When you nominated it, we were puzzled but in the end decided that Canada’s (possibly) best CFL stadium deserves its place on the Stadium of the Year nominee list.

It’s been one of those Stadium of the Year 2016 nominations that we had to look much closer into. After all, substantial completion of the building came as soon as September 2016, yet its official opening won’t take place until July 2017. But since it was complete and all sides opened to visitors on two occasions, Mosaic Stadium is therefore included in the Stadium of the Year 2016 list. This means we had to add it to StadiumDB and here is the story behind new Mosaic Stadium.

New football stadium for the Canadian city of Regina was first announced in 2012. It was even considered to have a retractable or permanent roof over the field but both options proved too expensive, leaving the city with more rational partial cover.

The location just 430 meters west of old Mosaic Stadium was selected as part of a greater revitalization project. Thanks to this decision we could enjoy a view as wonderful as this below, one Mosaic Stadium visible from the other Mosaic Stadium. Yes, both have the same name after Mosaic signed a new 20-year naming rights deal in 2016, transferring the brand’s name from one stadium to the other.

Financial framework was based on public-private partnership with Saskatchewan Roughriders being the crucial private partner to sustain the stadium in the long run. Financing is largely public though, as is most common in Canada. The province of Saskatchewan granted $80 million, the city of Regina contributed further $73m and further $100 million is debt expected to be recovered from event ticket surcharge. This left only around 9% of the budget to be covered by Roughriders directly.

After initial study was conducted by Pattern Architects, eventual design was commissioned to renowned American practice HKS. This team created a robust seating bowl with almost 70% of spectators placed in the lower tier, largely sunken below ground level (10 meters). This puts majority of fans as close to the action as possible, especially considering inclusion of wider playing field for soccer use.

Starting capacity of the stadium was set at 33,000, with possibility of expansion to 40,000 for largest events. South side is largely open, which would have made the difference for natural playing field quality but since synthetic turf was installed there was no obstacle against installation of the giant screen dropping significant shade onto the Astroturf.

The stands are partially covered by a distinctively shaped roof, with membrane cover of 12,640 m². This bent skin reaches peak height at 46 meters (or 56m above the sunken field level).

Formally construction was launched in June 2014, though the groundbreaking ceremony was preceded by ground works. Substantial completion of the building was announced after just over two years, in exactly 808 days. Despite further furnishing and installation works the building was opened for two test events in September and October, before Roughriders move for good in the summer of 2017.