Designing Reasons to Come & Connections to Get There
An event and entertainment district is a shared public space where every resident feels welcome and has a sense of belonging.
In Saskatoon, the vision for a Downtown Event & Entertainment District is anchored around a new event centre/arena and convention centre made accessible to everyone through the future Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. The area will be developed sustainably and with a focus on Indigenous placemaking. By offering residents and visitors a gathering place for entertainment and events, with a variety of restaurants, venues, shopping and nightlife, Saskatoon’s Downtown will become an economic driver for the city and the province. Downtown BRT stations will encourage redevelopment of adjacent areas, supporting a variety of businesses and housing opportunities.
Selection of the potential event centre/arena sites was based on a number of technical criteria. Those criteria covered everything from land area to proximity to parking and development costs. A full discussion of how the site was selected can be found on this page.
A vibrant and busy Downtown provides an attractive place for shopping, entertainment, dining and more and will support small business and act as an incentive for corporate investment. Other cities around North America are undertaking similar journeys - revitalizing their downtowns by developing reasons to travel, play and live there.
This public infrastructure project will create excitement and drive investment in the surrounding blocks and throughout the Downtown. New jobs will be created, economic benefits realized and opportunities for local entrepreneurs will be made available.
New renderings share the vision!
New renderings of the Downtown Event & Entertainment District were presented to the Governance and Priorities Committee on February 14th. Find them below!
Looking for a more immersive experience? If you have virtual reality goggles you can tour the area through this link.
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
Bus Rapid Transit
Bus Rapid Transit
The future Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) 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 BRT 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 BRT 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. The BRT 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 Bus Rapid Transit, including a full route map and video, please visit saskatoon.ca/brt.
Quick Facts about BRT in Saskatoon
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 .