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Rider Nation
DCHP-2 (May 2016)
n. — Saskatchewan, Sports
the fan base of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a team in the Canadian Football League.
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — The Saskatchewan Roughriders were founded as the Regina Rugby Club in 1910, five years before Saskatchewan entered Confederation. The Roughriders play in the West Division of the Canadian Football League. Though the team has had only modest competitive success, winning just four Grey Cups in their over 100-year history (1966, 1989, 2007, 2013), their fans are well-known for their absolute dedication to their team (see the 2010 quotations). The team changed its name to the Regina Roughriders in 1924, with the current name being adopted in 1946.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are one of the few publicly owned professional sports teams in North America, which might account for some of the fans' loyalty (the only example of a community-owned, non-profit team in the US National Football League is the Green Bay Packers from Wisconsin). The Roughriders are also the only professional sports team in the province. At home games in the Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field in Regina, stands are often almost exclusively filled with fans wearing the team colours of green and white (see Image 1). When the Roughriders play away from home, many fans drive several hours to attend (see the first 2010 quotation) and their fans are also known for often outnumbering home-team supporters in the stadium (see the second 2010 quotation).
In accordance with the team's history and social background, Chart 1, showing primarily Canadian use, and especially Chart 2, marking the term as first-and-foremost a Saskatechewanism, should come as no surprise.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are one of the few publicly owned professional sports teams in North America, which might account for some of the fans' loyalty (the only example of a community-owned, non-profit team in the US National Football League is the Green Bay Packers from Wisconsin). The Roughriders are also the only professional sports team in the province. At home games in the Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field in Regina, stands are often almost exclusively filled with fans wearing the team colours of green and white (see Image 1). When the Roughriders play away from home, many fans drive several hours to attend (see the first 2010 quotation) and their fans are also known for often outnumbering home-team supporters in the stadium (see the second 2010 quotation).
In accordance with the team's history and social background, Chart 1, showing primarily Canadian use, and especially Chart 2, marking the term as first-and-foremost a Saskatechewanism, should come as no surprise.
Quotations
1994
The initial shock has passed. The collective "gulp'' has echoed all across Rough Rider Nation, from the Bank Street bridge to the uppermost Ottawa Valley.
The challenge has been laid down -- 15,000 season tickets sold by Jan. 31 or else the plug is pulled. The patient [the Roughrider team], 119 years old and frail, kept alive for the better part of two decades with assorted tubes, machines and chicken wire, will be put to rest.
2002
At various times, frantic members of the Rider Nation have wondered how their team would replace luminaries such as quarterback Nealon Greene, tailback Darren Davis and linebacker George White.
2009
Call them the Rider Nation diaspora. Generations of people leaving Saskatchewan for other parts of the country have transformed the Roughriders into Canada's football team and guaranteed green-clad fans will be glued to Sunday's Grey Cup game from coast to coast -- and, in at least one case, offshore.
2010
The Canadian Football League's Commissioner's Award was presented tonight to Saskatchewan Roughrider fans everywhere.
"This award is for everyone who has ever worn a watermelon instead of a toque to a CFL game," CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon said in making the announcement during the Gibson's Finest CFL Player Awards. [...]
"This year, the one hundredth year of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, I decided to pay tribute to a group that epitomizes the way CFL fans love our league: the Rider Nation, which collectively does so much to make our league vibrant and strong and fun."
While every team in the CFL has tremendous fans, Saskatchewan fans are known for filling stadiums for their team's road games as well as home games, making the Riders the league's best draw. They are responsible for more than half of the CFL's merchandise sales. And their team's games are routinely among the most watched on TSN.
2010
What is it about this team that makes fans drive for hours to watch a game at Mosaic Stadium? Why are there pockets of green in the stands at every road game? Why is Rider Nation so passionate?
In baseball, there are Yankees fans all over the world. But they've won 27 World Series titles so it's understandable. In hockey, the Montreal Canadiens have fans in every NHL arena. But they have won 24 Stanley Cup titles so, again, it's understandable.
In the CFL, every existing team has won more Grey Cups than the Roughriders, yet there is no team that has a more fervent following than those with the wheat sheaf on their helmets. Three Grey Cups in 100 years while playing in a league that has rarely had more than 10 teams would not appear to be a recipe to build a healthy fan base.
Yet, stories of fans having season tickets for generations and driving from around the province of Saskatchewan to follow the Riders are commonplace.
2012
But the league's resurgence is in large part a tribute to the millions of Canadians who have taken advantage of the opportunity to rediscover the joy of their game - from the "Rider Nation" that paints other provinces green whenever Saskatchewan's team is playing there, to the Montrealers who flocked back to see the Alouettes when they moved from the cavernous Olympic Stadium to the smaller stadium they called home in their 1950s heyday. Gone, in most cities, is the sheepishness about a version of football that the rest of the world knows little about, replaced with a fierce support for its traditions.
2013
Saskatchewan Roughriders president and CEO Jim Hopson said something profound when he addressed Rider Nation at Mosaic Stadium following the Riders' historic Grey Cup victory on Sunday.
"I think it's the greatest day in franchise history. And for the province, it's ... good things. People are moving here, and people are celebrating living here, and the economy's growing, and there's optimism. So this is sort of the icing on the cake."
Images
Image 1: Rider Nation in the stands. Source: Flickr. Image: B. Handley
Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 18 Apr. 2016
