Rider Day with the Calgary Vipers?
Posted Jul 21, 2010 2:08 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As the Calgary Stampeders get set to host their rivals from Saskatchewan this weekend, the team’s next door neighbours are hosting a pre-game party for Rider fans.
Some Stamps fans are expressing outrage online, complaining that the Calgary Vipers are catering to the enemy.
Stamp fans online are going as far as to boycott Calgary’s baseball team which, in co-operation with the Roughriders, are hosting Rider Day at Foothills Stadium in the hours leading up to the CFL game next door. Viper President John Conrad says the Riders approached him with the idea to help celebrate Saskatchewan’s 100th anniversary in Canadian football and he says there’s no slight intended to the stamps or their fans.
“I think sometimes we take this ‘winning at all costs’, personally, I think, too far. You know, we’re just in the entertainment business. I have so much respect for the Stampeders, it’s unbelievable. I think they are as classy a sports organization as you can get,” he says.
Conrad says they’ll be having some fun, and hopefully, putting some more butts in the seats at Foothills Stadium, where attendance has been an issue for the club. Conrad adds Stampeder fans are welcome to join “melon heads” at 1:30 Saturday afternoon.
