Credit Union Centre
Encyclopedia : C : CR : CRE : Credit Union Centre
Credit Union Centre, formerly known as Saskatchewan Place or SaskPlace, is an arena located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Situated near the city's northern entrance, the facility opened in February, 1988 with a seating capacity of around 7,800. It was expanded to 11,300 for the World Junior Hockey Championships in 1990. It currently can seat around 11,300 for hockey games and 13,000 for concerts. It is the home venue of the Saskatoon Blades hockey team.
It has free parking on site with parking space for 4,000 cars on its property. For most publicly attended events, transit service is offered from downtown. For high attendance events extra transit links are offered from shopping centres and other locations.
The Credit Union Centre has hosted performances by many leading acts and has been the site of numerous national and international events. In 2005, it was the site of the main concert celebrating Saskatchewan's 100th anniversary as a province of Canada. The performance was attended by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Early proposals
SaskPlace was constructed as a replacement for the Saskatoon Arena, a wooden building constructed in Saskatoon's downtown core in the 1930s, and which was in use until the mid-1980s. Nicknamed "The Barn", the facility had outlived its usefulness some 20 years earlier and had become infamous for leaky roofs and substandard amenities, yet Saskatonians were hesitant to lose the landmark and a number of years passed between the 1970s proposal to replace the structure and the eventual demolition of the Arena and the opening of SaskPlace.In 1982, Bill Hunter, a local sports promoter, attempted to purchase the St. Louis Blues NHL team and bring it to Saskatoon. Part of his plan included building an 18,000-seat arena. Two locations were suggested: the site of a decommissioned power plant downtown, just west of the then-present Saskatoon Arena, and another site east of the city's airport. Despire Hunter's best efforts, the NHL rejected his offer and Hunter's plans to relocate an NHL team and build a new arena collapsed.
The site eventually chosen for SaskPlace/Credit Union Centre was initially unpopular with Saskatoon residents. Situated in a remote industrial park at the north end of the city, accessible only via highways, SaskPlace was accused of being too inconvenient for seniors and people of limited transportation to access, as opposed to the original downtown arena site which was close to most bus routes. The city's original plan was to relocate Saskatoon's exhibition grounds alongside SaskPlace as well, but this proposal was defeated in part due to public protest over access and safety concerns. Plans to build interchanges on the two major access routes into the facility were announced soon after the arena opened, but as of 2006 construction has yet to occur.
In the early 2000s, Saunders Avenue, which is a street leading into the parking lot of Credit Union Centre, was renamed Bill Hunter Avenue in honour of Bill Hunter, who died in 2002. This was considered ironic by many Saskatonians, given Hunter lobbied for the facility to be built in another location. The city then used the 'Saunders' moniker for a street in the River Landing area.
| Current arenas in the Western Hockey League | ||
| Eastern Conference | Western Conference | |
|---|---|---|
| Art Hauser Centre | Brandt Centre | Centennial Civic Centre | Cranbrook Recreational Complex | Credit Union Centre | ENMAX Centre | ENMAX Centrium | Keystone Centre | Medicine Hat Arena | Moose Jaw Civic Centre | Pengrowth Saddledome | CN Centre | Everett Events Center | Interior Savings Centre | KeyArena | Memorial Coliseum | Pacific Coliseum | Prospera Centre | Prospera Place | Rose Garden Arena | Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena | Toyota Center | |
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