The Edmonton Elks announced that the club lost $3.9 million last year. That marks the second-highest amount since COVID and a loss for the fifth consecutive season.
“I’ll be honest, we’ve got to do a better job on the field than we’ve done in the last two years,” said Chris Jones, the general manager and head coach of the Edmonton Elks.
It’s a critical analysis from the head coach that laid the groundwork for what needs to happen on the field for the Elks. Losing teams are also not inspiring fans to come to see the games.
The Elks continue to lose money from low attendance, merchandise sales, and concessions.
“We’ve had a lot of support in the past. We’ll get the support in the future. But we’ve gotta work at it on the field and in the business side,” said Rick LeLacheur, the president & CEO of the Edmonton Elks.
The team announced in November that they were exploring selling the team to a private owner, but the shareholders say they have been kept in the dark.
“Are we right by the community to just hand it off to someone that says ‘Oh this will be fun?’ So appreciate that there is a lot of work that needs to be done to put the right owner in place and understand what’s required,” explained Tom Richards, chair for the Edmonton Elks.
According to the board, they were hoping to have new ownership in place before the season starts. But with training camp around the corner, it sounds like that deadline has been pushed to the end of the season. The team says they have enough money to operate for the entire year.
“We are more than confident we have enough money to get through the year. I can’t tell you how much we have left over but we’re more than confident,” said Richards.