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And what if such a project were to be suggested under the current economic climate?

“I’ve said this many times, and I believe it — we happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Hopson states.

“When I look at the market today,” Brandvold adds, “am I ever glad we got it done in 2012 — because I’m not too sure that the conditions would allow us to do one today.”

“It was a perfect storm of people coming together and it happening at the right time,” Fougere says. “It was a very magical time, because people all agreed on a big-picture (view) and what could be possible to transform the city.”

Sjoberg feels that thinking bigger was a key component of the entire process.

“There was maybe even a change of sentiment over the course of time, if you want to call it ‘the new Saskatchewan,’ ” he says. “There was a bit of a shift from ‘We can’t afford it’ to ‘We deserve this.’ ”

The implementation of a bigger-picture philosophy on the Roughriders’ part helped to establish a foundation for the confluence of events that culminated in the approval and construction of a stadium.

“The Riders made a change in terms of their business plan and their business outlook, and I credit Jim Hopson and the board for that,” O’Donnell says. “They started to look at how their business model would be different. Rather than a hands-out (approach), it was how do we include the community, how do we build this up, and how do we make this worthwhile?

“Because business in the province changed and you certainly had a premier who was interested, their ears started to open as far as what could be possible. But I think that all along, the council and the administration of the City of Regina said, ‘This is our community. We’ll have a facility. We’ll look after it. How can we all pull this together?’ So then it becomes a partnership. That’s what worked. That’s what really brought it together.