Photo: Michael Scraper/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders punched their ticket to the West Final this past weekend with a win over the Toronto Argonauts and have now set a new goal: selling the game out.

The Roughriders hosted last year’s West Semi-Final and drew a relatively paltry crowd of 26,125 — just shy of 80 percent capacity at Mosaic Stadium. Though the team had clinched a home playoff game weeks earlier, it remained unclear until the final day of the regular-season if they’d host the West Semi-Final or West Final.

“It’s sometimes very difficult to sell a home playoff game when you don’t know the specific date because people have lives and plans, and so they’re not able to commit until the date’s known. Now the date’s known and we can get to selling this thing out,” team president and CEO Craig Reynolds told the media on Tuesday.

“The other thing that’s really helpful for us is we’ve got additional time now — sometimes you clinch very, very late and as a result you have a very short selling window.”

The Roughriders last hosted the West Final in 2019 and drew a sold-out crowd of 33,300 after clinching first place in the standings weeks prior.

Home playoff games provide a considerable financial boost for CFL teams, though Saskatchewan reportedly lost $210,064 that year. This was due in part to the financial support the organization provided to the Montreal Alouettes, who were without an owner for the length of the season, though this support whittled away what would have been a meagre profit.

Saskatchewan posted a $2.1 million profit last year despite the small crowd for the West Semi-Final and an average regular-season attendance figure of 27,684 — a 9.9 percent decrease from five years earlier. This year, the team has averaged crowds of 28,803 — a year-over-year increase of just over four percent — with one regular-season game left to be played. As such, one would think the team is on pace to be in the black again in 2025.

“You’ve got an additional game with ticket revenue and concessions and merchandise sales, and so it’s incumbent on us to make sure we get Mosiac Stadium sold out and as a result of that, you essentially have an eleventh home game, which comes with all the revenue as a result,” said Reynolds.

“You hope with it being the West Final, you can maximize your revenue in terms of selling the game out, so that’s our goal for every playoff game, but certainly the West Final.”

The Saskatchewan Roughriders (12-4) will visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (8-8) at Princess Auto Stadium on Friday, October 17 with kickoff slated for 8:00 p.m. EDT. The Riders are coming off a win over Toronto that allowed them to clinch first place in the West Division, while the Blue Bombers lost to Edmonton.

The weather forecast in Winnipeg calls for a high of 11 degrees with rainy conditions. The game will be broadcast on TSN in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on 620 CKRM in Regina and 680 CJOB in Winnipeg.