Sky of Blue and Sea of Green

It was a sky of blue and a sea of green.  No, we weren’t on a Yellow Submarine but at a home game of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, arguably the most successful franchise in the Canadian Football League. In 2010 the Roughriders are celebrating their 100^th anniversary. The Riders have 3 Grey Cup titles to their credit as well as a number of memorable appearances.  However, it isn’t their success on the field that makes them great.  It is the overwhelming support they receive from the entire province of Saskatchewan.

Other CFL franchises have had their troubles.  The worst examples being the Montreal Alouettes folding and then returning as the Montreal Concorde before resuming as the Alouettes and the namesake Ottawa Rough Riders.  The Ottawa Riders folded, reformed as the Ottawa Renegades and folded again.  The Toronto Argonauts have struggled with attendance and relevance issues.  After all, the Americans have the NFL and it just has to be better.  However, the Roughriders continue to fill Mosaic stadium in what is the most amazing example of fan support in Canada and perhaps the world.

Interestingly, the Roughriders are the only team named after their home province, not their city.  That’s appropriate since the whole province supports the team.  How else could a city, smaller than Windsor, not only support a CFL franchise but support a profitable one at that?  Tickets are at a premium.  Game day tickets went on sale on June 1.  Later that day we were only able to get tickets at the goal line for the September 17^th game.

Sporting Rider green in the workplace on game day is considered acceptable in Regina and perhaps elsewhere.  Attendants at the RCMP Heritage Museum and Royal Saskatchewan Museum wore Rider colours even though they probably have their own uniforms to wear. There is obviously tacit approval of management to support the team.

The fans are fanatical.  Almost everyone wears some Rider green and many take it to extremes with faces painted, hair coloured, and very creative costumes. There may be alcohol involved but not as much as you might think.  There were a few fans of the archrival Calgary Stampeders in the stands near us but there was no sign of a Calgary contingent. It was truly a sea of green.

The game itself was a prairie classic with the Stamps taking an early lead and the Riders fighting back, missing a chance to win it on the last play of the game, and then taking it in overtime.  Watching the Stamps take the early lead and seeing the Riders trying to restore some confidence in an offence that did nothing in a humiliating loss to the lowly Winnipeg Blue Bombers the previous week, I couldn’t help but think that the Riders would have lost this game without their fans. Down 10-0 in the first quarter as a result of a horrible pass interception run back for a touchdown and general lack lustre play, many fans would have gotten down on their team.  Not Rider fans, they kept cheering them on and the tide turned.  The nearly invincible 9-1 Stamps began to falter as the 6-4 Riders started playing like the Grey Cup contenders they were last year.  I am convinced that the Riders would have lost in McMahon stadium and perhaps lost big without that sea of green behind them.  Kudos to the Saskatchewan Roughriders and their fans and congratulations on their centennial