‘It’s vitally important that we play’: Riders set to approach province with return-to-play plan

The wheels are in motion for a 2021 CFL season.

Saskatchewan Roughriders president and CEO Craig Reynolds joined the Green Zone on Wednesday and said team officials will be meeting with the province on Friday to bring forward their CFL return-to-play plan.

“Everything was so new last year (due to COVID-19). I remember naively thinking we will be working from home for a couple weeks and maybe training camp would be delayed a week; we just didn’t know. Now there’s so much more understanding and so much more optimism with the vaccine rollout,” Reynolds said.

“We’ve got some local aspects too and that’s how we play the games, practise (and do) training. There’s common protocols that we’re all going to follow. We really learned a ton from the other leagues that have gone through this and adapted where necessary.”

The plan will also include the question everyone is asking: How does the team get fans into Mosaic Stadium in a safe manner?

“It’s vitally important that we play CFL football this year. Whatever that number (of fans) is, it’s not going to be break-even. This is a multi-year financial problem and it will probably be added to in 2021 but it’s so important that we get playing for a multitude of reasons and we get as many fans in as possible,” Reynolds said.

The CFL cancelled its 2020 season completely due to the pandemic and the inability to put butts in seats.

But while the CFL was on the sidelines, the NFL pushed forward and found a way to play its entire season, with some stadiums even allowing a small number of fans to attend games.

The CFL has reached out to the NFL and its teams to find out what worked and what didn’t during their season.

“We’ve learned from them so much on what was effective and the really good news is what we heard consistently from the NFL (is) there were not any super-spreader events, there were not major issues from COVID when you have it set up with best practices from the health authorities,” Reynolds said.

“There’s certainly going to be some restrictions. We’re going to want to make sure everyone is safe. We won’t do this and we can’t do this if it’s not being safe.”

Reynolds, who grew up a Riders fan in Foam Lake, said like many other fans, he can’t wait to see the  the Canadian game back.

“I miss it. I miss Roughrider football, I miss the CFL, I miss being at Mosaic Stadium with my Rider family and I can’t wait to get back,” Reynolds said. “That’s our No. 1 priority. It’s to get back on the field in front of as many fans as (public health) deems safe and we’re putting all our energy into doing that.”