Elks celebrate attendance victory but CEO says it needs to be followed up with wins on the field

The final score was 17-13 for the Roughriders as the Elks continued a nasty losing streak at home – but there was another victory of sorts celebrated Sunday night in Edmonton.

The city's CFL franchise reported an attendance of 32,233 fans, the most for a home opener in 10 years.

President and CEO Victor Cui said it's been quite awhile since the stands were that full.

"This is great entertainment, regardless of what the score says," he told CTV News Edmonton on Monday.

"We're gonna come out here, we're going to perform our best, and it's great value. It's a great family night out."

Unfortunately for Edmonton fans, they saw the Elks lose their 18th straight home game, a CFL record.

The Alberta capital has long been a leader in CFL attendance, having recorded the best-attended game in the league seven of the last eight years.

But the Elks were bested by a crowd of 34,000 in B.C. last season and overall, average attendance in Edmonton has fallen from about 42,000 per game in 2005 to 24,000 last year, according to CFLdb.

More recently, the pandemic was a factor. So too is the fact the Elks have not won at home since 2019.

"We have to deliver a winning team. It's what fans expect, it's what we expect, it's what we're all building to. And that is one piece of the puzzle," Cui said.

"The other part of it is how do we continually deliver value to our fans regardless of what our performance on the field is?"

Edmonton isn't the only franchise trying to answer that question. The CFL used to average about 28,000 fans in 2012 but that has continually fallen.

According to league records, the average last year was 21,000.

After Sunday's loss, Cui wrote on Twitter that he expected "the news tomorrow will take a negative spin on an unbroken home loss streak," before thanking fans, staff and sponsors.

In an interview Monday, Cui said the team was building momentum and included media in the community supporters he mentioned and thanked.

He said the key to bringing Edmonton fans back is to sell "great entertainment," make it "easy to come" to the stadium and provide an atmosphere that can't be had at home.

He added the Elks are working to fix long lineups at food outlets in Commonwealth Stadium, which he said was partly caused by more fans than they expected.

The Elks (0-1) next play the Lions on June 17 in Vancouver before returning to Commonwealth on June 25 against the Toronto Argonauts.