As part of his State of the League address in Calgary, Alta. Friday, Canadian Football League (CFL) commissioner Stewart Johnston urged the City of Regina to reconsider its decision to stitch the new turf at Mosaic Stadium for changing field dimensions. “Multi-use facilities can use fields for all kinds of things and can be converted,” Johnston told reporters. “I know recently there has been comments about that field being stitched; all of our other clubs are looking to paint. Painting is not that difficult.” “Painting future proofs your field; so I would urge the city, with the support of the Roughriders, to consider moving back to a painted field,” he added. It comes after City of Regina officials announced last week the new turf at Mosaic Stadium will once again have stitched lines to accommodate the CFL’s 100-yard field and soccer. Work to replace the turf began last week. In Sept. 2025, the CFL announced sweeping rule changes; such as a shortened play clock and altering of the single point ‘rouge,’ which were implemented at the beginning of the 2026 season. Other changes, like the field being shortened from 110 yards to 100 yards, end zones shortened from 20 yards to 15 yards and goalposts moved from the goal line to the back of the end zones, go into effect beginning next season. Football Canada, however, has indicated it will not be altering its field dimension. This means leagues like USports, Canadian Junior Football League, high school and minor football programs will continue to play on 110-yard-long fields with uprights at the front of the 20-yard end zone. Johnston believes sometimes the need for professional levels are sometimes different than that for amateur, and that is no different for the CFL. “We should wait and see exactly how that will play out,” he noted. “I’m not sure there will be [a big] impact.” While the replacement of Mosaic Stadium’s turf coincides with the rule changes, the city says it was at the end of its life and planned to change it regardless. Melissa Coderre, city manager of sport facilities and special events, told CTV News last week Regina’s administration explored several options for the new turf – including painting the lines. However, she said the paint would take 18 hours to dry; causing the city to lose field time. Administration says the decision was made in order to maintain up to 800 hours of public use at the stadium. “Mosaic Stadium is really special place,” said Coderre. “We are unique in Canada in that our CFL stadium is available to the public, so we’re also making sure that that end zone has a second field goal post location at the front and a longer end zone at the back to allow us to keep accommodating minor football.” The city also says repainting lines would add $200,000 in equipment plus thousands more annually in paint to the $1.6 million project. Coderre also outlined each field switchover would cost $11,000. Johnston previously said the CFL and its teams would pay for costs associated with field changes. He reiterated Friday it is working with its member clubs and its stadium owners to iron out what those agreements would look like ahead of next season. “All [CFL] clubs are working with their various facilities on how the changeovers will be managed,” Johnston said. “The process for painting a field and changing fields various different sports – pretty much all of our facilities are multi-use sport facilities – is relatively straight forward. That will all be worked out between the teams and their facilities.” CTV News has reached out to the City of Regina for a response to Johnston’s comments. Although Mosaic Stadium’s new field will be 100 yards long, the endzones will be able to extend to 20 yards and the uprights moved to the front when necessary. The city hopes up to 97 per cent of historical users will be able to continue using the space with this accommodation.
