I was asked if I was going to talk about the weekend’s horrific tragedy and after thinking about it I just can’t. My mind is still too numb on that subject and my heart is still too heavy. So today I’ll mention how I accompanied my better half to Edmonton late last week and she arranged for us to have a tour of Rogers Place which was quite timely in light of ongoing discussions about building a shiny new Arena/Convention Centre in Saskatoon. For anyone who hasn’t been there, Rogers Place is impressive even on the outside from the moment you approach it with its gleaming silver exterior in the heart of downtown. Inside it appears they’ve thought of just about everything from luxurious suites down to comfortable regular seats with good sightlines, modern washrooms, and so much more. It seats 18,500 for hockey and over 20,000 for concerts where they say the acoustics are unbelievable for an arena. However, one thing I reminded myself was that this is Saskatoon, not Edmonton, which is the 6th largest metropolitan area in the country with a CMA population of over 1.3 million to draw on, more than our whole province, to say nothing of the corporate money available. I was talking about Rogers Place yesterday with a guy who knows as he came from Edmonton, the President of the Saskatoon Blades, Steve Hogle. He reminded me that whatever we do, we need a made for Saskatoon solution, and he’s right.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.