For the fourth time in the Saskatchewan Roughriders history, a game was postponed on Friday night when the Green and White were poised to host the Calgary Stampeders. However, Friday’s game was the first in team history to be postponed on the day of the game.
With the air quality index exceeding the CFL and players' association's cap, the decision was made to postpone the 7 p.m. kick-off to 7:45 p.m. to allow for possible wind to clear smoke from the Regina area as it had done 70 kilometres to the west in Moose Jaw 45 minutes earlier. That’s when the wind stopped, trapping a smoky air mass in the Saskatchewan capital. Communication between Canadian Football League commissioner Stewart Johnston, the Riders and the Stamps began at that point.
“We truly thought this was going to be an hour delay. That is what all the conditions and all the markers showed us. So when the wind died and didn't move, it became such a real-time fluid condition.” Johnston, who is in his first season as CFL commissioner, told the Rider Broadcast Network stakeholder safety was paramount.
“We developed a policy in conjunction with the CFLPA and the players. We've got a cap on air quality before we feel comfortable playing; it's got to be at a certain level or under. We got word earlier that things might be tricky and then monitored closely over the day. We've got meteorologists in every market. The trickiest thing about wildfire smoke is it's unlike precipitation, where our radar is great at anticipating lightning or issues like that -- predicting wind is a lot more challenging.”
The decision was made to postpone the game indefinitely, still hoping the smoke would clear allowing the air quality index to drop to an allowable rate. If that had happened, players would have been given an abbreviated 30-minute warm-up before kick-off. Eventually, it was decided the contest would be postponed to Saturday if the players could not begin a warm-up by 10:45 p.m.. Three hours later, the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network informed fans the game was going to be postponed to 2 p.m. Saturday.
“We did everything we possibly could to get this game in tonight. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate, and the wind didn’t cooperate, and here we are," Roughriders’ president and CEO Craig Reynolds said while becoming emotional when speaking following the postponement, praising fans for staying throughout the delay.
The announcement left fans across the country shocked that a game would not go ahead, among them was commissioner Johnston.
“Disbelief, disappointment, discouragement, and certainly appreciation for everyone, the fans, those in the concession, security, the players, everyone involved here was pulling for this game to happen and stuck it through.”
Following the postponement announcement, fans who endured the delay flooded social media with their disappointment, an emotion Johnston acknowledged.
“When you're not sitting in your seat watching a football game, anything less than that will not be as good," Johnston added the league will work to improve should situations like these arise in the future.
“I think a learning experience for me and us as a team is to be significantly more specific in the words we use in communicating. We should have described exactly what we were reviewing: the air quality index is this, the winds are at ‘X’ kilometres per hour, Moose Jaw is down to a three and we think that condition is coming to us. It's on us to be far more specific in the information we give because transparency is incredibly important. We were trying to communicate, but I think we didn't go far enough in our detail."
Reynolds and the Roughriders will connect with fans who had tickets on Friday to thank them for their unwavering support.
“I can’t believe our fan base, I’m trying not to get emotional, but I was blown away today. I couldn’t believe how they were tonight and the number of people who stuck it out. They wanted to see football as much as we wanted to play football. We have the best fans, I’ve said it over and over but tonight proved it. We have literally the best fans in the world and we wanted to play football for them.”
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are back in action on Saturday when they travel to play the B.C. Lions, a game that can be heard across the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.
Here is the conversation I had with Johnston:
