Notorious gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson once said, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
And Edmonton’s own Larry Thompson stood in front of a microphone on the field at Commonwealth Stadium on Thursday in the hopes that the Canadian Football League team he just bought will get back to giving people plenty of reasons to buy tickets again.
It’s no secret the Edmonton Elks — let’s just call them the Double-E for now, with more on the name later — has faced more than it’s fair share of struggles recently, both on the field and in the stands, where empty seats outnumber occupied ones. And not just by a little.
Financially, it’s translated to losses as high as $22 million over the past five years since the club made its last playoff appearance.
But it hasn’t always been like this. There was another five-year period where they almost couldn’t lose — and didn’t, when it came to the 1978-82 Grey Cups.
“I’ve been watching them since I was 12 years old,” Larry Thompson said. “The first game I went to, I fell in love with the team and I’ve been watching them all my life. They’re very dear to my heart and I’m a passionate fan of not only the Elks, but the rest of the teams in the league.
“I’m just proud. Proud to be the owner of a CFL team.”
And the former construction magnate wants nothing more than to see a return of those glory days, as he held his first public introduction since purchasing the community-owned club for what he called a “confidential” amount.
At the same time, as bad as things have been it’s not like he could get the team for rock-bottom prices, considering the chief concern of the board of directors was finding an owner with deep pockets who could afford to provide the Double-E with a financial future — something they sorely lacked as the emergency fund dwindled dangerously down.
As have attendance figures at home games (The actual ones, not the ‘official’ numbers that have been announced by the club).
“It’s a unique setup coming from a community-owned team to a private-sector team,” said Elks interim president and CEO Rick LeLacheur, who oversaw the sale. “It had to be an asset deal, it couldn’t be a share deal. We’re able to make the investment in the new company going forward and, as of today, we’ll be reporting to him. We’ll be recommending to him what our business plan is for 2025.”
Whether LeLacheur is still on board by then or not.
“We’ve recently started looking for a new president and CEO for the club and we’ll continue to do that,” Thompson said. “Rick will be involved in that process of hiring somebody for that position.
“It’s going to have to be somebody that knows their way around the league, for sure. He or she needs to be connected. And they have to be very talented.”
Of course, he could just have easily been describing the job requirements for a franchise quarterback, which the team also happens to be in dire need of.
But regardless of what pieces get put in place and when, there is one thing that can solve all the team’s problems.
“That’s very simple, we need to bring back our winning ways,” Thompson said. “That means winning football games.”
Simple to say, but the Elks have shown it’s harder to do, having gone 13-46 since rebranding from the original Edmonton Eskimos moniker Thompson and his fellow lifelong football fans in Edmonton grew up with.
While Thompson dodged questions of his commitment to the Elks brand, he didn’t deny the idea of change. Or a change back, as the case may be.
“We will be focusing, just to let you know, in the future on Double-E more,” he said, referring to the club’s logo, which survived the rebranding.
Cryptic, for sure. Not to mention a point of contention among football fans and non-fans alike that could certainly end up rearing its ugly head, should the topic be invited back up for debate under Thompson’s rule.
One thing is certain, he’s not afraid to put the fans first, given he is coming straight out of the stands, himself, as opposed to the ivory tower the previous board of directors governed from.
“We’re in an entertainment business. So we need to entertain fans to get them back in the seats,” Thompson said. “Because when they come here, they’ve got to have fun, and if they don’t, they ain’t going to come here.
“And our fans are extremely important to the club.”
As obvious as that idea is, it might have been the most important thing Thompson could have said on Day 1 of the Double-E Era.
His Double-E.
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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