Saskatoon CanPL

[johnyb]

FYI, received this in an email today. Probably because I voted in favour of the project.

[bugsey2k]

I tuned in to the last 30 minutes or so of the Prairieland presentation.  Things seemed to go well enough, although there were more references to Kelowna when talking future expansion.  Moved onto the next phase of review.  One city councillor put forth that budget talk for this would commence in fall 2023 as part of a two year budget cycle, while another councillor said it could be looked at sooner if priorities were juggled in the current two year cycle.

The Kelowna talk was followed by a reference to Langley being located near Victoria.  The group seems geographically challenged when referencing BC, I wouldn't put anything into their mentions of Kelowna, meaning something was happening there.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

https://globalnews.ca/news/8917909/prairieland-park-saskatoon-city-council-funding-soccer-pitch/

...Living Sky Sports & Entertainment based out of Regina also wants to bring in a professional team to occupy the space, but city councillors have some concerns.

They are asking for Prairieland Park to present more information, including a traffic impact study.

Councillors also want to know how the facility will be used to it’s full capacity, and they are asking to see plans with updated construction costs for today’s market in case the project goes over budget.

Although many councillors noted they are excited about the project and the impact it could have on the community, they are not sold yet on such a large build.

However, Prairieland said they are hoping to break ground in the spring, and have a professional team on the pitch in 2024....

[toontownman]

The usual Sandbagging article from the Star Phoenix resident soccer hating controversy loving columnist. Factual errors, ignoring lots of his questions were answered in the city hall presentation, ignoring the other important uses of this facility with growing sports and general using Soccer as a pawn in his agenda against Prairieland. Such is the role of the columnist I guess: 

https://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/tank-saskatoon-taxpayers-asked-to-take-risk-for-private-soccer-field

Five years ago, the group raising funds for a new arena for the University of Saskatchewan asked for $3 million from the City of Saskatoon.

The request proved divisive because supporters of the $41-million project had already received $1 million from city hall.

Council passed the added funding by its patented 6-5 margin because the twin-pad facility would provide much-needed relief for a severe citywide shortage of ice for minor hockey players, in addition to its primary role as the arena for U of S hockey teams.

So when Prairieland Park and Regina-based Living Sky Sports and Entertainment point to the money contributed to Merlis Belsher Place, it’s instructive to recall just how controversial that decision was, despite the community benefits.

Prairieland and Living Sky are teaming to try to bring a professional soccer franchise in the Canadian Premier League to Saskatoon. They want a new 5,500-seat stadium to accommodate the team.

Proponents appeared in front of a city council committee on Monday to tout the $28-million project, which will rely on a whopping $8 million from the city to try to convince the federal and provincial governments to kick in similar amounts.

Prairieland and Living Sky will contribute $2 million each.

Steve Chisolm, the new chair of Prairieland’s board, compared the funding request to those for Merlis Belsher Place and the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

But neither of those non-profit facilities accommodates as its main tenant a moneymaking venture like a private professional soccer team.

Both Merlis Belsher and Gordie Howe filled needs for amateur sports in Saskatoon. It’s difficult to see how a stadium for a professional soccer team satisfies the same requirement.

If there’s a soccer field shortage in Saskatoon, it’s a pretty quiet one. The city boasts two indoor soccer facilities.

Plus, while soccer enthusiasts choose to compare the Canadian Premier League to the Canadian Football League, a more apt comparison is the Canadian Elite Basketball League in which the Saskatchewan Rattlers play. Both minor professional leagues started play in 2019.

Would $8 million for the Rattlers seem like a wise investment of taxpayers’ money? And that team exists.

If you can’t name a single player or team in a league, as is no doubt the case for most of Saskatoon and this soccer league, it ranks as a highly questionable investment.

Yet the league is going to be “huge,” our wide-eyed politicians were assured on Monday.

If soccer’s really as popular as we heard on Monday, this venture should be able to attract big private donations, like Merlis Belsher Place and the Gordie Howe Sports Complex, and not need so much government money.

The question that should have been asked is whether any of the league’s existing clubs built new facilities to host their teams. The answer is no — all eight play in existing or refurbished stadiums.

Saskatoon would be the first city to invest that amount of money in this league. Prairieland wants to starts construction next year, based on $1 million a year from the city over eight years.

Interestingly, eight years ago Prairieland invested $400,000 to replace the clay track at Marquis Downs because of its faith in horse racing’s future.

Prairieland, or course, shocked the city when it announced last year it was ending horse racing and throwing the related industry into uncertainty to pursue a soccer team and facility.

So the entity that now wants a big load of taxpayers’ money — and which made the horse racing announcement by news release — has not exactly earned good faith.

Prairieland has a shocking lack of transparency for a corporation that operates on city-owned land. Frankly, the Illuminati could be governing Prairieland, for all we know about its operation. (But Illuminati could make a pretty cool team name.)

Prairieland CEO Mark Regier is to retire in December after 25 years, so there’s some uncertainty looming for this “membership based” nonprofit organization.

Any decision by council should wait until there’s more private money raised — and less public money needed — for what looks like an extremely risky venture.

He is also the content editor so sending in a retort to be published is falling on deaf ears lol

[MtlMario]

Anybody hear anything new? Nothing I see since June.

[toontownman]

https://prairielandpark.com/soccer-stadium/

Something is afoot, slowly slowly..

If anyone is interested and can make it feel free to hop into the teams call and support this. Many of the SK Supporters are in Qatar and might miss it as it will be a 4am start Qatar time! The more support absolutely the better. 

Some further tidbits I found from their website:

- stadium expected to open fall of 2024 (according to their FAQ section). Can't imagine they would start the season elsewhere but they possibly could. Screams 2025 at best to me but fingers crossed its still 2024.

- There is a public web page outlining the process for amending their permit and getting funding here. https://www.saskatoon.ca/engage/prairieland-park-concept-plan-amendment Looks like there has been a more formal approach made since the last public council meeting but also looks like there is an undetermined timeline for a decision by the council into 2023. 

Edited November 16, 2022 by toontownman

[EnigMattic1]

17 hours ago, toontownman said:

https://prairielandpark.com/soccer-stadium/

Something is afoot, slowly slowly..

If anyone is interested and can make it feel free to hop into the teams call and support this. Many of the SK Supporters are in Qatar and might miss it as it will be a 4am start Qatar time! The more support absolutely the better. 

Some further tidbits I found from their website:

- stadium expected to open fall of 2024 (according to their FAQ section). Can't imagine they would start the season elsewhere but they possibly could. Screams 2025 at best to me but fingers crossed its still 2024.

- There is a public web page outlining the process for amending their permit and getting funding here. https://www.saskatoon.ca/engage/prairieland-park-concept-plan-amendment Looks like there has been a more formal approach made since the last public council meeting but also looks like there is an undetermined timeline for a decision by the council into 2023. 

I can see why you think 2025 will be the earliest. I mean, where else could they play until then? If there was a suitable stadium they could play at, wouldn't they be able to use it now and join in 2023 making 10 teams?

[EnigMattic1]

.

Edited November 16, 2022 by EnigMattic1
Double post

[Kingston]

43 minutes ago, EnigMattic1 said:

I can see why you think 2025 will be the earliest. I mean, where else could they play until then? If there was a suitable stadium they could play at, wouldn't they be able to use it now and join in 2023 making 10 teams?

Solid logic.

And I'd prefer to see them wait and do it right.  Go big from day one and be a prairie Halifax.

[T_Bison]

40 minutes ago, EnigMattic1 said:

I can see why you think 2025 will be the earliest. I mean, where else could they play until then? If there was a suitable stadium they could play at, wouldn't they be able to use it now and join in 2023 making 10 teams?

I think until there is a signed agreement that the stadium will happen they don't want to push forward with the rest of the team building. If the pen gets put to paper say in January 2023 then I can see the team launching in 2024.

2023 Lose FCE, gain Van FC (8 teams)

2024 Gain Kelowna & Saskatoon (10 teams)

2025 or 2026 Gain Windsor and Quebec(?) (12 teams)

 

[EnigMattic1]

4 minutes ago, T_Bison said:

I think until there is a signed agreement that the stadium will happen they don't want to push forward with the rest of the team building. If the pen gets put to paper say in January 2023 then I can see the team launching in 2024.

2023 Lose FCE, gain Van FC (8 teams)

2024 Gain Kelowna & Saskatoon (10 teams)

2025 or 2026 Gain Windsor and Quebec(?) (12 teams)

 

As much as I would hate to lose a team, I still think an even number makes sense, so having Saskatoon enter the same time as Kelowna makes sense in that respect. Personally, I would like to see Saskatoon enter in 2024, but I have no say in that.

[Big_M]

that timeline is just to get approval to build a stadium..on top of that simpson is looking for 24M of public money from three public sources and as construction costs will go up he will need even more or take more money out of his own pockets which he doesnt seem willing to do..if even one of three refuse to put their 8M the project is in trouble..at this point it looks unlikely under the asks of simpson

[toontownman]

1 hour ago, EnigMattic1 said:

I can see why you think 2025 will be the earliest. I mean, where else could they play until then? If there was a suitable stadium they could play at, wouldn't they be able to use it now and join in 2023 making 10 teams?

It's not impossible to think they could strike a temporary deal with the U of S for Griffith for the first half of the season or even use Mosaic in the interim. I just don't know if that's the best optics for the league or starting a new team in the community though. Probably best to save money and do it right. Construction will inevitably be delayed too.

All that said. I'd still take option a) to play elsewhere to start so we have the team start a year sooner!

Edited November 16, 2022 by toontownman

[toontownman]

10 minutes ago, Big_M said:

that timeline is just to get approval to build a stadium..on top of that simpson is looking for 24M of public money from three public sources and as construction costs will go up he will need even more or take more money out of his own pockets which he doesnt seem willing to do..if even one of three refuse to put their 8M the project is in trouble..at this point it looks unlikely under the asks of simpson

The provincial and federal funding will happen, but only dependent on the City being in. It's all on whether the City say yes to the loan.

[T_Bison]

10 minutes ago, EnigMattic1 said:

As much as I would hate to lose a team, I still think an even number makes sense, so having Saskatoon enter the same time as Kelowna makes sense in that respect. Personally, I would like to see Saskatoon enter in 2024, but I have no say in that.

I agree - but the reports are FCE is shutting down, and throwing together a team like Ottawa did when you don't have an Atletico behind you is unrealistic.

[EnigMattic1]

17 minutes ago, T_Bison said:

I agree - but the reports are FCE is shutting down, and throwing together a team like Ottawa did when you don't have an Atletico behind you is unrealistic.

Even with Atletico behind them, they had a rough debut season. Ottawa had the bonus of having a stadium ready for them though. I just really hope that, after all this, the Sask team does arrive in the CPL.

[Watchmen]

4 hours ago, toontownman said:

The provincial and federal funding will happen, but only dependent on the City being in. It's all on whether the City say yes to the loan.

I might have missed something, but what aspect of the project makes the federal funding happen? The feds are usually pretty reluctant to get involved in stadium/arena construction.

[toontownman]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

I might have missed something, but what aspect of the project makes the federal funding happen? The feds are usually pretty reluctant to get involved in stadium/arena construction.

I'm not sure. They mentioned they had found a federal grant they qualified for in the council meeting last spring/summer. From anything I have heard the encouragement has been they will get the other two if the city happens.

[Shway]

Whats the affinity of open-ended stadiums? 
Can't we just have one that is fully closed?

[Watchmen]

32 minutes ago, Shway said:

Whats the affinity of open-ended stadiums? 
Can't we just have one that is fully closed?

1) Cheaper

2) Easier to expand if needed.

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Shway said:

Whats the affinity of open-ended stadiums? 
Can't we just have one that is fully closed?

Totally agree. Really bothers me they're not clued in, even after claiming they'd looked at stadium models.

[Cheeta]

8 hours ago, Watchmen said:

1) Cheaper

2) Easier to expand if needed.

1).  Probably.  Everyone gets that, however, best value for money doesn't begin and end just with end cost. 

2).  There are endless examples of closed, low capacity, stadia on this planet, most of which could be made to meet building codes in Saskatchewan. 

If the costs related to removal of a minor end stand inhibits your future stadium expansion plans you probably shouldn't be proposing an expansion plan.

We wouldn't be talking about spending 50M pounds to add 8,000 seats to Celtic Park here would we?  

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

The open end keeps it useable for high school, U-sports and CJFL gridiron games is probably the real reason.