Roughriders fans don’t want to wait decades for another Saskatoon game

After waiting 35 years for another Saskatchewan Roughriders game in Saskatoon, the dry spell is finally over — and fans hope it isn’t a one and done situation.

Daphanie Dill’s been rocking the Green and White since she moved to Canada in the 1980s and calls herself the, “Rider Bahama mama.”

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• Griffiths Stadium “Riderized” for first Saskatoon Roughriders game since 1991
• Film and TV buff Josh Woods writing new script with Saskatchewan Roughriders

Coming to the game quite literally dressed head to toe in green, she and her friends Shirley Stewart and Glendyne Brown have all been fans of the team well before 1991.

None of them ever got the chance to see the team play in the Bridge City, though, so Saturday’s game was a big deal.

“We waited all year for this to get going again and we’re pumped baby,” Dill said.

The trio came nearly an hour early for the Coors Light Party in the Park at Griffiths Field, which started hours before kickoff.

When asked whether they’d want to see more games played in Saskatoon all three friends excitedly said yes.

“Bring it on, bring more,” Dill said.

Inside the Coors Light Party in the Park area, one fan’s outfit of choice to watch the Riders take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was a jersey that had “WPG SUCKS” on the back. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)

They weren’t the only members of Rider Nation feeling that way.

“It’s about damn time,” Michael Soroski said about the Saskatoon game, adding how it needs to happen more often.

“If they have training camp here, there needs to be a pre-season game here. That has to happen, period,” he said.

That’s partly because for Soroski, who came over from Unity to watch the game with his friend, the Saskatoon games accommodate fans from other areas of the province.

“We the north are just as much fans as them the south,” he said.

So Soroski, who’s been cheering on the Riders for over 50 years, said the team needs to “make a bigger freaking effort,” to visit Saskatoon in the coming years.

Not everyone at the game had quite as many years of Riders fandom under their belt.

For Carol Jean-Batiste and her family, it was their first time going to a Roughriders game, making the trek over from Alberta because Jean-Batiste’s daughter is a rookie on the football team’s cheer-leading squad.

“We’re so excited, we’re gonna get our merch on,” Jean-Batiste said.

Though, Jean-Batiste’s husband, Michael, was still warming up to the transition from being an Edmonton Elks fan to a Riders fan.

“It’s a bit of an adjustment, but go Riders!” he said.

When asked what he thinks about Rider Nation so far, Michael only had two words: “Very dedicated.”

Read more:

• Hometown hero Daniel Wiebe snags game-winning TD in Riders’ Saskatoon pre-season tilt
• Griffiths Stadium “Riderized” for first Saskatoon Roughriders game since 1991
• Film and TV buff Josh Woods writing new script with Saskatchewan Roughriders