On Wednesday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders released their financial report from the 2022 season.
The team recorded $3.88 million in operating income and $3.3 million from hosting the 2022 Grey Cup for a total net income of $7.1 million.
Despite the encouraging number, the club is still recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team recorded a profit of $3.8 million in 2021 but were still looking to pay back the $8.3 million in losses during the pandemic.
This meant the Riders still had $4.4 million in debt to pay back which leaves the Riders with $2.6 million in profit following the effects of the pandemic.
“Last year I stood here and noted the 2022 year was the start of the club’s financial recovery. That was on the heels of announcing a multi-million dollar loss and managing through the pandemic, which we recall created lots of financial uncertainty for the club,” said Kent Paul, the Riders’ chief financial officer.
“The opportunity to play a full season along with strong support from our fans, partners, and stakeholders have allowed us to recover from the financial challenges we faced not too long ago. In addition, the opportunities to host the 2022 Grey Cup, which was a resounding success was also part of the equation.”
Paul noted the club saw the return of normal revenue streams in the areas of gate receipts, sponsorships, and concessions. However, the merchandise sales were down from the previous year.
The chief financial officer also explained that the clubs’ earning before interest, tax, amortization, and depreciation was $9.8 million, which is the one of the strongest in history
Overall, the Grey Cup generated $23.9 million in revenues, $16.4 in expenses, for a net of $7.5 million. The Canadian Football League (CFL) receives 60 per cent and the Riders’ receive 40 per cent.
The club did share that season ticket sales are down this season but it is common for teams to see a decrease following a Grey Cup host year. However, given the rising costs of everything and the team seeing less sell-outs, the club is grasping at trying to bring fans back to fill the seats of Mosaic Stadium.
“The club is very cognizant of the economic challenges facing Rider Nation going forward, record inflation, increasing interest rates. An overall increase in consumer goods is impacting everyone’s bank accounts,” Paul explained.
“The introduction of PST to ticket sales is making it harder and harder for Rider Nation to attend games. Saying that, the club is committed to working through these items. Introducing $99 family packages, $5 menu items, reducing parking fees, and lowering the price of 9,000 seats in the stadium to help make game days more affordable,” he added.
Paul then went on to share the five key takeaways from the club’s financial results:
- The Club’s ability to play a full season in 2022 was a ley component to seeing the Club’s revenue and expenses return to “normal” levels.
- Hosting the 109th Grey Cup and 2022 Festival resulted in strong financial results for the Club and CFL.
- The Club’s financials are strong and look to have recovered from the financial impact of the pandemic.
- Inflation, rising interest rates, and the overall economy which is impacting Rider Nations disposable income available for entertainment, is in turn impacting the Club’s revenues and in particular, ticket sales.
- The Club has taken steps to try and support the current economic factors. For example, reducing the price on 9,000 tickets, introducing the $99 family pack and $5 menu items
Amongst the league, Paul said the trend is similar for other teams.
“Just recently in the last couple of months, some of the other teams have released their results. I think what we’re seeing in terms of tickets, and some of the pieces is fairly common across may teams. Across the league we respect and support each other the best we can,” Paul said.
The Riders’ unsuccessful season played a role in 2022 as Paul noted around $400,000-$500,000 in net income is usually earned when a team has the opportunity to host a home playoff game like they did in 2021.
When questioned about the rising cost of alcohol at the stadium, Paul deflected to everything costing more.
“Our rent has an inflationary component to it, so that goes up every year. Everything is just naturally costing more than it did previously. At the end of the day, we’re trying to manage input costs that are going up,” Paul said.
“When you look at our alcohol prices, there’s tax increases occur, just natural increases in the product itself. So we try to look at where we can balance it overall. So we try to balance where we have to increase versus where we can maybe find some affordability,” he added.
