? It makes a lot of sense,” said Moen.

“We’d definitely hope to see good economic spin-off for sure. But [the Riversdale location] has a real opportunity when you compare it to the current location of the arena to really broaden public engagement and public recreation in a facility like that, so it checks a lot of boxes for us.”

However, Moen is looking past the personal benefits of this location to what it could mean to the city as a whole.

“I think we can bring something extremely unique to a potential entertainment district. So when you think of places like San Francisco and Vancouver that have facilities down by the water, that just brings Saskatoon to a totally different conversation,” he said.

“I hope [the decision makers] have an eye to long term vision and they have an eye to where they see Saskatoon sitting in the continental conversation for destinations. I look at Saskatoon as being such a great mid-market city in terms of destinations and I think we are in the conversation with places like Portland, Austin and San Antonio. We are really stepping up in terms of tourist destinations for people who want to have a transformative experience and this just compliments that.”

The Riversdale location is just one of multiple locations that the city is considering for the future downtown arena.