Another new multi-purpose sports facility is closer to becoming a reality as plans and renderings for a 5,500-seat stadium were unveiled Monday afternoon at Prairieland Park. The timeline for the new facility being ready is 2024, at the earliest, and is to be built on the land where, currently stands the Marquis Downs grandstand and race track, neither of which are in use anymore.
The proposed stadium is looking to have a Canadian Premier League soccer team as its main tenant with Living Sky Sports and Entertainment having been awarded the chance to secure a franchise. Prairieland Board Chair Steve Chisholm says the stadium only gets built if there is a C-P-L franchise. 
Once the facility is built, prospective C-P-L franchise owner Al Simpson says he envisions a Saskatoon team playing in the new stadium very quickly, as early as 2024. Living Sky Sports and Entertainment and Prairieland have each pledged two million dollars to help build the stadium with financial aid being sought from all levels of government. Saskatoon City Council will hear the request at its June 13 meeting.
The facility is also expected to be home to local soccer, rugby and cricket leagues for their use. Following is the news release from Prairieland, plus full media scrums with Simpson and Chisholm.
News release:
Prairieland plans to build an open-air stadium for
Elite Soccer and Community Programs
Saskatoon, SK – Prairieland has always been about building community – from our very first Fair to the state of art
convention center we now operate, bringing people together is the reason we exist. For 136 years,
our ability to innovate, renovate and create the places where people want to be, has helped make
Prairieland the industry leader it is today.
An open-air stadium is the next step in that journey.
Soccer is the most played, most watched game in the world. A 28 billion dollar industry, it is known
commonly as the ‘Worlds Game’. Although, only starting to become mainstream here in Canada, it
reaches billions of fans and players, of all ages and skill levels, across the globe.
As our community becomes more diverse and we welcome New Canadians, the appetite for soccer
increases, dramatically. And in true Prairieland fashion of innovation and creating gathering places,
we believe now is the perfect time to expand our soccer community. Not only with a community
stadium but already has an anchor tenant – a CPL Franchise Team.
Illustrated in the renderings, the goal is to create a multi-use stadium space that can grow with the
sport, be used by other groups, and double as an outdoor concert venue when required. The proposed
site will be the former space used for horseracing, as all of those assets will move to Moosomin Downs
Raceway. The building and surrounding area will be an attraction in itself, and helps to further
diversify the portfolio of Prairieland making excellent use of the Park.
The building of the stadium itself is also a testament to our community coming together. Prairieland
is not in this alone. Although separate from the City of Saskatoon, Prairieland has always maintained
an excellent working relationship with the City and city facilities and has partnered in the past on The
Juno’s, The CCMA’s and many other large city-wide projects that benefit all of Saskatoon.
Large projects require many partners, and like Merlis Belcher Place or the newly proposed leisure
center, many groups are coming together to make this happen. Prairieland is looking to all levels of
government for support, in addition to partnering with the soccer community and already securing
an anchor tenant. “We are supporting the project with over $2M in cash and hundreds of thousands
of dollars in staff support now, and into the future” said Prairieland Board Chair, Steve Chisholm. “We
are launching a public campaign for community support, and also have $2M pledged from the team
owner, Al Simpson of Living Sky Sports and Entertainment Inc., to help build the stadium (in addition
to all the franchise and team startup costs he will incur)”.
At Prairieland, we believe in the prairie spirit. This pride in who we are and where we come from
drives our business forward. We believe the dedication to meaningful experiences perfectly positions
Prairieland to encourage economic growth and connections within our community in the pursuit of
an elite open-air stadium in Saskatoon. Together, we look forward to “building the future”.
