Renew or Not to Renew

There was a gasp around the room.

I looked around to see shocked faces.

I had just told everyone that I had decided to not renew my roughriders season tickets. It's true and it was not a decision I took lightly. We had until February to make a firm decision and while l absolutely loved attending games at the beautiful Mosaic Stadium we ultimately decided this was the best scenario for me and my husband.

Yes it makes makes me sad.

Why Sandra why? I want to say first and foremost that covid and the whole pandemic actually had little to do with it. We had attended most home games last season and felt it was important to support our riders during that time. We really enjoyed our seats in the stadium and the fans around us were fantastic. Last season I never felt unsafe being in a crowd and the product in spite of the whole situation was good. What I did feel was the digital tickets are a pain but then add in having to show my identification and vaccine status as well at the time just added to extra stress that l just did not want to deal with. I know that all restrictions are now lifted so it isn't exactly the same, but it definitely was a factor in us wanting to travel to games.

At the time and because I could not attend the late season games in 2021 I evoked the Covid promise the Roughriders had for season ticket holders.  I cancelled the remainder of the season and got a refund while preserving our seats.  With the money we got back, we bought a tread mill.

Remember when gas was 40 cents a litre in the summer of 2020? Good grief. Now we are looking at $1.78 and that might not be so bad for a couple like us but when you are looking at driving from Saskatoon to Regina several weekends in a row you start questioning whether it’s worth it. There are options I suppose to car pool or the Rider bus which goes to games but it’s nice to be your own chauffeur and go on your own timeline.  Is the price of gas going to interfere with your travel plans in 2022?  How will this impact those traveling from destinations farther than Saskatoon?  All good questions I think.

I'm not going to lie that attending an entire season of CFL home games is a big commitment.  When you don't live in the host city as I've stated above there's lot's of time involved in getting there.  For us, it's an entire day.  Many fans don't live in Regina and Rider fans are known for travelling far and wide to attend games.  You work Monday to Friday (if you're lucky) and then spend a whole day getting to the game and getting back home.  Just like that the weekend is shot.  Some games, especially those 8pm starts means us diehard fans get home at 2 or 3am.  That meant, for us anyway, that most of the next day is exhausting.  It's something that the Covid shutdown of 2020 taught me, my time is more valuable than I used to think it was.  Yes, being at a home game at Mosaic Stadium is amazing and nothing beats Bring Em Out but there's something to be said for staying home and watching on tv and preserving the rest of the day.  When you combine several weekends in a row all summer/fall long it's something I am no longer prepared to do.

In the provincial budget it was also announced that sporting and entertainment events would now be included in the 6% PST.  This doesn't come in until October 2022 so if you've already paid for your Roughrider season tickets it won't have any impact on you this year.  It will going forward though.  Perhaps now is the time to lock in your tickets for the 3 year VIP offer the Riders have and you'd likely want to get the balance paid now too.  Will this affect attendance in the future?  We will have to wait and see.

None of this means I am not a fan.  In fact, I think this decision allows me to be a better fan and better at keeping all my pages up to date like I used to.  Work, travel, games, blogging, etc etc is hard to keep up with when you're never home to actually write anything down!  I've found that when I had the pressure to "I need to write about Saturdays game" it was really REALLY hard to find the inspiration to do it and hence we've had such a long long break where I haven't shared anything.  It's a part of something I've really missed.

So after we considered all the different aspects and pros/cons of Roughrider CFL season tickets I responded to the January 25th email which stated the deadline to renew season tickets for the early bird pricing was February 1st.  

"Hi.  I hate having to make the decision because I've really loved having season tickets and have enjoyed the entire experience however, I will not be renewing my season tickets."

I received this great response.

So there it is.  Decision final.

Now, when does Training Camp start?  Will it be in Saskatoon again?  Us Rider fans are waiting patiently.