Thunder hopes to roar in new home
The Saskatchewan Roughriders and University of Regina Rams have already debuted at new Mosaic Stadium. Now it is the Regina Thunder’s turn.
The Thunder is to open its PFC regular season Saturday, 7 p.m., against the visiting Saskatoon Hilltops.
“It will be really cool,” Thunder quarterback Sawyer Buettner says. “We played a scrimmage there and that was my first time getting on the field and feeling the turf and kind of taking a look around.
“It’s a pretty special place, so we’re really excited. Playing the Hilltops underneath the lights is going to be a lot of fun.”
Thanks to last Saturday’s scrimmage, the $278-million facility won’t be entirely new to the Thunder.
“We got to go in the lockerroom,” Buettner says. “A bunch of us had never even been in there before, so it was really good to take a look around and see what the new environment is going to be like.”
Thunder head coach Scott MacAulay is especially looking forward to the next step — the Thunder’s first game at the stadium.
“I’m super-excited to be a part of that,” he says.
“It’s something that I’ve definitely been looking forward to all off-season. We had an opportunity to play our intra-squad game there and obviously there’s going to be way more fan support for this coming game.
“We had a lot of fun being at the intra-squad game and actually getting to go on the field for once and playing the game that we love there. It was exciting. We’ve watched the Riders there and we thought it would be just awesome to be down on the field.”
The priority is to play winning football, regardless of the venue.
“A stadium’s a stadium,” Buettner says. “It’s obviously a really nice new stadium, and it will be fun to play in.”