The Green Zone: Craig Reynolds year-ender

Craig Reynolds believes positive momentum was gained for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2024.

The team returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2021 after bringing in new head coach Corey Mace and quarterback Trevor Harris playing most of the season.

Reynolds, the Riders’ president and CEO, joined Jamie and Locker on the Green Zone for a year-end interview and a look ahead to 2025.

Jamie and Locker: At about this time last year, there were many questions about coaching, quarterback, on-field performance, ticketing and financing. How are you feeling 365 days later?

Reynolds: A lot better is the easiest way to say that. If you go back to where we were a year ago, coming off of back-to-back disappointing seasons and not making the playoffs versus where we ended the year this year – hosting a home playoff game, winning that playoff game, and really being one game away from being able to compete for that Grey Cup. It’s been a year of real positive momentum and, on top of that, I just think the stability is important. We’ve got that stability now with our head coach, with the majority of our coaching staff and the core of our football team, so I’m really excited about the future.

You’re closing in on that 10-year mark as CEO and President of the Roughriders. How do you think you’ve done carrying the torch for the organization?

Reynolds: It’s probably for others to weigh in on that. Some things have gone well. When we opened up the new stadium and got that stadium built and designed. It is the best stadium in Canada, hands down. Certainly really proud of that. That wasn’t me, that was a collective effort, but our ability to open the stadium and build the stadium that we’re fortunate enough to have and call our home is really exciting. I think the work we’ve done on the foundation side in the community. This is really post-COVID. I’m very proud of Cindy Fuchs and our foundation team – just how we’ve been able to re-engage with the community following the pandemic. The pandemic was tough. It was tough. It was tough on a ton of people and organizations, it was tough on the Canadian Football League and was tough on us. I’m just fortunate enough to have this job. I’m just lucky to be able to lead, lead this organization – an organization that means a ton to me and I know it means a ton to this province.

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This decade hasn’t had sustained success – how tough has that been?

Reynolds: It’s been tough. The reality is it’s been frustrating because we’ve been close. I was just reflecting – three of the last five years, we were in the West Final. We just haven’t yet found a way to get over that hump. I’m really excited about the future. I think we’re on the verge of some really great things here. So I’m excited about that, but the reality is we just haven’t been able to do that. You touched on the global pandemic, and I think sometimes we don’t talk about that enough. It had a really major impact on us as an organization, certainly on the financial side of things. We’ve been able to rebuild that. I think from a financial perspective, the organization is in really good shape but we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got work to do in rebuilding our season ticket base. We’ve been able to do a really good job of selling single-game tickets and maintaining attendance despite season ticket decline, but we have to absolutely reverse that season ticket decline. That’s really the focus of the off-season.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders were once again defeated by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the West Final in 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)

Is there anything specifically that the organization is doing to encourage the increase in season ticket sales and those single games (tickets)?

Reynolds: The reality is our strategy has been around focusing on families and getting younger fans engaged. That’s your future season ticket base. You see that in the work we’re doing, even on game day – family days, those types of things. We’re really engaged with families. We’ve got family packs. We’ve reintroduced half-price youth pricing. On top of that, the work we’re doing in the community is really youth-focused. So I mentioned the foundation earlier, but their focus is on getting to schools. By the end of this year, we’re gonna have reached over 30,000 kids across the province with either mental health training or literacy with our players in the community reading. Our players are absolutely our best assets. More youth engaged with our product is going to pay dividends from a long-term perspective. We also need to look at continually improving our game day experience. We’re doing a really deep dive this year. We’re deconstructing the entire game day, making sure that we’re looking at everything we possibly can to make sure that we’re building the best game day experience we possibly can. That, combined with winning, is going to lead to really good things.

When I was a kid, do you know who I really loved at Rider games? Gainer the gopher. Can we make Gainer great again?

Reynolds: That’s an example of fan feedback and us making change. We had the opportunity in the playoff game to allow gainer to some of those traditions that we all grew up with, to just bring that, bring that back. The fan response was really positive. That’s the beauty of Rider Nation – we get a tremendous amount of feedback. It’s on us to act on that feedback. That was one example. So I think you’re gonna see Gainer being great again going in 2025 that’s for sure.

Gainer the gopher has been a staple for the Rider fans for years. (Saskatchewan Roughriders/Twitter)

One of my favourite jerseys is the obsidian green. Are we going to see that next year?

Reynolds: That response was absolutely overwhelming. I think we felt really good – we had done some focus group testing, and everybody had sort of seen the look and were pretty excited. Some of our players had a sneak peek, and they were quite excited about it. We felt pretty good, but it just exceeded our expectations. We started seeing sales volume that we haven’t seen in years … We envision that to be a multi-year program. If our players had their way, they’d want to wear it every single game, but we love our homes and we love our retro jersey as well.\

The Riders’ new alternate obsidian green jerseys are selling well, according to the team. (Saskatchewan Roughriders/sbumitted)

We’re moving into an interesting off-season for the Canadian Football League. Where are we on the next Commissioner of the CFL with Randy (Ambrosie) leaving?

Reynolds: I’m going to certainly miss working working closely with Randy. He brought such incredible passion for the league and our game. I’m going to certainly miss working with Randy. Randy has indicated he’s going to stay on until they find the new commissioner and from my understanding, they’re just working through that process right right now and actually defining that process. They’re just at the starting stage of that search.

Where was the Roughriders’ support when it came to Randy? There’s a bit of a concern that maybe we’re seeing a split now in the board – how healthy is that group at the league level?

Reynolds: We certainly respect the decision that Randy made. I’ve really enjoyed working with Randy. I think Randy has done some incredibly great things. I know our lead governor, Greg Yuel, who represents us on behalf of our board at the league table, has tremendous respect and admiration for Randy and the work that he’s done. If you look at the ownership group itself, I think Randy deserves a lot of credit for that. We have, across the board, the strongest ownership group I think, you could argue that the CFL has ever had. We’ve got a long-term labour deal. The other thing I think that Randy doesn’t get enough credit for is the product and where the product’s at – scoring is up. Randy led a product review a few years ago where we made some significant changes. Those changes have resulted in an outstanding product. Our TV ratings are very, very strong in an environment where a lot of TV ratings are struggling from a sports perspective and just generally. I think he’s left the league in a much better spot than where he found it.

The board is obviously looking for something very specific for the replacement of Randy as the next Commissioner. Is there anything on that list that you would consider a priority?

Reynolds: I think they got to bring a passion for the league and for the Canadian game. I think you saw that with Randy. He was passionate about this game – he played the game and was extremely passionate about Canadian football, and growing Canadian football. So I think you got to bring a certain level of passion to it. At the end of the day, it’s a CEO job, and I think, there are lots of interesting things ahead of us in terms of revenue. We’ve got a media rights deal that’s coming up here shortly. I think it’s someone who can drive revenue and can grow revenue. It’s a small league with nine owners, so I think somebody who can really build really good, healthy, strong relationships at the board level, and then at the team level with the team presidents and management teams, general managers, coaches, those types of things.

Where are we in the CFL in a streaming world? Is this going to be a big priority for the next commissioner to push forward on maybe non-traditional media rights?

Reynolds: That’s the work that we’re doing in preparation for that right now. I know the league’s working with a consulting group and just gathering feedback from all the teams. When you’re working with experts in the field, they really have a good sense of where the industry is going. You see the growth in streaming and you see it with Netflix starting to enter into the game with NFL. Amazon Prime is doing NFL, MLS is on Apple. You see the large streamers starting to enter the sports market a little bit more frequently and a bit more in general. Those types of conversations are all ongoing and all under consideration.

Where are we trending financially for the Roughriders?

Reynolds: We’re trending positive. It’s been a really good year. Our attendance was generally flat but from a revenue side, we did see some growth which was really positive. I mentioned the response to the obsidian alternate jersey, we’ve seen some merchandise numbers that we haven’t seen in a number of years. The revenue lines across the board have been really positive this year. Expenses, it’s a challenging environment right now with inflation and cost – the cost of travelling as the football team is an example. Those of those have all gone up. I think what people generally feel in terms of rising costs, we see that as an organization as well. Overall, it’s been a really good financial year, and I think a lot of things have to have to do with that. Success on the field certainly helps and the positive momentum we felt with that.

What is the future of Craig Reynolds?

Reynolds: I’m just really excited and fortunate to hold this role. I want what our fans want. I want to win a championship and I want to see that happen. I really feel good about the future. I think we’re really on the verge of something great here. I think we’ve got outstanding football leadership. I think we’ve got an outstanding core of players and I think we’ve got some stability just from an organizational perspective. We’re going to be able to do the work that we need to do, and we wanted to do over the past several years to really, make sure fan engagement is top of mind and we’re doing the right things as an organization. I’m really excited about the future. I don’t think too far ahead. I wake up every day and just feel fortunate to have this role. I work with a team, just an outstanding group of people, on the business side. I love everybody I work with here and on the football side, getting to work with Jeremy, and now Corey (Mace) – Corey’s energy is absolutely infectious. What you see is what you get with him. I’m just inspired by their leadership. I really think we’re on the verge of something really special here and we’re really excited to turn the page to 2025.

These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.