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CFL Soundtrack: Can the Riders rise in the wake of departures, or will they wash away?
Continuing on with our CFL Soundtrack preview series, a look at the CFL's nine teams and what musical acts they compare to, here's an examination of the reigning Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders and how they compare to The Trews.
There are plenty of comparison between The Trews and the Roughriders, including that both have turned to crowdfunding at one point. Both are extremely popular at the moment, too. The Trews have posted 14 top 10 singles over the last decade, plus two gold-certified albums, and been involved in two Grey Cups (doing the pre-game concert in 2007 and the national anthem in 2010). Their most recent album, the self-titled The Trews (which was initially crowdfunded through PledgeMusic) hit #1 on the Canadian charts, the first time they've done that. Meanwhile, the Roughriders are the CFL's reigning top team from both an economic standpoint and an on-field standpoint. Both have gone through some tough times over the years, with the Riders' telethons barely keeping the team alive at points in the 1990s and The Trews struggling to make it in Toronto in their early days:
Borne out of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, the foursome dropped out of university and moved to the Big Smoke in order to take a real stab at rockstardom. They quit their day jobs and tried gigging full-time. Needless to say, times were lean.
"We were living frugally, which would be an understatement," [frontman Colin] MacDonald recounts. "We were surviving off cans of tuna fish and the only time we ever got to drink was when we were gigging and they'd give us free beer at the bar. We lived hand-to-mouth for a long time."
They don't have to now, though, and neither do the Roughriders. The team was incredibly profitable last year, making $10.4 million with Grey Cup revenues factored in (and $1.1 million before that, which would have been higher if not for Grey Cup costs), and even with the team chipping in $40 million over time to their new stadium, they should still be in great financial shape for the foreseeable future, especially when you consider the league's new TV deal giving each team an extra $2.7 million this year and the new CBA only raising teams' costs by a fraction of that (the new cap is $600,000 higher per team this season). The future looks bright in Riderville, at least on the financial front, and it also looks bright for The Trews. That sounds appropriate. After all, what's fair is fair:
What about the on-field front? Well, that may be more difficult, thanks to the offseason losses of players like Kory Sheets (NFL), Weston Dressler (NFL), Craig Butler (CFL free agency), Jock Sanders (CFL free agency), Mike McCullough (retirement) and Geroy Simon (retirement). This will be a substantially different Riders' team, with Sheets' loss in particular posing problems; the team based so much of their offence around him, and he was so crucial in their Grey Cup win, that it's hard to imagine them just carrying on smoothly. The Riders suffered so much offseason attrition that some of their fans might have taken a cue from The Trews and been unable to stop laughing despite unhappiness:
There are some bright spots out there, though. There's still a lot of talent on this team, including quarterback Darian Durant, an impressive offensive line, top Canadian receivers like Chris Getzlaf and Rob Bagg, and defensive ends John Chick and Ricky Foley. General manager Brendan Taman made some intriguing offseason moves, finding potential RB replacements like Keith Toston and Anthony Allen and bringing back a high-potential former first-overall pick in LB Shomari Williams and another promising former player in RB Hugh Charles. Players like Canadian linebacker Sam Hurl could thrive with more playing time thanks to departures, too. The Roughriders may yet send a message that they're not quite ready to go:
Prediction: 10-8, third in the West, West semi-final loss.
You can follow Andrew or the 55-Yard Line account on Twitter to keep up with new posts. Stay tuned for more previews, plus our season preview live chat at noon Eastern on Thursday.
