The Toronto Argos have had extremely poor attendance for its pre season games in recent years. Also acquiring a 10th game at Rogers center has really been even harder to come by even more than usual in recent years.
Unlike many of the west teams who have drawn nice pre season crowds such as the Riders keeping there home game would make sense.
2010 pre season 12K
2011 pre season 12K
2012 pre season 30K free tickets were given to Toronto Area Schools for the students from those schools to attend the game and being bussed in during a 12 noon school day game.
2013 game at Varsity stadium with 5K seats and some standing room tickets just going on sale.
Over in Regina during that same time the Riders had sellouts of both games pushing the limits of their seating to close to 30K and in 2012 with the refrubished stadium with new first class temp seats in the end zone areas. These are temp seats that will be in place until the new stadium is built. These seats are not the usual bleacher seats that you see being built but are a new sectional seat set up where each section has theatre style single seating for each fan as well as each section coming with its own luxury suite at the top of the stadium and the Riders pushed a sell out of these seats filling about 31,000 of the 33K seats available and that was for a preseason game.
This season with the Grey Cup coming to Regina the Riders have moved training camp out of Regina and up to Saskatoon in a top of the line CIS football stadium and facilities to help the opening of Riderville Saskatoon.
I am sure that the Riders would love to have a pre season game at Huskie stadium but would not want to lose the revenue that would be made feomm the home game at Mosaic.
If between the Riders, who are making money hand over fist, The CFL looking to play games outside of the regular CFL cities as part of advertising the CFL, As well as the local Saskatoon sponsors who would most likely rally around a CFL game including the Riders that would be shown on National TV ( Of course this would be a very important part of the deal that TSN televises this pre season game) to get the local business community to sponsor the event.
This would be considered a home game for the Argos so all of the revenue would go to the Argos from gait reciepts as well as money made from local sponsors.
The CFL could use funding from their advertising budget to get the Argos out to Saskatoon.
The Riders would also be using this as a promotional game for the Riders so hosting the Argos stay at the University of Saskatchewan for their stay there since this is Pre season and school will be out the dorm space would be available.
If both teams chose to move there stay there for a few days and have TC practices there in Saskatoon to bring some build up for the game.
The Refurbished Gordie Howl bowl with upgraded Locker room facilities as well as turf could serve as a practice field one team and Hukie stadium for another team.
Huskie Stadium already has a plan in which it can expand its seating to 12K, the same number of fans that attended the Argo pre season games in recent history, but with some local sponsors most likely wanting a piece of a Rider game played in Saskatoon on National TV on TSN, as well as some extra funding from the CFL advertising budget and posibily the Riders Advertising budget ( as for the Riders this would be a promotional game being played in Saskatoon would enable the Argos a chance to make a solid revenue from a pre season game which they do not get in Toronto.
The Argos second pre season game would also be on the road but playing Hamilton at Hamilton would not be a long trip as well as the other two eastern teams Montreal and Ottawa are a lot just a train ride away so there would not be much travel time for the regular pre season game against at one of their eastern opponents.
This would give the CFL an east team playing the west. With Winnipeg been playing in the east the last couple years they could make up for that by playing an east team in one exhibition game and a West team in the other