EDMONTON — With the goal of ensuring professional football continues to thrive in Northern Alberta, the Edmonton Football Club Board of Directors has created a special committee to conduct a review of the Edmonton Elks ownership structure, the Club announced Thursday.
It all starts with a committee.
5 voting members consisting of 3 current and 2 previous board members.
President Rick LaLaucher serves as a non voting member but he’ll be influential IMO. Guided the Lions through an ownership change and a successful one at that… should that happen here
Nothing is urgent but this process can’t drag out either. The club won’t be able to depend on the season ticket base alone to turn this around quickly.
No not just season ticket holders for cash, but they need more money from shareholders and more shareholders. Four straight years of losses
While football and politics don’t normally go together, my hope is that the discussion board members here remember this during the next Federal and Provincial elections. While the guys running the show (six Premiers and the PMs) were off to their cottages, resorts, etc., many Canadians (including the CFL staff) were put into an impossible situation which was eventually going to lead to the prospect of bankruptcy.
The GTA lost one of its most beloved restaurant chains, Tucker’s Marketplace, because of this public policy and I’d hate to see a CFL team or the league as a whole go under due to such two-faced fear-mongering.
On the importance of corporate structure …
But hey, when the chips are down in life, it’s better to make a greater effort to initiate a solid restart rather than to keep riding a losing horse.
Could start by dumping that stupid team name and making an effort to come up with a better one. Shouldn’t be too hard to do.
Wow. Once a powerhouse financially and sports wise, things sure look bleak for the Edmonton team. This is sad.
I figure that’s coming, but that’s not the core of the restart that is far more complex like for any failing business beyond sports.
We also know many still have that axe with certain team names to grind beyond only this example.
It’s not going back to the old name, so in time whoever is still butt-hurt banging that very old drum might be able to get over that part as well.
You are right … they don’t.
The former Washington Redskins are now in a lawsuit because they defamed the Natives they claimed to protect. Don’t know if this kind of thing would be successful in Canada’s legal system but it could be an interesting precedent.
We shall see where that goes. It smells of a lot of “whataboutism” from a faction of opportunists backed by those who rhyme with NAGA, which I very much doubt is a name chosen by mere chance.
It would be interesting to ask how these same folks feel offended only now when so many more were offended for many decades before by a clearly offensive name for a very long time well before “woke” as the critics will charge, but I guess they stated nothing about that part here.
In the end, this is a strange hill upon which to die fighting now on the wrong side of history.
And of course the situation with the team in Washington has nothing to do with the situation with the Elks though a core issue is the same, for the team history and business and ownership and countries are different for starters.
The opponents of the name changes still after the fact they are still fighting that battle continue to conflate the two as well.
Above YOU are the one who stated that politics and football don’t normally together, so why did you post that update here?
Does your statement only apply when it’s not YOUR politics then?
Above YOU are the one who stated that politics and football don’t normally together, so why did you post that update here?
I long for the day when politics could exit the world of football and we could come together under our love for our favourite team (or distain for the one next door), and I stand by my comment.
Sadly, the CFL under Randy Ambrosie has become increasingly political; the Eskimos name change and how they came cap in hand to the federal government are just two examples. The last thing the CFL needed this decade was to alienate potential fans who see it as just another entity currying political favour.
Well I agree with your first paragraph.
In your second paragraph though, you have answered my question and no doubt I can understand that you lament that decision as do still many particularly in and near Edmonton.
Even so my point is that the decision had been made, and sure I would be all for another renaming myself but that’s another thread, so let’s move on here because the world has long moved on already on this front beyond these examples in sports, which are meagre in the bigger human picture on this core issue and well beyond.
The CFL, which it seems like many have forgotten already was on the brink of oblivion only a few years ago such that even talks with the XFL 3.0 were entertained for months, has far, far more that it continues to work on for improvement as a business.
The 2023 Grey Cup, for the entertainment spectacle it was also beyond Canada, was yet another milestone of sorts in the recovery from those dreary days of 2020 and 2021.
Do NOT sell the team to Katz; he doesn’t understand sports. Why are the money problems so huge when they sold 200,000 tix? More than Montreal, Toronto, and probably Calgary
It’s more that the business model is no longer sustainable. Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and most teams for that manner have rich owners that have other assets so they can roll the team into their other businesses and write off any loss.
In the Elks case there’s no one to bankroll the team if the stabilization fund runs out.
you have to look at the freebies and heavily discounted tickets that the Elks were making available to the public as well, when comparing the Elks to other franchises. The guaranteed win tickets and the free kids tickets come to mind.
A local take on a potential sale
Speculates an EIG type group like what stepped for the Oilers in 1998.
Off topic, it mentioned the Lions were sold to Doman for 35 million. First time I’ve seen a figure. If true that’s a record price for a complete sale.
That’s pretty good for a CFL franchise. So what would be the expansion fee then if they ever get one