CEO REYNOLDS PROMISES TO PROTECT ROUGHRIDERS BRAND
League once again fines team’s front office on the eve of celebrations for new stadium
For a few minutes on Saturday, a grand opening was transformed into a 36-grand opening.
Shortly after Saskatchewan Roughriders president-CEO Craig Reynolds performed the ribbon-cutting at the new Mosaic Stadium store, he faced reporters’ questions about $36,500 worth of fines that the CFL had levied the previous day.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed that we were once again in the news for the wrong reasons,” Reynolds, who was accountable and accommodating as always, told CJME’s Arielle Zerr and this grizzled scribe.
Last year, three violations by Roughriders head coach, general manager and vice-president of football operations Chris Jones prompted the league to fine the team a total of $80,000.
After the imposition of a $60,000 fine, Jones read from a prepared statement but refused to field questions — leaving that chore to Reynolds.
The Roughriders heard from league headquarters again on Friday, when the team was fined $31,500 for two bylaw violations. Jones also received a $5,000 ticket for meeting with the publicist for quarterback Johnny Manziel, which constituted tampering because Manziel is on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ negotiation list.
“We need to understand the rules and, as an organization, we need to comply with the rules,’’ Reynolds said. “It’s as simple as that.”
In the wake of the latest violations, which have fattened the team’s tab to $111,500 (not including Jones’s $5,000 penalty), some Riders fans have lamented a fine state of affairs.
“I share their disappointment,’’ Reynolds said. “We’ve talked about this internally and we don’t expect this to happen again. We’ve addressed it and we have to turn the page and move forward. As the leader of this organization, I’m extremely disappointed in it, and I share the fans’ disappointment.”
They should be disappointed.
This is a team, after all, that once had to scratch, claw and even beg for every cherished nickel.
Legendary general manager Ken Preston kept the team alive by adhering to a shoestring budget. When there were profits, they did not remotely resemble the seven-figure windfalls to which the Roughriders had become accustomed before losing nearly $4.3 million last year.
One of Bill Baker’s first moves as the GM was to ask proud, accomplished veterans such as Ray Elgaard, Roger Aldag and Glen Suitor to accept pay cuts to help the franchise remain solvent. Their compensation was streamlined leading up to a 1987 telethon.
Ten years later, there was a buy-or-die ticket blitz. Those revenues, along with the careful spending of general manager Alan Ford, sustained professional football in Saskatchewan.
When money was at its tightest, the Friends of the Riders Touchdown Lottery was a life preserver for the Roughriders. One can only marvel at the remarkable amount of time and energy Tom Shepherd pours into selling, say, $111,500 worth of lottery tickets each year.
The organization has grown exponentially since the telethon era, but that should not give the Roughriders — Jones, actually — a license to flush money down one of the new stadium’s stateof-the-art toilets.
“As a community-owned team, we hold ourselves to a high standard,’’ Reynolds said while Roughriders players Chad Owens and Dan Clark signed autographs at the 4,500-square-foot retail outlet.
“Just because we have a brandnew store and we sell a lot of merchandise doesn’t mean you go and spend money on fines.”
When those expenditures are reluctantly and routinely made, the Roughriders’ overall reputation is affected.
“Whenever you have things of this nature, it will have an impact on the brand — absolutely — and that’s the discussions we have,’’ Reynolds said. “Nothing is more important to us than our brand, and when you have something that negatively impacts the brand, as an organization you need to address it.’’
Reynolds has addressed the matter — the nature of his discussion with Jones was not divulged — and, eventually, the message must be absorbed.
“I’m not going to comment on Chris’s performance publicly but obviously it’s a bit of a learning curve as well,’’ Reynolds said. “He’s a new GM, so there has been a learning curve associated with that, but he understands his role and he understands the way we need to move forward.”
Nobody understands that more clearly than Reynolds, who has demonstrated he is highly adept at dealing with fine-related fallout. The problem is, he has to be.