Hopson West Final Interview

Here's a visit between Rider President Jim Hopson and CKRM's Roger Currie:

CURRIE: What does this game mean to you?

HOPSON: It is kind of special. I've had a chance to reflect on it and it speaks to the fact that we are now one of the upper echelon teams and that was our goal. We don't want to be a one-shot team that wins the Grey Cup and then falls off the map for a long period of time.

We haven't won anything yet, we still have to win this week then move onto Calgary. But it's meant a lot to the franchise.

CURRIE: What does it mean economically?

HOPSON: This game is big for us because we bought the game. Our costs of playoff shares and Calgary's travel is big, but with a soldout stadium there will be big revenues for us. We did up six scenarios and the most expensive scenario is to go to the Grey Cup and win because there are extra costs that aren't covered. But we hope we have that opportunity! But this is the big weekend for us financially but after this it's more of a cost than revenue.

CURRIE: There's concern over Agribition starting up this weekend, and the headache of parking in that Evraz Place/Mosaic Stadium area.

HOPSON: There shouldn't be. We've got all the parking through Sunday. All of our lots will be there, but Evraz won't have as much parking available and that'll change things. But the Agribition people have been great and realize their trailers can't move over until Monday morning. But parking will be okay. Being Sunday there will be more parking around downtown.

CURRIE: You couldn't ask for a better scenario.

HOPSON: No you couldn't. Calgary, the weather is fabulous, it's going to be a great weekend and we're very excited. We just want to stay relatively humble and not get ahead of ourselves and think of things that we can't do unless we win. But everybody's enjoying themselves right now.