Cherished championship memories will keep 2025 alive long past its imminent conclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think back and I just want to relive Grey Cup Sunday, over and over and over again,\u201d the Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 President-CEO said in a year-end interview. \u201cI probably don\u2019t want to relive the nerves in the fourth quarter, but the aftermath was special.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like I would do anything differently. I just want to relive it, because it was such an incredible moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebration began on Nov. 16 at 9:46 p.m., when time expired on the scoreboard at Princess Auto Stadium at Winnipeg. Marcus Sayles\u2019 knockdown of a desperation Montreal Alouettes pass sealed a 25-17 victory for Saskatchewan, which had led 25-7 late in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such an incredible moment, just seeing the guys and the team celebrate,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cIt was a team that had so much love for one another. It was a special, special group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember going to walk-through on Saturday (Nov. 15) and watching their last huddle. I got really emotional. I teared up and thought, \u2018I just want this so badly for these guys.\u2019 I\u2019m tearing up now, even thinking back to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also knew they had to go and earn it, too. These guys deserved it so much and then to see them deliver was just so awesome.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince then, it has just been a blur, but in the best kind of way.\u201d<\/p>\n
That extends to the retail side of the operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe positive effects of a Grey Cup carry on for years \u2014 certainly on the business side,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cIt\u2019s incumbent on us to build on this momentum and bottle it and get positive outcomes from a business perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just great to see the fans\u2019 response to merchandise, for example. You\u2019re seeing it fly off the shelves. You see how much this means to our fans when they\u2019re buying Grey Cup merchandise at a record pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a recognition of how much this team resonated with our fans. With season tickets and those kinds of things, we\u2019re seeing really positive momentum and we hope we can continue to ride that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we get to do a Grey Cup tour. We\u2019re able to take the Grey Cup to all corners of Saskatchewan, because the Cup belongs to the province \u2014\u00a0just like the team belongs to the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we get into 2026, the Grey Cup will be touring around and we\u2019ll get to see people\u2019s response to that. Hopefully it cements fandom in some cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reynolds can relate to that, based on his experiences as a youngster in Foam Lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always think back to what the 1989 championship did for me,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI was 13, about to turn 14. I was a fan but, after that win, I became a diehard fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Riders were a huge part of my life from that moment on, so you hope that, in 2025, there\u2019s are 13-year-old kids out there who have the same response and the Roughriders become a huge part of their lives, whereas before they were casual fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cNowadays, we\u2019re in the attention economy and it\u2019s very hard to get attention, so maybe this is what cuts through all the noise and cements the fandom.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Roughriders\u2019 Grey Cup win \u2014\u00a0their first since new Mosaic Stadium officially opened in 2017 \u2014\u00a0also cements the team\u2019s presence in its state-of-the-art facility. Taylor Field was the Roughriders\u2019 home during the previous four championship seasons, the latter of which was punctuated by a home-field Grey Cup victory on Nov. 24, 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with how the Western Final played out this year, you had that iconic moment,\u201d said Reynolds, recalling a Tommy Nield touchdown catch that gave Saskatchewan a 24-21 victory over the visiting B.C. Lions on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil then, one of the signature moments of the stadium was probably Cody (Fajardo) hitting the crossbar (on the final play of the 2019 Western Final). We were really close to getting an opportunity to go to the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was also Brett Lauther\u2019s game-winning field goal and his run into Pil Country in the 2019 Labour Day Classic and some other positive iconic moments, but in terms of the impact on the franchise, this year\u2019s Western Final was a high-stakes game and Tommy Nield\u2019s touchdown was that iconic signature play that propelled us into a Grey Cup that we ultimately won.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone who was there will never forget it. That\u2019s what so unique about sports. Yeah, you can watch it on TV, but to be there and feel that collective energy when Tommy Nield scored and to hear that roar, you can\u2019t replicate that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something you can only get at the stadium with a play of that magnitude. If you think about that, if the last minute doesn\u2019t go our way, we\u2019re not having this discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was, mind you, one FOMO moment for a Roughriders contingent that was in Winnipeg for Grey Cup Week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were celebrating the win at the after-party, somebody was telling me, \u2018The Green Mile is going crazy.\u2019 I remember going back to my room and looking at the videos and it was unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just something that means so much to this province in terms of the team achieving this goal. There\u2019s also the reality of only having done it four other times. It just means more here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just in general. Football means more here. Winning the Grey Cup means more in Saskatchewan than anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cup was the capper to a year full of highlights:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Saskatchewan was awarded hosting privileges for the 2027 Grey Cup Festival.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Tailgating, to make its debut outside Mosaic Stadium in 2026, was approved by the provincial government.<\/p>\n
\u2022 It was announced that the Roughriders\u2019 May 23 home pre-season game, against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, will be played at Saskatoon\u2019s Griffiths Stadium \u2014 the well-established home of training camp.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Co-op Community Zone, offering tickets for only $20, was introduced as part of the team\u2019s emphasis on affordability.<\/p>\n
\u2022 A new Plaza of Honour cairn was unveiled during a momentous year in which several current players and coaches strengthened or cemented their cases for enshrinement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cherished championship memories will keep 2025 alive long past its imminent conclusion. \u201cI think back and I just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-384426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}