Roughriders seeing boost in ticket sales, merch after Grey Cup win

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are reaping the benefits of a Grey Cup championship.

After winning their fifth title in franchise history and first since 2013 last month in Winnipeg, the CFL club has seen a massive uptick in merchandise sales of championship gear while season ticket sales have also increased.

“Immediately, it is merchandise for sure,” Roughriders president and CEO Craig Reynolds told the Leader-Post this week. “There was such a great response from our fans and I think this team meant a lot to our fans.

“I would say (season ticket) trends are really, really positive. We’ve sold over double the number of new season tickets than we had at the same point last year.

“It positively impacts all areas of your of your business.”

Obviously, right?

Every CFL team — or any sports franchise for that matter — has the goal of winning a championship every season for that exact reason.

And while there are massive benefits as mentioned, there are also plenty of costs associated with playing in — and winning — a championship.

While the CFL covers some expenses of playing in the Grey Cup, at least on the football operations side of things, the Roughriders incurred several expenses during the week in Winnipeg which included travel and accommodations for nearly all staff.

The team now also has to design Grey Cup rings and plan a banner-raising ceremony, among other things.

All welcomed costs — but still costs when it comes to the balance sheet.

“It’s pretty expensive to go to the Grey Cup and it’s pretty expensive to win the Grey Cup,” said Reynolds. “All expenses that obviously, as an organization, we’re happy to incur.

“It doesn’t happen certainly every year so you want to make sure that, as an organization, we’re doing things right. We wanted our entire organization to have an opportunity to be at the game and experience that.

“All those things come with a cost. There’s playoff bonuses; those types of things that are built into the (collective bargaining agreement) and coaches and football ops contracts.

“And then obviously the big one coming up is Grey Cup rings. But like I said, all expenses, you’re happy as an organization to pay for sure.”

After the club generated $2.1 million in 2024, Reynolds said they are forecasting “positive revenue” for 2025.

Further into season ticket sales, after seeing three straight years of decline out of the pandemic, the Roughriders were able to see positive season ticket sales in 2025 — up to more than 15,500 in the stadium that holds 33,500.

“We were fortunate enough in 2025 to reverse what was a trend that came up straight out of the pandemic,” said Reynolds. “We actually had a net increase last year, which is exactly what we had hoped, and were working to try to achieve.”

Reynolds — who said last year the club’s biggest challenge was building up the season-ticket base — noted early projections will see those numbers rise in 2026.

“I think it’s just building on this momentum,” said Reynolds. “And I think it’s probably the same challenge (as last year), is being able to grow our season ticket base coming off of what was a historic season.

“I think that’s the challenge in most sports leagues nowadays is gate receipts and getting people out to the games. And I think that will continue. We’re seeing great early momentum and success, but it’s around, how do we capitalize on this excitement and the pride that I think we’re seeing about the team.

“And so that’s our off-season challenge and objective, and we’re excited to kind of dig in there and tackle that.”

Following the release of the 2026 CFL schedule this week, we know the Riders will open the new season on June 13 at Mosaic Stadium against the B.C. Lions when the 2025 Grey Cup banner will be raised in the north end zone.

It will also be the first time fans are able to tailgate in the parking lot next to Mosaic Stadium before home games after the Saskatchewan government introduced the tailgating legislation earlier this year.

While season ticket holders will have a chance to enjoy pre-game festivities that are very popular in other markets, the Roughriders are hammering out the final details of what that will look like. It will also give the club a chance to modify their pre-game party in Confederation Park just outside of the stadium.

“We’re working through with the REAL district and the city on determining exact location (for tailgating),” said Reynolds. “One of the things we’re talking about is, it might allow us to just focus (Confederation) park on really a more family-friendly entertainment.

“It is that way right now, but I think this might allow us to just move even more in that direction, where that’s sort of the family, kid-focused entertainment and experience, and then you’ve got the tailgating, which provides, that sort of experience kind of adjacent to it and all in close proximity to the stadium.”

While the Roughriders are focusing on the work that needs to be done for 2026, next year the club will also begin planning ahead to 2027, as stadiums across the CFL will need alterations as the league is shortening the dimensions of the field while moving the goalposts to the back of the end zone.

That could mean a facelift for the field turf at Mosaic Stadium next off-season.

“We’ve started some early conversations with the city,” said Reynolds. “We’re also hosting Grey Cup in 2027 so there’s a natural sort of conversation there.

“The reality is our turf by 2027, it’ll be 10 years old, so probably at a point where best practice would say you’d want to be looking at replacing it.

“So I think those are the conversations that we’ll need to have with the city as owners of Mosaic.”

While the football operations side of the department is currently busy re-signing pending free agents and dealing with contract negotiations, there’s plenty of tasks to complete on the business side as well in the weeks and months ahead, while also continuing to arrange Grey Cup visits to various places across the province before they give the trophy back to the league in April.

And while Reynolds said the organization is still “buzzing” from last month’s Grey Cup win, preparations for next season are well underway.

“There’s lots of work to do and your off-season is shortened a little bit just because you played in the Grey Cup and obviously (had) the week of celebration following that,” said Reynolds. “It doesn’t take long before you turn the page in 2026.”

tshire@postmedia.com

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