Mayor, former players react to Saskatchewan Roughriders’ financial outlook

There was plenty of reaction to the news about how COVID-19 could affect the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The CFL team announced Wednesday that, in the worst-case scenario of no games being played in 2020, it could face a loss of $10 million.

The Roughriders said they face a $30-million loss in revenue and a $20-million decrease in expenses if there isn’t a 2020 season.

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie has approached the federal government about financial assistance for the league, but it’s not clear if that will happen.

Former Roughriders receiver Dan Farthing knows what it’s like to be a player during tough financial times. He played for the team from 1991 to 2001.

“League-wide, there were some measures taken like salary cuts and things like that to try and get control of those expenses so that the league could kind of stay afloat,” Farthing told Saskatchewan Afternoon on Thursday.

“When you’re looking up into the stands and you’re not seeing every seat full like the players are enjoying right now, that definitely impacts things.”

In 1997, the Roughriders held a season-ticket telethon to try and raise money to help the team avoid bankruptcy.

Farthing remembers taking part in that telethon.

“(I was one of the people) manning the phones and calling previous season-ticket holders and convincing them that they should renew and, in some cases, begging them to do so,” he said.

Farthing believes Saskatchewan will throw its support behind the Roughriders if needed.

“I think there is a lot of pride in the club and there’s a huge amount of pride in the fact this is truly a Saskatchewan team and a community-owned team,” Farthing said. “I think the successes that the Roughriders have had are successes we kind of all share.”

Regina Mayor Michael Fougere said he was alarmed to hear about the financial woes the Roughriders could be facing, but he wasn’t surprised.

“There’s no season yet. It may be in September and clearly the costs are there to run the team but there’s no revenue coming in … It’s an unprecedented circumstance and much more difficult than what we had happen in the 1990s,” Fougere told the Greg Morgan Morning Show.

Fougere said the city hasn’t had discussions about how it could help the team if it needed to.

Former Roughriders safety and current TSN colour commentator Glen Suitor weighed in on the issue facing the CFL.

“I hope the players, the players’ association, fans and media understand just how severe this issue is for the league,” Suitor told the Greg Morgan Morning Show.

Suitor said the issue facing the Roughriders is one facing the entire league.

“They can’t cook the books, they can’t fix it, they can’t do any of that,” he said. “This is real. It’s transparent because it’s publicly owned and the players can look at it and say, ‘There you go.’ “

Suitor said the players and the league need to come together to get through this pandemic.

“Let’s get through this and at least get to a restart in 2021 but at least play some football before this calendar year is over,” he said.