Regina's Mosaic Stadium on bucket list for football fans

Football fans are flocking to Regina to get a final look at the soon-to-be torn down Mosaic Stadium, home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

For many, it is also their first time in the building.

"I'm really happy to be here," Shirley Puzey, from Red Deer, Alta., said ahead of Sunday afternoon's game with the visiting Edmonton Eskimos. "Thirty-five of us came on a bus."

Although Puzey was born in Regina, her family moved west when she was a small child. Her parents were such enthusiastic Roughrider fans that cheering for the green and white continued despite the move.

It's going to be a sad, sad day for Saskatchewan to say goodbye to Taylor Field.- Yvette Houle

This is the last season for football in Regina's old Mosaic Stadium. The club is moving, in 2017, a few blocks west to a new city-owned facility that will also bear the Mosaic name.

"This [visit] was on my bucket list because of the stadium," Puzey said. "My parents spent a lot of time here when they lived here."

End of an era

Other people at Sunday's game were also keen to be in the building before it is demolished.

"It's the end of a wonderful era," Loretta Loibersvek said. She has been following the team for decades and remembers when the facility was known as Taylor Field — a name the playing area has retained while the stadium naming rights were sold to raise money.

"It'll always be Taylor Field to me," Loibersvek said. "The last time I was at a game here was 30 years ago and it'll be sad to say goodbye to her."

Yvette Houle, another Roughrider fan who lives in Alberta, was also keen to see the stadium and not just because it was the last opportunity to do so.

"This is my first game in Regina," Houle, who is from St. Albert, north of Edmonton, said. "I think it's going to be a sad, sad day for Saskatchewan to say goodbye to Taylor Field."

The game also brought some Eskimo fans to Regina, such as Susan and James Funke who are from Edmonton.

"We had to come before it shut down," Susan Funke said, adding she was keen to experience the atmosphere of the stadium. "Everyone talks about how loud it is and how it's exciting to be here."

James Funke was also looking forward to the vibe of Mosaic Stadium, adding he believes it comes from the people not the place.

"I don't know that the stadium itself means all that much," he said. "[It's] the team: the people, the players — not an attachment to a building."