The guest speaker at a Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce luncheon says having an entertainment district downtown will help to recentralize the area.

Dr. Mark Rosentraub from the University of Michigan says recently, cities have begun to decentralize due to cheaper transportation and communication.
He says instead of restraining urban growth with greenbelts, an incentive must be created for people to stay. He adds that sports and entertainment sell, and they have to be brought to the city’s core to reconcentrate it.

Another reason he thinks Saskatoon should proceed with the district, is that the city’s current infrastructure may not be able to house the entertainment acts that pass through in the future, as they are only going to get bigger and better. He says we must envision what entertainment will look like in 10 years and adjust accordingly.

He adds that ideally, a downtown event centre would create events on 200 nights out of the year, generating enough profit to pay for itself in a relatively short amount of time. He reflects on the success that Edmonton had when creating the Ice District, which is growing at the same rate as the suburban areas in terms of wealth. Rosentraub is a professor of Sport Managment that has studied event centres such as these for over 40 years.