Businesses at Mosaic Stadium suffering huge losses without CFL

COVID-19 has been a quest for survival for many local businesses, including those that usually operate outlets at Mosaic Stadium during Saskatchewan Roughriders games.

The 2020 CFL season was initially postponed and then Winnipeg was named the league’s potential hub city. On Monday, however, the CFL pulled the plug on the 2020 campaign.

Without any games to be played in Regina this year, businesses that would have worked Roughriders home games are still working hard to make ends meet.

June Kovacs, owner of Coney Island Poutine on Dewdney Avenue, said her restaurant lost about 40 per cent of its annual revenue.

“The Mosaic Stadium business is huge for Coney Island. It’s a large part of our income,” Kovacs said.

As a local family-owned restaurant, Kovacs said the decision to start working games at Mosaic Stadium three seasons ago has been monumental for her business.

“The stadium is huge exposure for our restaurant,” she said.

Rock Creek is another Regina-owned business seeing substantial losses without its stadium sales.

Stu Rathwell says not having stadium events is a 60 per cent revenue loss for Rock Creek. The business has three locations inside Mosaic Stadium.

“It’s the stadium revenue and it’s the outdoor revenue that comes along with the stadium,” Rathwell explained.

“Everything, because of COVID, has been cut for us so we don’t really have a lot of open doors.”

Usually, the restaurant would be scheduling its operations around Roughriders games and other stadium events due to their high revenue generation.

“We would typically be really ramping up for the upcoming Labour Day game and that’s a celebration,” Rathwell said.

“We would see people from all over Manitoba (and) Alberta coming into the city … (Staff) would be having a good time with customers. It’s just not happening.”

Rathwell said he hires volunteer groups to work as staff at Roughriders games. Those groups will be experiencing a loss of about $200,000 in fundraising this year because games aren’t being played at Mosaic Stadium.

COVID-19 still hitting local shops in new ways

It hasn’t been an easy go for any local business since March.

“COVID-19 has really hit us hard in all ways,” Kovacs said. “It’s been devastating to our business.”

Coney Island also sees about half its business come from catering deals, but with large gatherings and weddings significantly reduced in size or cancelled due to the pandemic, the restaurant is having to work hard to make up for these shortcomings elsewhere.

Similarly, Rock Creek has lost catering and outdoor food sales. Rathwell said the franchise is now earning about 15 per cent of its usual revenue because of the pandemic.

To combat this, Rathwell said Rock Creek is getting creative.

“Right now, what I see is an opportunity for us to make changes and (not) really rely on what we’ve done in the past,” he said.

One such operation involves a new kitchen created by those who would have been in charge of stadium operations. The space is moving into producing local goods and selling wholesale.

“We’re just trying to find new ways to create positive operations,” Rathwell said.

Currently, Coney Island offers takeout and delivery. It has not reopened its dining room yet, though Kovacs said the owners plan on doing so when they feel it is safe for staff and customers.

“Our restaurant is doing very well,” Kovacs said.

It’s the community, she said, keeping Coney Island open.

“It’s heartwarming. It’s great, it’s everything,” Kovacs said. “Without local support, I don’t know if we would have survived … the community support has been overwhelming.”