I took this from the original report. If they keep this option in mind in the updated/new design (however they end up planning it), then it allows for the larger concert/hockey/curling, but still allows the Pats to play out of the Brandt Centre (and allows for some smaller concerts if they want to keep them at the Brandt Centre. Plus you continue to have the Agribition completely centred at the Brandt Centre/Exhibition grounds complex.
A new arena in the 15k range isn't going to come cheaply unless you make it a bare-bones facility, which isn't really the direction most places are taking anymore. Building a new 15k arena (prob ~200m) + a new outdoor stadium (prob ~250m) would cost out around the same as a new multi-purpose stadium which I think would be more useful than two separate facilities. Not to mention that the Brandt centre just received a pretty substantial upgrade before the Juniors tournament, so ripping it apart within so few years would be a pretty big waste of money.
The thing with Winnipeg is that you already had the MTS Centre, so the Arena + Open air option (if that was the only option compared to the dome/retractable roof option) was a lot easier to fall in favour of.
No one is going to convince me it's not a good idea to build the proposed multi-purpose facility, and I won't be convincing you, Bdog, or Welkin that it is a good idea. I plan on living in Regina for the next 60 or so years anyway, so in the end, I'll be paying for whatever decision is made. And because of this, I'll make my opinion known, and defend it if I must. But in any case, it's really no skin off your back since the only government funding is going to come from Saskatchewan and the City of Regina.