Regina Exhibition Stadium torn down after nearly a century

An almost 100-year-old building with an important past was demolished in Regina on Tuesday.

Regina Exhibition Stadium, also known as Queen City Gardens was torn down this afternoon. The structure was built in 1919 and has hosted artists from the Beach Boys to Johnny Cash.

"Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers and Paul Anka were among the acts that played here in the Show of Stars tour in 1957 and 1958," said Mark Allan, Regina Exhibition Association Limited president and CEO in a release. "The building has served our community well for nearly a century."

The building is perhaps best known as the home of Agribition, and hosted the Regina Pats until the Agridome was built in 1977.

Exhibition Stadium and the remaining half of the Winter Fair building need to be torn down to make room for the new International Trade Centre project. The $37-million facility will open in November and will attach all buildings at Evraz Place (except the new Mosaic Stadium). Organizers say it will become the largest interconnected event complex in Canada.

The new facilities will open up new opportunities to bring in bigger entertainment acts, Allan said.

"Between the venues that we have here on the property, there's almost not anything we couldn't try."

"People have many fond memories of events in Exhibition Stadium," said Allan. "So, today is a bittersweet occasion, but the opportunity the new facility brings is exciting."

Allan started working with Regina Exhibition in 2003. Since then, the progress he's seen at the site has been "really rewarding," he said.

"To see it sort of juxtaposed to a brand new [Mosaic Stadium] $278-million building in the horizon here from where I'm looking to one that was built in 1919 coming down, certainly the industry has changed a lot too," Allan said.

He noted patrons' expectations of service, amenities and access have changed a lot over that period.

"It's also a reminder of that too, that we're just not satisfied with the same level of building that was satisfactory in the past."

The new facility will be "largely complete" by September, in time for the next Agribition, Allan said.