CTV News Edmonton has reported:

The Edmonton Elks can clinch the West Division title by winning one of their final two regular-season games, with their first chance coming Friday at home against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MT at Commonwealth Stadium, where Edmonton will face a division rival fighting to stay in playoff contention.

The Elks are 12-4 and have already reached the playoffs for the first time this decade. They will host a divisional post-season game for the first time in 11 years if they finish first. Head coach Mark Kilam told reporters Wednesday, after practice at Commonwealth Stadium, that the team was trying to keep its attention on the upcoming game.

“a coach answer,” Kilam said, the team was “focused on Friday night” and not looking ahead to the post-season. “We really are,” he said. “We need to play well at home. It’s a big game with a desperate opponent.”

Winnipeg is 8-8 and competing with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, also 8-8, and the Calgary Stampeders, 8-9, for third through fifth place in the West. The club that finishes last among them will be eliminated from playoff contention. The second-place B.C. Lions, at 10-6, are the only team that can displace Edmonton from first; the Vancouver-based Lions hold the tie-breaker between the two clubs.

The Elks’ move toward the top of the division follows five seasons spent in or near the West Division basement, without playoff appearances. Before the 2025 season, the club hired general manager Ed Hervey and Kilam. Edmonton improved during that season but missed the post-season, then entered this year’s final stretch with a 12-4 record.

Elks president and chief executive officer Chris Morris said the club’s change in ownership helped set the turnaround in motion. Larry and Deb Thompson bought the team in 2024 from the community-based ownership group that had controlled it since its founding in 1949. Morris, a former Edmonton offensive lineman, returned to the club as its top executive after the 2024 season.

“When you look at the ownership and look at the investment they’ve made in the team from a dollar standpoint, giving football top priority and saying, ‘We’re going to build, we’re going to give the resources football needs to be successful ... (that) has been a major difference,” Morris said Wednesday.

The team’s business performance has risen alongside its results on the field. The Elks said revenues are up 35 per cent from 2024 and the club ranks third in the CFL for average attendance, at about 22,000 spectators per home game. In a team survey, 96 per cent of fans said they were happy with the game-day experience at Commonwealth Stadium.

The club also reported involvement in 146 community events and support for 101 non-profit organizations this year, helping raise more than $90,000. Players made 877 public appearances, including visits to the Stollery Children’s Hospital and appearances supporting Santa’s Anonymous.

A proposed community facility at Clarke Stadium is another initiative led by Deb Thompson and the team. The Larry Thompson Centre would include a 4,088-square-metre community and performance centre and a seasonal air-supported dome over the field beside the stadium and adjoining city recreation centre. It would provide year-round access to football, flag football, soccer and rugby for young athletes, along with free after-school programming for local families.

Larry Thompson died last September from complications following surgery. Morris described the proposed centre’s intended role in Edmonton’s inner city in comments to CTV News Edmonton on Thursday.

“If you look at inner city Edmonton and where it stands from a socioeconomic standpoint, it’s down right now, and (Deb Thompson) wants to create a facility where kids can come, have after-school care where it’s free for them, parents have access to supports, call it the Larry Thompson Centre, and have a lasting legacy that helps buoy the Commonwealth neighbourhood for years to come,” Morris said.

The Elks said the city has committed the land required for the centre, and applications for provincial and federal funding are underway. The report included files from CTV News Edmonton’s Noah Rishaug and Nicole Lampa.