My friend and I were in Saskatoon (having driven down from Edmonton) and went to SaskTel Centre to see the Blades vs Oil Kings WHL game. I gotta say I was pretty impressed by SaskTel Centre. I was also mighty surprised at the size of this venue. I'm from Edmonton and our main (current) hockey area (Rexall Place) is only about 1500 seats bigger than SaskTel Centre. I wasn't expecting to come to a venue with 15,000 seats. I don't know how this venue stacks up for concerts, or anything else, but I'll tell you what I liked about it for a hockey game.
1. Free parking. Maybe this doesn't happen all the time, but there was free parking at the hockey game we were at. It also didn't take 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot... no crazy drivers cutting people off. You Saskatchcats are so nice.
2. No lineups at the box office or will call. My friend and I got in and got our tickets right away. The security check (for purses and such) only took a second.
3. Not that colour scheme would alter the score of this review, but personally I really liked the blue seats. I noticed some the seats had cushioned backs, but even the plastic flip seats my friend and I sat on weren't too bad. There was also a fair bit more legroom than I expected (something I appreciated, being 5'10).
4. Good food options. Arena food tends to be pricey, and kind of similar (burgers, hot dogs, chips, etc), but I was really excited to see a few food options I haven't seen back at Rexall Place in Edmonton like candied apples, mini donuts, and freshly squeezed lemonade. I got some "gourmet" maple bacon mini donuts ($7) which tasted like a delicious pancake breakfast but with mini donuts. It was good, but very sweet and the last few donuts at the bottom basically fell apart from all the maple syrup. I don't know if I'd get it again, but it was a nice treat.
5. Decent merchandise prices. My friend commented that the $40 shirt we saw at the Blades store would have cost about $70 in Edmonton.
5. Friendly staff. Like I said my friend and I came down from Edmonton, and my friend (being an Oil Kings fan) was decked out in an Oil Kings jersey. Despite this there were no tauntings or teasings from Blades fans, and my friend even got a selfie with The Blades mascot. Again, you Saskatchacats are so nice.
Ok my one, pretty minor complaint would be the lighting. I'm sure SaskTel Centre is probably using some energy-efficient LED bulbs, but whatever the lightbulbs that were used during the game were super bright, to the point of giving me a bit of a headache (surprisingly the noise level wasn't that bad). If they could've toned the brightness down a tad it would have been perfect. read more