Regina Hotel Association just fine with Thursday night Riders games

Are Thursday home games for the Saskatchewan Roughriders good day for the city’s hotels?

The topic of Thursday CFL games can be a controversial one for fans in Saskatchewan. Many opinions can be found on social media and message boards about whether it is more of an inconvenience for Rider fans to travel to home games on a weekday instead of on the weekend.

But the Regina Hotel Association has no complaints about Riders home games on Thursday evenings.

“Thursday games are great for the hotels,'” said Shari McCannel, the association’s director of marketing and sponsorship.

McCannel said on Rider game days hotel occupancy in the Queen City will typically see a boost, particular during July and August.

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“Normally in the month of July our average occupancy monthly will run around 60 per cent, whereas during our Rider game in July we will typically run at 75 per cent occupancy,” McCannel explained.

McCannel was excited about the timing for this week’s game in particular, as “it’s a football weekend in Regina.”

“This weekend we have a few other events in town,” she said, pointing to the Football Canada Youth 16 Western Challenge and the Football Canada Cup.

As a result, McCannel said the Regina Hotel Association feels good about the number of people coming in to stay in their hotels.

McCannel said she hasn’t heard many complaints about Thursday night games.

“Typically, like I said, our hotels have performed well on a Thursday, so (we’re) not necessarily seeing that on our end.”

While they expect to see a boost in hotel occupancy throughout the football season, McCannel noted that some Riders home games will bring more hotel guests to the city than others.

“The August Long Weekend game there, as well as the Labour Day game, will typically be one of our better weekends in terms of occupancy,” McCannel said.

Labour Day is “probably the biggest weekend of them all,” she added.

Some games will see an extra boost depending on who the visiting team is and the ease of those fans in getting to Regina. McCannel said the Labour Day Classic against Winnipeg is a prime example.

“I think in terms of the Labour Day game, that would for sure be part of the reason there is a high volume of traffic, because Winnipeg fans would drive here, whereas Toronto fans would require a flight,” she explained.

That could be a factor with this week’s, as the Saskatchewan Roughriders hosted the Toronto Argonauts at Mosaic Stadium, winning 30-23. The matchup is the only Thursday night home game the Riders will have all season.

In general, McCannel said there has been a good and productive relationship between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Regina Hotel Association, including during the 2022 Grey Cup Festival.

“Our hotels always see a welcome boost whenever we have Rider games in town,” McCannel said.

“Saskatchewan Roughriders are a great partner of ours, and we are happy to support. Any time they want to put in a bid for hosting a Grey Cup, we know Regina does a great job of hosting that event and we’re always very successful, so we’re happy to support them in any of those initiatives.”

As for this weekend, McCannel said hotels still have space available for those looking for a room.