October expansion of PST still applies to Roughriders tickets

On Tuesday, a number of groups in Saskatchewan benefited when the provincial government backtracked on its plan to charge the PST starting Oct. 1.

People who want to attend Saskatchewan Roughriders games were not one of those groups.

The provincial sales tax will still be levied on tickets for sporting events like CFL games at Mosaic Stadium, adding to fans’ bottom lines if they buy tickets after Oct. 1.

“It is coming at a time where it’s challenging for some of our fans and it’s an added expense,” Roughriders president-CEO Craig Reynolds said Tuesday. “But it’s a decision that was made and every live sports and entertainment business is going to have to charge that starting Oct. 1.”

Two weeks ago, the Roughriders invited their fans to renew their season tickets early to “BEAT THE PST.” Reynolds said the team hadn’t heard from the government about the campaign, but he noted it’s “a pretty common exercise” for businesses when a tax increase is coming.

He admitted it’s unclear how the PST will affect the team’s ticket sales in the future.

“We’ve had some feedback from our fans (about) their concern on that,” Reynolds said. “We just launched season-ticket renewals and we did that with purpose to allow them an opportunity to save that (tax) if they paid in full.

“We won’t really know the impact of that until we get through season-ticket renewals and then even into next season. We do have a game in October so it’ll be interesting to see if we hear or see of any impact on that.

“But it’s way too early to tell. It’s going to take some time.”