Since arriving in Regina in 1999, Jeremy O’Day has had only one workplace. Not anymore.
After 18 years of working at Mosaic Stadium, O’Day — the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ assistant vice-president of football operations and administration — spent his day Friday at new Mosaic Stadium. Other members of the CFL team’s staff who had been housed at old Mosaic Stadium officially moved out of that building Friday.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t emotional,” said O’Day, who spent 12 seasons at the stadium as a Roughriders offensive lineman and the subsequent six years as a member of the team’s front office. “I’ve come to the stadium just about every day for the last 18 years and I really didn’t ever look at it like it was a bad place to go.”
O’Day has seen the old stadium go through a number of transformations, ranging from the turf on the field to the offices inside the building. He left with myriad memories from his playing career and his days in the front office.
“I spent a lot of time there,” O’Day said. “It’s finally time when you can sit back and think about all of those things that you kind of took for granted just because you were going through them all the time.
“The last night we were there, we sat back and said, ‘This is our last night in this stadium.’ It’s one of those things where you’re sad to see it go but you’re just so excited to get to the new one.”
The Roughriders have been located at the current stadium since 1936, but the aging facility has showed its age in recent years. In 2012, the municipal and provincial governments announced that a new, $278-million stadium would be built to replace the current facility in time for the 2017 season.
Now that new Mosaic Stadium has been completed, moving vans have spent the past few days carrying boxes and equipment down the street from its predecessor. Material from the Roughriders’ business offices — located at the corner of Albert Street and Dewdney Avenue — is to be moved to the new stadium this weekend.
On Monday, all of the team’s employees will be together for the first time in years.
“It’s nice that we’ll all be under one roof, that we’ll be able to walk down the hallway to get to the business office and they’ll be able to come down and visit us,” O’Day said.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into the running of a team and it’s not just the football operations or the players and coaches. It’s everything from the ticket office people to marketing and communications and all those areas that are critical for the team to be successful.”
The Roughriders will play their first game at the new edifice on June 10, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are to visit for a pre-season contest. Saskatchewan’s regular-season home opener is set for July 1 against the Bombers.
O’Day was the point man for much of the work done in the Roughriders’ area of the new stadium, including the meeting rooms, locker room and fitness facility. That helped whet his appetite for the move.
“I got to help pick out everything, from what was on the walls to the chairs we sit in,” he said. “When you do that and you see what you’re going to be moving into, it’s like waiting to open up a Christmas present.
“I was excited to get over here — and not necessarily because I wanted to leave the old one or anything like that. I see the opportunity that this new one is going to represent for us as an organization.”
The Roughriders played their final game at the current stadium on Oct. 29, sending it off with a special post-game ceremony following a 24-6 loss to the B.C. Lions.
There weren’t any fireworks Friday when the staff left for the final time.
“For the last couple of weeks, it’s been boxes, shipping tape, bubble wrap and packing stuff,” O’Day said. “One of the things that’s nice is you’re able to go through all your stuff and figure out whether you want to keep stuff or whether it’s time to move on.
“We had old equipment under the stands for years and years and old training stuff. What I’ve learned since we’ve moved it all over to the new stadium in the last two days was all of our equipment used to make the old stadium look good. Over here, it actually makes it look not as nice.
“It’s quite the facility over here. I just know it’s going to be a great tool for us.”
