Fans holding Riders viewing party in Las Vegas

A room full of people decked out in Roughrider gear and cheering on the green and white – that’s something you’d expect to see in Saskatchewan, but this one will be in Las Vegas.

Ashley Dyal lives in Las Vegas, isn’t Canadian and up until about a year ago, likely wouldn’t have been able to point out Saskatchewan on a map. But she’s since become a Saskatchewan Roughriders fan and on Saturday, will be holding a viewing party at a patio in Las Vegas for the Riders’ game against Calgary.

Dyal says she got into the Riders thanks to Justin and Greg, the online entertainers from Regina who went down for several Vegas Golden Knights games. The two also started a tongue-in-cheek campaign to have the Knights declared the official NHL team for Saskatchewan.

“If anybody knows anything about Las Vegas, they know that we’re all about reciprocity, so we decided ‘Oh, you know what? Let’s go ahead and support their team. Let’s learn more about Canadian football, let’s see what they’ve got going on.'”

She said there’s also a connection because the Riders’ defensive lineman, Jordan Reaves, is brother to Golden Knights’ Ryan Reaves.

“So we decided ‘Oh that’s going to be so much fun!’ so we started watching the games and really getting into it. It’s super exciting and we have just a really great time,” said Dyal.

She said she started organizing group orders of Riders merchandise and began organizing the viewing party for this Saturday.

“So, we’re just loving it and having a blast down here.”