AUSTIN, TILLMAN AND CHICK DESERVE THANKS
Trio now with Ticats played a key role in getting a new stadium for Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ third Cup set the wheels in motion for (cue fanfare) cupholders!
Saskatchewan’s storybook season of 2007, punctuated by a 23-19 Grey Cup victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, ignited something in Rider Nation.
Fan interest, always intense, ascended to another tier 10 years ago, stretching Taylor Field to the limits and exposing its deficiencies like never before.
As available tickets became scarce and home playoff games stopped being a novelty, discussions were fuelled about the stadium issue.
Before too long, the notion of renovating Taylor Field was abandoned in favour of building another Mosaic Stadium.
The $278-million edifice is to be the site of Saturday’s CFL game between the Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. As much as green-clad loyalists support their team, some applause should be reserved for three employees of the visiting side — Kent Austin (head coach, vicepresident of football operations), Eric Tillman (general manager) and John Chick (defensive end).
Austin was the Riders’ head coach in 2007. Tillman was the GM. Chick was a first-year CFLer. Without their integral contributions of a decade ago — and key plays made by then-Riders slotback Andy Fantuz (now nursing an injury with Hamilton) — would there even be a new stadium?
Or, would fans still be flocking to Taylor Field and marvelling at 17th-century innovations in washroom technology?
The window of opportunity, after all, proved to be very small. A funding deal for a new stadium was struck in 2012, five years before the pigskin palace officially opened.
By the time the Roughriders first played a game in the new stadium, the City of Regina and Province of Saskatchewan were dealing with situations where money was considerably tighter.
Given today’s economic climate, it would be virtually impossible for civic and/or provincial officials to make a case for funding a stadium.
In 2007, by contrast, the economy was booming. By 2012, the conditions were still conducive to conceptualizing and building a new sporting facility.
“When I look at the market today, am I ever glad we got it done in 2012, because I’m not too sure that the conditions would allow us to do one today,” former Roughriders chairman of the board Roger Brandvold told me a few weeks ago.
“This was a very small window of opportunity here in Saskatchewan,” Regina Mayor Michael Fougere added. “We all had to be aligned at the right time to make it happen. If you don’t seize it, it’s gone forever … and we did it.”
Austin, Tillman and crew seized an opportunity back in 2007.
Saskatchewan was 7-2 at midseason, thanks in part to Kerry Joseph’s game-winning quarterback draw in the well-named Labour Day Classic against Winnipeg, and the Roughriders ended up enjoying a transformative season.
Chick did his part, registering two sacks in the 2007 Grey Cup game. True to form, Chick twice felled the quarterback when the Roughriders next won a championship — on Nov. 24, 2013, when Austin, Tillman and the rest of the Tiger-Cats lamented a 45-23 loss on Taylor Field.
After spending two more seasons with the Roughriders, Chick was released by newly installed football-operations supremo Chris Jones. Chick quickly resurfaced with the Tiger-Cats and enjoyed another banner season.
Now he is poised to play at the new stadium for the first time. Austin and Tillman will also be on the premises.
A very public thank-you — ideally on the basketball-courtsized video board — is warranted. How about it, Roughriders brass?