‘We need to find a way to play:’ Riders CEO discusses delayed season

The Saskatchewan Roughriders believe they will hit the field in 2021.

The CFL announced Wednesday it is delaying the start of its season to Aug. 5 due to a third wave of COVID-19 affecting parts of Canada.

The league is also reducing the number of games each team will play in the regular season from 18 to 14 and is pushing the Grey Cup in Hamilton into December.

But the league says it needs two things to occur before it can even return to the field: That it can ensure the safety of staff, players and fans, and that a “significant” number of fans will be able to attend games.

Saskatchewan Roughriders president and CEO Craig Reynolds said the goal of Wednesday’s announcement was to make a commitment to play in 2021 but also to make it clear what still needs to happen to make that a reality.

“We’re very optimistic that we’re going to be able to have fans and the Aug. 5 target date is very, very realistic from what we’re hearing,” Reynolds said during a media conference.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean fans in every jurisdiction across the CFL at the start. We’re prepared to open the season and host more games in the west and return to Ontario and Quebec and potentially B.C. when fans are allowed in those jurisdictions.”

Reynolds said there was a lot of behind-the-scenes work being done to have a full 18-game season, but it became more and more apparent that wouldn’t be possible.

“(The) reality is we had to start moving towards Plan B, Plan C and even Plan D and we’ve landed on what we think is a reasonable plan with a target date,” Reynolds said.

The Roughriders’ return-to-play plan has been given the green light by the province, but the plan that would allow fans back at Mosaic Stadium is still being discussed.

“The return-to-play plan is really how we conduct training camp, meetings (and) day-to-day interaction and how we can put two football teams on the field and play football,” Reynolds said.

“We have a Mosaic Stadium reopening plan which is broader and that’s how we introduce fans, media (and) stakeholders into Mosaic Stadium and be able to have fans back at the stadium.”

Reynolds said there are no plans for a vaccine passport to be used but said the best way to get fans back in the stadium is for people to get their shots of COVID vaccine.

As for what a significant number of fans means, Reynolds said the team hasn’t set a number yet.

“We know what certain restrictions will get you in terms of the certain percentage of fans that can attend games but we haven’t set a threshold. I think it’s very clear from a Roughrider perspective that we want to play football,” Reynolds said.

“We’re committed to playing. This crisis gets worse for the Saskatchewan Roughriders if we don’t play in the big picture, so we need to find a way to play and we’re committed to doing that.”

Reynolds said the Roughriders’ financial situation is still very challenging but they have yet to reach into their $7-million reserve funds.

He said the team will announce a multi-million-dollar loss at its annual general meeting in June.

“It’s going to be a multi-year problem for us to deal with,” Reynolds said.