2024 Season Week 6

[Toppy Vann]

Edmonton is a disaster and what LaLacheur did here only makes it an even worse joke. This won't bring fans in says Elks media and fans.
They're broke and have to pay GM & HC Chris Jones for 12 months or whatever with no one on staff it seems who has ever been a HC or showing that kind of leadership potential.


Chris Presson, fired in 2021.
Victor Cui hired in Jan '22 and fired in '23.
LaLacheur hired in Aug '23 and states candidly that this is a "longer term fix" something that real leaders admit to.

Why not spend the time getting this team sold and looking to next year to hire a GM and HC that is not one person?

A more sound move would have been to sit down with the GM/HC and identify someone who can come in and consult on what's going on with the coaches and team.

IF Chris Jones isn't getting through to the coaches and the players, how can you expect Simon and Jackson to do that - neither of them have shown outstanding leadership qualities as of yet.

McLeod Bethel Thompson is the best leader in that organization during tough, crazy times when games are being lost.

and a very good QB who trashed the league for these short weeks.
Elks players are in tough this week already to prepare for the first game of Week 7 - this makes it a lot worse.

As MBT said post that loss - all this team needs to do his shift their focus 2 inches to get to W's.
Sunday, they lose to Ottawa and on Friday, 5 days later the team has to be in Ottawa playing them again.

This was a dumb, poor decision that reminds this 78 year old of the days when the BC Lions were a joke as a community owned team hiring and firing coaches and not getting it right.

And, I'm not a Chris Jones fan.

[David]

Does anyone know about Victor Cui? I recall fans loved him when he was with the Elks; he was kind of a media/fan darling with fresh ideas. Did he turn out to be some type of fraud or something? I have read less-than-flattering things around him and his Elks' tenure. What happened there?


DH

[Hambone]

Does anyone know about Victor Cui? I recall fans loved him when he was with the Elks; he was kind of a media/fan darling with fresh ideas. Did he turn out to be some type of fraud or something? I have read less-than-flattering things around him and his Elks' tenure. What happened there?


DH

There were issues with office staff who were close to revolting. I also heard a story where Cui concocted a deal with a pizza place where the players could basically come in and eat on a team tab. Only problem is the restaurant owner was under the impression the club would pay the tab upon invoice while Cui took it as being freebie to the club. Things came to a head when the restaurant owner presented the bill and Cui balked at paying. The restauranteer wound up settling for 50 cents on the dollar. Sounds like there more than a few weird incidents.

[Hambone]

One thing about Edmonton is a lower season ticket count due to Commonwealth being such a huge venue and never the worry about getting a seat. It wouldn't take much to trigger stronger game day sales given a reason to go to the game. The fans are there.

To say Edmonton was not competitive this year is flat out wrong although it is safe to safe they were not playing to their potential. Dave Dickenson and Calgary have been arguably just as bad.

Doubt Jim Barker would have made the same move given the circumstances.

Edmonton has already taken a page out of BC's book and closed off the upper deck. Despite that the crowds in the lower deck look even sparser this year than they did early last year when tickets were available both upper and lower.

Elks fans are simply sick and tired of losing to the point one of those "gosh, golly we almost won it" losses is no different than a blowout loss. We're talking a team that has provided its faithful with 2 wins in its last 28 home games going back to when they beat BC on Oct 12, 2019. Whether canning Jones turns out to be a good move or not remains to be seen. They can't sell doing nothing other than the concept that doing the same thing over and over again will achieve a different result. If they didn't do something now they could soon be drawing numbers that would make Argo crowds look good.

[Toppy Vann]

Community owned teams don't always have the depth of leadership and experience to do what they're doing. Great if you're winning but hiring Chris Jones back after he flew the coop to Sask only to jump from there to some lower tier job in the NFL really speaks to the lack of quality in leadership, judgment and decision making.

Cui's extensive background was the major attraction for the Elks and he was a local boy made very good.


Note the pattern here.

Cui fired in August 2023. Now the HC and GM fired in July '24.

If you have heard the comments of the players in the Als situation before the new owner and before the GM Danny Macioca and HC Jason Maas (GM hired before new owner), the players found it hard to be perform given the messy situation. Instability is never a good thing. Now the Als have stability with a deep pockets owner who says you don't buy a team to make money. Sounds good for the future.

Same back with the Argos. It's hard for players to focus when they is a disaster in leadership above them.

NOw the ELKs have fired the GM and HC with no replacement other than two temps.

Wikipedia:

Edmonton Elks
In January 2022, Cui was named the president and CEO of the Edmonton Elks, replacing Chris Presson who was fired after the 2021 season.[13][14] Cui explained his decision to return to Edmonton to lead the team he grew up watching as "a dream come true".[14] In the team's first home game under Cui's leadership, the Elks hosted "Stand With Ukraine" night in support of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.[15]

Cui and the Elks mutually parted ways in August 2023, as the Elks were in the midst of a 22-game home losing streak that began in 2019. According to Cui, the move was made to allow him to focus on his family.[16]

In firing Cui, the EDMN Sun article said these things:

The Elks should have re-read this story before firing Jones as who of any quality or depth of experience is going to want to be GM and/or HC with this gong show?

After all, who’s going to want to step in and fill those presidential shoes without knowing just how far things still have to fall before finally hitting rock bottom? And even if some qualified soul takes the bait, how good are they at polishing the product the Elks have been flushing out onto the field each week?

The Edmonton Elks aren’t just a bunch of losers, they can now add quitters to their rancid resume.

https://edmontonsun.com/sports/football ... five-years

[Toppy Vann]

Woody Baron signed by the Argos.

Toronto Argonauts sign veteran CFL DL Woody Baron
By 3Down Staff -July 17, 2024

Through 73 career regular season games in the CFL, Baron has recorded 100 tackles, 20 sacks, and two forced fumbles.