CFL 2024

[MoontoScott]

how does elks relate to new fans more than esks?

"Esks" was the compromise that many people suggested before the name change. It's more symbolic than anything else. Not "out with the old and in with the new" but rather "in with a modified old."

So many fans (including myself) always referred to them as the "Esks" or "Eskies" anyway.

"Elks" isn't even a word and to me does not relate to a football team. I don't think younger fans can relate to it either.

There may be some resistance to "Esks" but the political winds are shifting so I say change it to "Esks" and then put this thing to bed for good. You met everybody halfway.

 

[K1984]

how does elks relate to new fans more than esks?

Because that’s the theoretical justification for the dumb name, even though there is absolutely nothing to substantiate it.

 

[Heavy Dee]

Because that’s the theoretical justification for the dumb name, even though there is absolutely nothing to substantiate it.

You can't differentiate between and Elk and and an Esk?

 

[bellagiobob]

That’s a lot of money for an unproven player

Less than they paid Cornelius.

 

[abootzky]

"Esks" was the compromise that many people suggested before the name change. It's more symbolic than anything else. Not "out with the old and in with the new" but rather "in with a modified old."

So many fans (including myself) always referred to them as the "Esks" or "Eskies" anyway.

"Elks" isn't even a word and to me does not relate to a football team. I don't think younger fans can relate to it either.

There may be some resistance to "Esks" but the political winds are shifting so I say change it to "Esks" and then put this thing to bed for good. You met everybody halfway.

Personally at this point, I'm fine with how it is right now: openly referring to the 1949-2019 teams as the Eskimos, Eskies or Esks and the 2021-current day ones as the Elks or Double E. (Sorry MTS, I purposely omitted Elkimos. ) What really needs to happen most at the dawn of this new era of EE optimism is an official owner-led end to the franchise name debate once and for all.

 

[Heavy Dee]

how does elks relate to new fans more than esks?

I understand this probably better than football.

It's because they have invested three years into the Elks brand. Like it or not, it has taken foothold and people can relate. Especially new fans. There is also merch that has taken hold. I suspect Thompson's advisors have told him this.

I don't expect a name change. It would be bad business. Iam here if Iam wrong. I just don't see it.

 

[rboomercat90]

I understand this probably better than football.

It's because they have invested three years into the Elks brand. Like it or not, it has taken foothold and people can relate. Especially new fans. There is also merch that has taken hold. I suspect Thompson's advisors have told him this.

I don't expect a name change. It would be bad business. Iam here if Iam wrong. I just don't see it.

You keep bringing up new fans. I gotta ask, where or who are these new fans? Attendance has been dropping by the thousands every season. To me the issue looks like there are no new fans and many of old ones got fed up with management decisions and left.

 

[TB12]

My buddy worked for the Esks for 10 years and was fired during the Jones era. Got a call from Hervey right after Hervey was hired and poached him from his current job to come back to the Elks in a director of football ops. role. Looks like they're trying to right some wrongs from the last leadership group.

 

[Heavy Dee]

You keep bringing up new fans. I gotta ask, where or who are these new fans? Attendance has been dropping by the thousands every season. To me the issue looks like there are no new fans and many of old ones got fed up with management decisions and left.

Maybe I should have said younger fans. Fans that currently go to games with their families. They are the future of the club.

Do you think if they go from Elks to Esks, that this is going to bring back hoards of fans that stayed away? I just don't see it. Maybe Iam wrong.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

It's going to stay Elks. LT was never going to change it back. He's not a dumb man. Going back to Eskimos or a so-called compromise of Esks would be a PR nightmare. Why invite that when everything is pointing upwards?
To Heavy Dee's comments, ask young fans, the future ticket buyers, what an Elk is, and they can tell you. Ask what as Esk is and there will be blank stares.
Time for the oldies to finally move on from this. Take solace in the fact that the team is under new ownership, reaching back to right some wrongs and are striving to embrace what made the EE a strong organization and winning franchise. If they win a Grey Cup in the next 3 years, the discussion about the name will be dead forever.

 

[K1984]

You keep bringing up new fans. I gotta ask, where or who are these new fans? Attendance has been dropping by the thousands every season. To me the issue looks like there are no new fans and many of old ones got fed up with management decisions and left.

The tens of “new” fans are more important than the thousands that left apparently.

 

[Drivesaitl]

You keep bringing up new fans. I gotta ask, where or who are these new fans? Attendance has been dropping by the thousands every season. To me the issue looks like there are no new fans and many of old ones got fed up with management decisions and left.

This is the deal. The new fans just aren't coming. Been a lot of the "if they have this name I'm coming, if they announce they are starting Ford I'm coming, if 5 planets align with the sun I'm coming. Its the same old staying away.

I don't really know what they're thinking with the latest huge contract sticker price. Over 1.3M for 3years. For a player thats never been healthy for 5 games in a row. The Elks have been losing 4M on average every season. So much that they had to go with an owner willing to dig in his own chips.

Anyway your post was probably about the name, I'm not seeing some of the posts here so harder to follow. But I do wonder how much the new owner is prepared to lose money on this. Elks have been burning through money for years.

yeah a lot of people our age quit the habit and never came back. Still others become seniors and just move out of dodge. Its a recipe for disaster as the younger Folk are all NFL or not into football or sports at all. I don't see a market case study that makes sense here. Its just how can we contain bleeding at this point.
Thing is how many new STH and ticket sales will it even take to get back to even. All costs are going up all the time. Not like the team can just increase ticket prices for a product hardly anybody goes to.

Remember when we were called cringe fans by the Board director. What a f***ing org. Least they got rid of all those people.

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[timekeep]

I won't be getting season's tickets (used to have them for many many years, but at the stage in my life where we spend a lot of weekends at our seasonal, etc), but I do plan on taking in some games now for sure. Well done LT, I am jacked!

I'm thinking about dropping my Oilers for Esks tickets next season. Like what they are doing.

how does elks relate to new fans more than esks?

Relates with former fans and that age group goes pretty low. Getting former fans has huge value.,

 

[Heavy Dee]

This is the deal. The new fans just aren't coming. Been a lot of the "if they have this name I'm coming, if they announce they are starting Ford I'm coming, if 5 planets align with the sun I'm coming. Its the same old staying away.

I don't really know what they're thinking with the latest huge contract sticker price. Over 1.3M for 3years. For a player thats never been healthy for 5 games in a row. The Elks have been losing 4M on average every season. So much that they had to go with an owner willing to dig in his own chips.

Anyway your post was probably about the name, I'm not seeing some of the posts here so harder to follow. But I do wonder how much the new owner is prepared to lose money on this. Elks have been burning through money for years.

yeah a lot of people our age quit the habit and never came back. Still others become seniors and just move out of dodge. Its a recipe for disaster as the younger Folk are all NFL or not into football or sports at all. I don't see a market case study that makes sense here. Its just how can we contain bleeding at this point.
Thing is how many new STH and ticket sales will it even take to get back to even. All costs are going up all the time. Not like the team can just increase ticket prices for a product hardly anybody goes to.

Remember when we were called cringe fans by the Board director. What a f***ing org. Least they got rid of all those people.

You said a lot here without me really understanding what your point was.

Bottom line is, if they win with an exciting QB and by extension good entertainment, the old fans and new fans will buy tickets.

 

[Drivesaitl]

You said a lot here without me really understanding what your point was.

Bottom line is, if they win with an exciting QB and by extension good entertainment, the old fans and new fans will buy tickets.

The point is theres very little remaining fanbase. The notion that a non existent base will just come back yrs later or a bunch of imaginary new fans will take their place is just that. This is big spending, again, by an org that is bleeding money severely every year. 4M? This is football. Only 9home games a year. It just isn't a high gate league or sport. Revenues are generally poor.

Not sure either that we can count a winning club before its happened, or that the CFL continues to be any kind of draw in present day.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I understand this probably better than football.

It's because they have invested three years into the Elks brand. Like it or not, it has taken foothold and people can relate. Especially new fans. There is also merch that has taken hold. I suspect Thompson's advisors have told him this.

I don't expect a name change. It would be bad business. Iam here if Iam wrong. I just don't see it.

Its taken hold where? I haven't seen anybody wearing an Elks Jersey anywhere.

Not saying any different. They probably aren't changing names but the Elks Idea and branding is flat out awful. Lets name a sporting team, in football of all things, an aggressive sport, after a heavily predated Elk. Whoever landed on Elk, pretty lame name.

 

[abootzky]

Its taken hold where? I haven't seen anybody wearing an Elks Jersey anywhere.

I can report to you and all those who haven't been to Commonwealth on gameday in awhile that there are lots of people wearing Elks jerseys there. As awful as the team has been in recent years, there has still been signs of a possible rebound mostly hidden beneath the gloom: the ever-growing & improving pregame tailgates, the fans' reaction to Tre Ford and the last couple of Labour Day home & homes, a very palpable younger vibe with what seems like more young families than ever in the stadium. Obviously, there's still much repair work to be done no matter what the team is called. The new Thompson/Morris/Hervey/Kilam/Ford regime seems capable of being the right ones to get that work done. At the very least, they're already providing a breath of badly needed fresh air.

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

lol wrong thread

 

[Jeffrey Pedler]

Was just thinking a bit on the Killam hire and the Ford situation.

The verbal against Ford has long been that the odds of a QB developed in the Canadian college system has very poor odds of success in professional football, and they typically only have a career if changing their position. This is so rare, that Ford may already be the most successful QB developed in Canada since Russ Jackson.

Now looking at Killam's background. Has there ever been a Canadian head coach that was brought up in the Canadian colllege program without ever actually playing a game of pro ball. I suspect there may have been, but if there has been, I'd suspect the list isn't much larger than the list of Canadian QBs developed in the Canadian program.

Perhaps the longshot nature of both of these men's goals could be something to bond over.

It's rare because they aren't given a fair chance. How many mediocre Import QBs have gone from team to team? The CFL is hopefully changing.

Labrosse starting at defensive halfback
Tyrell Ford at cornerback
Kramdi at strongside linebacker

Even saw games with Greene starting at DHB and Rene at SLB in BC.

 

[brentashton]

Now looking at Killam's background. Has there ever been a Canadian head coach that was brought up in the Canadian colllege program without ever actually playing a game of pro ball. I suspect there may have been, but if there has been, I'd suspect the list isn't much larger than the list of Canadian QBs developed in the Canadian program.

Perhaps the longshot nature of both of these men's goals could be something to bond over.

I cant think of any.

The closest might be Macioca coming from Canadian junior football and then went to college ball, with the Mtl Carabines, after coaching in the CFL

Thee are other players that coached but most played pro somewhere or were also CDN junior trained (Les Lear in Wpg). Rick Campbell, no pro experience and Canadian raised (went to Ainlay) but born an American and went to US college.

There could be a coach from the early CFL days when it was the rugby union that would technically meet the definition but it’s hard to find those records and I’m not sure it would really correlate. I’d be curious if someone else could answer. I know who could, Rob Vanstone in Regina.

 

[MoontoScott]

I can report to you and all those who haven't been to Commonwealth on gameday in awhile that there are lots of people wearing Elks jerseys there. As awful as the team has been in recent years, there has still been signs of a possible rebound mostly hidden beneath the gloom: the ever-growing & improving pregame tailgates, the fans' reaction to Tre Ford and the last couple of Labour Day home & homes, a very palpable younger vibe with what seems like more young families than ever in the stadium. Obviously, there's still much repair work to be done no matter what the team is called. The new Thompson/Morris/Hervey/Kilam/Ford regime seems capable of being the right ones to get that work done. At the very least, they're already providing a breath of badly needed fresh air.

I'm done with this name change stuff. Its gotten old. I would rather talk about winning football.

I am looking forward to more of those barn burner games from the past--you know--where the EE were down 14 points with 6 minutes to go and still emerged as the victors?

The gloom and doom surrounding the club for the last decade seems to have precluded those finishes. Once the club got down by a TD it was usually a done deal. So it was,----turn the channel and hope it wasn't 60 points for the Lions or whomever. No wonder people stopped coming. It was an embarassment for such a proud franchise.

I really sense that has passed now.

Well, the next step is to re-sign some veterans. I hope they re-up Lewis at receiver. Rankin returns at RB.

Its a shame that the two best EE recruits in the last 5 years (Anderson and Julien) will probably start the season south of the border on NFL practice rosters but hey that's the CFL. Looking forward to it. Watch for more signings here just before Christmas.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I can report to you and all those who haven't been to Commonwealth on gameday in awhile that there are lots of people wearing Elks jerseys there. As awful as the team has been in recent years, there has still been signs of a possible rebound mostly hidden beneath the gloom: the ever-growing & improving pregame tailgates, the fans' reaction to Tre Ford and the last couple of Labour Day home & homes, a very palpable younger vibe with what seems like more young families than ever in the stadium. Obviously, there's still much repair work to be done no matter what the team is called. The new Thompson/Morris/Hervey/Kilam/Ford regime seems capable of being the right ones to get that work done. At the very least, they're already providing a breath of badly needed fresh air.

Thanks. Yeah, I do feel better with the org now that Thompson, Morris, Sherritt etc are involved in it. I like the return of Hervey as well but the feels are there, that a change on field fortunes is coming, but not materialized yet of course. Nor that an immense market exists of newer CFL fans.

Younger fans in the stands on their own or with parents? I'm asking because the college discount night was a complete bust. Hardly any of those were sold. I check ticket sales regularly. Just something I like to follow.

jmo but I do feel the hype on Ford is kind of overdone. Sets the kid up to fill huge boots, both his own, and all the expectations. He didn't pass for a lot of yds/game this season and his running wasn't spectacular either. Theres unfortunately a chance that once Ford is the guy he could have struggles. Unknown how patient the ticket buying fanbase will be with that.

We've got a lot of untried here. An untried starter, an untried HC, its likely theres gonna be hiccups.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Thanks. Yeah, I do feel better with the org now that Thompson, Morris, Sherritt etc are involved in it. I like the return of Hervey as well but the feels are there, that a change on field fortunes is coming, but not materialized yet of course. Nor that an immense market exists of newer CFL fans.

Younger fans in the stands on their own or with parents? I'm asking because the college discount night was a complete bust. Hardly any of those were sold. I check ticket sales regularly. Just something I like to follow.

jmo but I do feel the hype on Ford is kind of overdone. Sets the kid up to fill huge boots, both his own, and all the expectations. He didn't pass for a lot of yds/game this season and his running wasn't spectacular either. Theres unfortunately a chance that once Ford is the guy he could have struggles. Unknown how patient the ticket buying fanbase will be with that.

We've got a lot of untried here. An untried starter, an untried HC, its likely theres gonna be hiccups.

Didnt you spend like 2 years defending Cornelius to the death?

 

[Drivesaitl]

Didnt you spend like 2 years defending Cornelius to the death?

Let me guess who tapped your PM box. lol.

I didn't mind Cornelius as much as most here. He wasn't the reason the team was losing, the team was horrible. Even GC champ MBT who is among the better QB's in the league couldn't make this club have regular success.

In anycase regardless of personnel on the field the club is in dire trouble. Biggest decreases in attendance in the whole league and a team that had average attendance of20K, numbers that would be considered lousy decades ago in Clarke Stadium. lol. In CFL only 9home games a year. you Need a helluva lot more gate than that to get the club to stop the 4M per year bleeding. Audit on this season not done yet but given massive decreases in attendance its likely over a 5M operational loss this season. The team is in trouble. Its great that an owner stepped in but how much is he interested in losing? The Elks have been bleeding financially as much as any team in the league but still spending a lot. Its not a great financial recipe.

https://3downnation.com/2024/10/28/cfl-regular-season-attendance-grows-1-percent-from-2023-to-2024/