All the talk of Sask Place made me want to take a look at the history of the building. It's had an interesting history. This is the only example I can find of the arena's interior in its original format:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zhi0ZbNoCo
When it first opened, Sask Place sat under 8K. As far as I can tell it had no upper level, but appears to have been built with expansion in mind, which happened pretty quickly. The first expansion came in 1991 for the World Juniors, where they popped off the top of the building and added a horseshoe-shaped upper level, bringing the capacity to 11K (I distinctly remember capacity being 13K but online sources disagree with me). The upper level was then filled in when Saskatoon hosted the World Juniors for a second time in 2010, bringing capacity to its current 15K. It's currently the 10th largest arena in Canada currently in active use (Pacific Colosseum is larger, but does not have a main tenant ATM).
In terms of concourse space, there has never been any major upgrades to it as far as I know. The biggest addition was a partial upper-level concourse that was built around the same time as the second expansion, which provided much needed space, concessions, and bathrooms for a cramped facility.
For thirteen years, the largest crowd at the arena was 14K for a Garth Brooks concert in 1996, until the expansion allowed the 2010 World Juniors Final to top it. Mr. Brooks would reclaim his attendance record in 2016, but it was shortlived as Metallica took the crown earlier this year with 17K.
Quote:
Originally Posted by osmo
It would be silly not to jump on the reality of an overbuilt arena and simply just renovate it. I get the feeling economic boosters are trotting out cooked up data to try and make the case a brand new, much smaller arena, will shrink unemployment and give evreyone in Saskatoon a new boat.
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I haven't seen any hint that the plan is to build a new arena with a smaller capacity. The plan has always been 15K, and I imagine Urban's potential 20M contribution would be off the table if they wanted to build smaller given the Rush's ability to attract 14K+ crowds consistently. If anything, the plan is to build an arena that can be expanded further in the future.