Design and transportation
A Downtown Event & Entertainment District will be a welcoming public space where everyone can gather, take part in events and feel they belong.
In Saskatoon, the vision includes a new event centre/arena, a convention centre and connections to the future Link rapid transit system. The District will be designed to be accessible to everyone, environmentally responsible and guided by Indigenous placemaking.
The District could offer entertainment, events, restaurants, venues, shopping and nightlife. It would give residents and visitors more reasons to spend time in Downtown Saskatoon. It could also support local businesses and help grow the city and provincial economy.
New Link stations in Downtown could encourage redevelopment nearby, creating more space for businesses and new housing.
The City considered several possible sites for the event centre and arena. Each site was reviewed using technical criteria, including available land, access to parking and development costs. More information about the site selection process is available on this page.
A vibrant Downtown can attract people to shop, eat, attend events and enjoy entertainment. It can support small businesses and encourage companies to invest in Saskatoon. Cities across North America are also investing in their downtowns to create places where people want to visit, play and live.
This public infrastructure project could create jobs, support local entrepreneurs and encourage investment in nearby blocks and throughout Downtown.
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Downtown Event Centre/Arena
A new Downtown event centre/arena will create excitement and economic growth for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and the world. Developed to replace the aging SaskTel Centre, the event centre/arena will bring a modern entertainment and sports venue to the heart of Saskatoon. With a generous seating area, the newest in staging and sports surfaces, and a variety of in-house food and beverage services and merchandising opportunities, the Downtown event centre/arena will attract top touring entertainment, sports and community events for decades to come.
Convention Centre
A new or expanded convention centre will complement the Downtown event centre/arena by providing a modern facility for business and community to meet, problem-solve and develop local solutions for international opportunities. It will bring daytime convention facilities into the modern era and provide a home for the arts and special events.
Open Spaces
Link Rapid Transit
Link rapid transit
The future Link rapid transit system is a key component of the Downtown Event & Entertainment District — enabling high capacity, high frequency access to the Downtown from across the city and reducing the reliance on vehicle use and area parking spaces. The Link system’s Downtown stations, centrally located on 1st Avenue, will feature modern and comfortable amenities and public art that reflects the diversity of the city.
The future BLink system will connect the District to the entire city, adding to infrastructure which will support the entire community, including transit signal priorities that first responders can access and improved roadways and sidewalks. Link will be able to move a large number of people in and out of the District, reducing traffic to the area, minimizing the need for parking and making it easy to journey to the district for sports games, conventions, a nice meal or any of the other benefits a Downtown Event & Entertainment District will bring.
For more information about Link, including a full route map and video, please visit saskatoon.ca/link.
Getting to the District
There will be a number of options to get to the event and entertainment district - by car, transit, walking, cycling, ride share...however you prefer to travel!
For normal day-to-day activities, shows and conventions, the impact of visitors Downtown is expected to be below those of a typical Saskatoon peak hour, meaning it won't be any worse than a typical Thursday afternoon.
For large events, detailed traffic analyses found that even with a worst-case scenario where the majority of visitors arrive only within the hour before an event, some intersections close to the District centre will be busy, but overall car traffic will be less than the evening peak of daily car travel out of Downtown, with less congestion overall. More information is available in the Conceptual Design Report.
Parking
On opening evening it is anticipated that there will be nearly 18,000 parking spaces within a fifteen-minute walk to the event centre's front doors. 14,000 of these spaces will be open as the office workers who use them will have gone home for the day. This means that the District has access to existing parking without having to build too many more spaces (leading to oversupply). A shared parking model for the District found that while 6,000 additional cars are anticipated Downtown for a 7:00 p.m. show, there will still be around 7,000 spaces that would remain vacant.
More information is available in the Conceptual Design Report.
You can find out more information on this information sheet .