Roughriders carry "positive momentum" into 2025
Today at 08:05 PM
The 2024 season was one of significant progress for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who returned to the CFL playoffs after a two-year absence. Jeremy O'Day (Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager) and Corey Mace (Head Coach/Defensive Co-ordinator) played primary roles in building and fielding a team that finished second in the West Division and earned a home playoff game — one that ended with a Saskatchewan victory. With the Roughriders having moved the needle in 2024, President-CEO Craig Reynolds assesses this past season and looks ahead to 2025.
What do you see as the main priorities for 2025?
"One of the biggest is we need to rebuild our season-ticket membership base. Following a tough couple of years on the field, we saw some decline there. I think we're seeing some real positive momentum as we go into the off-season. To grow our season-ticket base, we can do that by promoting our family packs and getting young families here. We need to reinvest in the game-day experience and look at the value we're providing to our season-ticket members. That's certainly a priority, as is supporting our football leadership and helping and identifying with them the resources they need to get over the hump. We've been to the Western Final three of the last five seasons. I know everybody's focused in on doing the things we need to do to get over that hump."
How much did the progress demonstrated in 2024 give the team a running start in terms of attaining the goals you cited?
"I think it has been huge. We felt a lot of positive momentum building through the course of the year. As we are having those conversations with our season-ticket members, they're really positive conversations. There's a lot of excitement among the fan base about Corey and our team and what we're building here. There's a lot of excitement for the future and I think that has really, really helped. I think we're seeing a spike in new season tickets and those conversations are going really well. Anytime you have a winning football team and a team that reflects the province and the fan base, I think our fans get behind that and it leads to good things."
You mentioned Corey Mace. What did he bring to the organization?
"Corey brought a fantastic culture change. I think he brought a ton of energy and a ton of passion to the job. I think he really embraced Saskatchewan, moving his family here and getting immediately involved in the community. He embraced our community and showed the same passion that they have for the team. He really wanted to be here. He really wanted to be our head coach. I think that kind of energy is infectious. He brought that culture change around a culture of accountability. He talked about the standard being the standard and set out the expectations for our football team. He brought that family atmosphere and that family culture, which I think resonates. It has been great for the building and we feel that from a business-side perspective. We get to see those interactions and I think our players, our coaching staff and our football-operations department just rally behind that."
The decision to hire Corey was made by Jeremy O'Day. How would you assess his contributions to the team's improvement, especially in light of the steady stream of injuries the team encountered and overcame?
"He was busy working the phones. I've never seen anything like that. Jeremy's an outstanding leader. I think it all starts with Jeremy from a culture perspective in football operations. He knows what winning football teams look like. He has been a part of winning football teams. He has seen what winning coaching looks like and he has been a leader on winning football teams with a winning football culture. I think he has a really good idea of what winning culture looks like. When he interviewed Corey and went through the process there, I think they see it the same way. They both talked about that. They see how you build this thing the same way. I think when you have a GM and a head coach who view it in the same manner, that only leads to really good things."
There are challenges, attendance-wise, but the Roughriders are by no means on an island in that respect. If you look at Canadian-based NHL franchises, for example, some of them are facing comparable issues. How do you assess the landscape in terms of ticket sales across the sporting industry?
"I think it is challenging. Some of it you might have been able to see as the at-home experience got better. Everyone's got 90-inch TVs nowadays and that at-home experience is really good, so you have to compete with that. You have to give people a reason to want to come to the game. It has to be that you're gathering with friends. It's exciting. There's nothing quite like the energy of being in a full stadium. Labour Day here is electric. The playoff game here was absolutely electric and the fans make a difference. You've got lean in on those things and make sure you're doing the right things. I think the other factor is the cost-of-living challenges that everybody is facing. That's really across the country and around the world, with inflation and high interest rates. At the end of the day, sports is a discretionary spend a lot of times, so that can be challenging. So, for us, it's about making sure we're thinking about affordability — and not just thinking about it, but making changes and marketing that our tickets are affordable and that you can bring a family of four to a game for a reasonable price."
How was the introduction of Obsidian Green alternate jerseys received?
"It was outstanding. It vastly exceeded expectations. I think we felt really good about our alt jersey and our alt logo. We had done some focus-group testing with our fans and it was getting rave reviews, but you never know until you launch something. The way we launched it was really good. I think our marketing team did a fabulous job of creating the hype and creating a look that represented that alt brand really, really well. I think our players loving it really helps, too. We were all overwhelmed by the response from the fans. Those early days in the store were quite wild. We'd be taking boxes of hats. They'd be in the box and customers would be reaching in the box and grabbing the hats. We didn't even have to stock the shelves, because fans would just grab the merchandise. It has just been an outstanding response. We're seeing merchandise sales and numbers that we haven't seen in a number of years. That's quite exciting."
What is the blueprint for Obsidian Green in 2025?
"We always viewed it as a multi-year strategy. When you introduce an alt brand, you spend a lot of time. We'd been working on this since 2018, so it had been a six-year project before we launched it. We don't want to wear it a couple of times and sell some jerseys and then move on from it. That was never the intention. The fan response also tells us that it's something that our fans want. Even in the playoff game, the excitement of wearing those for the home playoff game was just infectious. It's a multi-year strategy. We really like the look. If the players had their way, they'd wear them all the time, but obviously we have an affinity for our home uniforms and our retro uniforms as well."
