We went down to Regina for the Rider game on Thanksgiving Monday. As a bonus, I got to tour the innards of Mosaic Stadium, except for the locker rooms of course, which had football players in them preparing for the game. I doubt if they’d been thrilled to see our small group wandering around. To say Mosaic is an upgrade to Taylor Field would be a giant understatement. No disrespect meant to the old stadium but Taylor field was first established as a complete stadium in 1936. I guess it was originally designed to house baseball as well as football and was converted to football-only on 1966. We were told some interesting stories about the facilities for the players at Taylor Field that, compared to what they have now at Mosaic Stadium, must have made players feel like they’d died and gone to heaven, as the old saying goes. Naturally, I was particularly interested in seeing the facilities for tv and radio. The broadcast area, it’s too big to call it a booth, for TSN was very impressive. Saskatchewan football fans deserve a place like Mosaic Stadium to watch their football team. I’ve also toured Rogers Place in Edmonton, which is state of the art for hockey and other events. As Saskatoon ponders the future of SaskTel Centre, whether to renovate and upgrade or build new somewhere downtown, we need to decide what kind of facility we want and whether we can afford it. These brand new sports venues cost a lot of money to build.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.