New Mosaic Stadium: 'The house that Durant built?'

Lets face it. Old Mosaic Stadium is a dump, it's the fans that make it what it is.

The century old park has one game left before it's retired by the Roughriders, and a lot of players will tell you it's long overdue.

"I keep looking around to figure out what I can take from this place and put in my house, there's not a heck of a lot to choose from." laughed receiver Rob Bagg. "The field is hard, there's a lot of things I look forward to if I get that opportunity to go across the street and play in the new barn that this team is going to enjoy for years to come."

Many CFL players came from big college programs in the United States or the NFL with cavernous stadiums that seat more than double what Mosaic Stadium provides.

Aside from a brief stint with the Baltimore Ravens, Darian Durant was fresh out of the University of North Carolina when he arrived in Regina and saw the home of the Riders for the first time in May of 2006.

At first he wondered what he had got himself into while hoping he made the right decision.

All it took was one game at Mosaic and he was a believer.

"When you come from a division 1 program and you're used to top of the line facilities you don't know what to expect, but the thing about me I'm always open minded and once I got in there and it filled up for the first pre-season game and you could hear the energy I knew I was right at home."

Durant doesn't think much about the facility formerly known as Taylor Field.

Sitting in a meeting room on a rainy day next to pail of water is not what he considers a professional environment.

But he does respect history and the greats like Ron Lancaster and George Reed who played there. 

And of course, the fans.

"Once everyone gets together and the place gets going this is the loudest place I've ever been a part of. The fans are what make this stadium go, not necessarily the building itself," Durant said. "It's about the people who come and sit in those seats who make it special, who make the atmosphere special to play in and who give us that home field advantage."

While thousands have already had the privilege of touring the new Mosaic Stadium, Durant is not one of them.

"I will not step foot in that stadium until you guys know what," Durant said to reporters on Tuesday with everyone knowing exactly what he was talking about.

It's become a weekly topic, Durant's contract, which expires with the old stadium. 

Negotiations for a new contract are proceeding, but until a new deal is agreed on, Durant will not allow himself the luxury of visualizing playing anywhere else.

In a way, new Mosaic is the house that Durant built because of what Durant's Riders had accomplished in the old one.

"A lot of that [new] stadium comes from the success that we had during our tenure, I would hate to have put in all that work and not get rewarded and not be able to play over there."  

It may sound arrogant, but he's not wrong.

Rider Nation was created during Durant's era, beginning with the 2007 Grey Cup championship and the consecutive sell-out crowds that followed, leading to the home field title in 2013 which could never be matched.

Without old Mosaic bursting at the seams, filled to capacity with Rider pride, the pitch for a new stadium would never have flown. Which is why Durant has his sense of entitlement regarding the new place.

"I'm just staying away until it's signed on the dotted line," he said. "I want to get it done, there's no timetable on it but I want to get it done as soon as possible, hopefully they feel the same way so we can speed up this process."

McKnight questionable for farewell night

He's played a grand total of one game at old Mosaic. That may be all Joe McKnight gets to soak in.

The Riders' running back was on the receiving end of a helmet-to-helmet hit on the last play last Saturday.

Montreal's Winston Venable torpedoed McKnight as he was preparing to toss the ball to someone else on a no time left desperation play.

Not surprising McKnight is now dealing with concussion protocols and his status is doubtful for Saturday's game against B.C.

Riders' head coach Chris Jones was at least hoping for a flag that would have given the Riders' another play, but no penalty was called. 

Montreal won the game 19-14 snapping the Riders' win streak at four.

Jones is now counting on the league to do the right thing.

"It looked like a shot to me but the official's standing right on the play. The league deemed it was a legal hit and unless they come down with a fine then it was a legal hit," Jones said.

Although his blocking is not up to Curtis Steele's standard, McKnight vastly improves the Riders' running game.

Over two games, McKnight rushed for 212 yards and caught another 84 yards out of the backfield. Greg Morris would start if McKnight can't go on Saturday.

Roster Moves:

The Riders added five players on Tuesday and subtracted six. 

Included in the group of five who signed was international receiver Philip Bates, formerly of the Argos.

Five players were released including receiver Ryan Lankford.

Long snapper Daniel MacDonald retired.