Riders CEO Craig Reynolds says Saskatoon pre-season game will be a hot ticket

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

THE GREEN ZONE: News today on how to get involved with the pre-season action in Saskatoon for the Riders and the Bombers in May, with the announcement that Saskatoon season ticket holders will get to buy pre-sale tickets. How far out does the area include?

CRAIG REYNOLDS: We’ve got a little radius that we figured out. It’s amazing what you can find out nowadays.

THE GREEN ZONE: I’m glad you’re doing that because Saskatoon fans do a bulk of the travelling during the regular season.

CRAIG REYNOLDS: That was that was really important to us when we went down this venture was to think of that commitment that members do to come down here for 10 home games and driving that two-and-a-half hours.

So with a game in their backyard,  just to give them a little bit of an opportunity to get tickets a little earlier through a pre-sale opportunity.  They’re limited, but if they don’t get them in the preseason sale window, they can still join the other season ticket members on Friday.

THE GREEN ZONE: how much work is going into expanding Griffiths for this game, if any?

CRAIG REYNOLDS: Not a ton. We’re going to bring in some tenting and it’ll look slightly different. But we went up there in October and they put on a great game day.

There’s a ton of space, specifically in that south end zone. There’s a lot of opportunity for fans to flow throughout the standing room area. We’re going to enhance a little bit some of the food and beverage options with food trucks and those types of things. We’re going to have a little bit bigger of a pregame party and that might be a little free-flowing as well.

We’re going to try to get 10,000 people in there. When we did Touchdown Atlantic those two years. There was just a ton of standing room only space, and it was just really cool. There was a great vibe. There was a great atmosphere and people just flowed around and enjoyed the experience.

It is a small venue. It’s going to be really intimate, even how our players enter, they’re going to run right past fans. It’s going to be really, really cool.

THE GREEN ZONE: You don’t do it very often, so it’s unique on that front as well. 

CRAIG REYNOLDS: I think 1991 was the last time we did it. We’ve been wanting to do it for a number of years, and then this World Cup opportunity with Toronto and hosting their home game gave us the opportunity.

There is a there is a distinct buzz in Saskatoon. It is the thing I get asked most about this off-season is how do I get tickets to the game in Saskatoon. So we’re feeling really good about that.

THE GREEN ZONE: Do you think you’ll even get to that point for general admission? Or do you think this will be a hot ticket?

CRAIG REYNOLDS: We don’t think there’s going to be very many (general admission). We probably will hold some tickets just so we can go to general public and allow folks in Saskatoon to participate. But we don’t think there’s going to be many.

THE GREEN ZONE: I’ve had tons of conversations with friends with season tickets about the tailgate lottery. How is that going?

CRAIG REYNOLDS:  It was awesome. It was amazing. We sent that out and within like a minute, there were people signed up. So we had way more demand than spots, which is good.

We’ll have a nice wait list, assuming those folks want to continue, and if we think about expanding it in 2027 and beyond, they’ll hopefully have that opportunity.

We haven’t actually conducted the lottery yet. By the end of the month, we’ll be doing that, that lottery, and folks will eventually get communicated with in April. We’re really excited. We got the space allocated out, working with SLGA on the final regulations. They got Royal Assent last week. It was a huge win, too. So it’s come together really quickly from the first time we approached the provincial government around a year and a little bit ago.

THE GREEN ZONE: Are you going to be able to tailgate in Saskatoon for the preseason game?

CRAIG REYNOLDS: We’re going to have a pregame party. The Huskies have a great space adjacent to the stadium. We’re going to just expand that a little bit. There will be a pregame party. You won’t be able to drive your vehicle on it, but they will be able to grab a beer or two.

THE GREEN ZONE: Where are we at with the Gainer and PA announcer job search?

CRAIG REYNOLDS: We got a new game day manager and she did some great things last year. She just wanted to have a process where we look at our game day entertainment teams. We do it with our cheer team, and we have tryouts. We’re going to market with Gainer and had some interesting applications, I would say.

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