Ready, set, shovel: clearing snow from Mosaic Stadium

If you think you have a big shovelling job this weekend — imagine being in charge of clearing a football field of snow.

When the snow began to fly on Wednesday, it unleashed a flurry of plowing activity as crews tried to keep up with clearing the snow as fast as it came down.

Josh Shaw is the director of operations at Mosaic Stadium. He said they have three grooming machines working all hours to keep the football field clear of snow.

“On the machines we have about a crew of five going around the clock, that includes about 30 shovellers as well throughout the stadium,” he said. “It’s not  just the field of play, it also includes the gates and the concourse and the aisle ways and the seating areas as well.”

He said it will be ongoing work through Friday evening.

“Then we’ll start again first thing tomorrow morning, bright and early start clearing again. It’s just a process you keep going and then throughout the day, and through the game, we’ll work on keeping that field clean.”

When asked if it is like a Zamboni for a football field, Shaw said it’s a bit more complicated because they have to haul away much bigger snow piles from the sidelines to clear room.

“It’s a plow – it’s a combination – we have a plastic blade that runs over it and then we have a brush and a mat that sweeps all that extra snow in,” Shaw explained.

Right now, Shaw is hoping the forecast holds and the snow stops before the Riders final regular season home game Saturday evening.

If not, he said they will be on standby to clear the yard lines and hash marks during TV commercial breaks and at half time.

“Hopefully Mother Nature does its work and after that, we just hope for sun.”

Kickoff for Sartuday’s game against the Edmonton Eskimos is 5 p.m.