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Prairieland Park and Living Sky Sports and Entertainment are hoping the City of Saskatoon can kick in around one-third of the proposed cost of a new soccer stadium in Saskatoon.
During the city’s Planning and Development Committee meeting Monday morning, Prairieland Park’s Steve Chisholm and Mark Regier made the pitch for $8 million, payable at $1 million per year for eight years.
The current estimated cost of the stadium is anywhere from $24 million to $34 million, but Regier told councillors that cost could go up.
When asked by councillors whether Prairieland Park had embarked on its own capital fundraising campaign, Chisholm said there had not been one to date, but one could possibly take place beginning this summer.
Neither provincial nor federal funding has yet been secured; both Regier and Chisholm told councillors that while the province had responded “favourably” to the proposal, the city would have to commit to the project before the province or federal government.
Councillors voted unanimously to accept Coun. Marin Loewen’s motion for administration to report back regarding the funding request from Prairieland Park, and to include an analysis of the anticipated public benefits from city investment in the project.
However, at this point, the city’s general manager, Lynne Lacroix, said there wasn’t any available funding for the project.
Coun. Darren Hill said council could still investigate that further.
“At the end of the day, it’s the will of council what’s going to be funded and not funded. This could be added into Year 2 of our currently operating second budget. If it is something that we seriously consider moving forward, then council will have to find the resources to fund it,” he said.
“We haven’t seen a robust detailed business plan and where their levels of funding (are),” he added. “It’s a little premature to be talking about it until we see the full, detailed business plan … It’s hard for us to make any decisions or even proper direction without looking at a proper business plan and proper funding model.”
Outside of council chambers, Saskatchewan Soccer Association director Rahim Mohamed said in Saskatoon alone, there are around 13,000 youth and adults playing soccer.
While there’s already a soccer centre in the University Heights area, Mohamed said there isn’t enough adequate space, with several teams sometimes practising on one pitch.
“There’s a big benefit in having potential access to the community use hours (at a new stadium),” he said. “From a community perspective, Saskatoon’s going to continue to grow.
“Soccer is something that has reached everyone’s lives that are newcomers to Canada … It really has a chance to bring people together.”
He added that several other sports have dedicated arenas.
“Lacrosse has that, football has that, hockey to a certain extent has that, but we don’t have that here for soccer,” he said. “It is the largest sport in Canada.”
At this point, the suggested timeline is to break ground for the new stadium sometime in 2023 and to have it running in 2024.
There’s no date yet when city administration will report back to the committee. During discussions, it was suggested it could be later this summer, with potential council consideration sometime in the fall.