Commonwealth Stadium: Elks voice desire for upgrades as Edmonton unveils renovation plans

On the same day that official drawings for a renovated Commonwealth Stadium were released, the new owner of the Edmonton Elks says he has started discussions with the city about what needs to be done to modernize the team’s longtime home base.

Larry Thompson, who took over sole ownership of the Canadian Football League franchise from a local group last month, said during a virtual meeting with season ticket holders on Wednesday that the team “has already had discussions with city officials,” including Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, about the future of the 56,000-capacity facility.

The stadium was built for the Commonwealth Games of the same name in 1978 and has been the home of the CFL team ever since. In the 46 years that followed, the stadium has been modernised several times.

“We’re starting to have conversations about what we can do at Commonwealth,” Thompson said Wednesday night.

“We need to do something about it. We need to make some improvements to the Commonwealth Stadium because we’ve already identified a number of hotspots that need to be upgraded.”

Talks about upgrading Commonwealth come three weeks after Thompson was introduced as the new owner. During the press conference to introduce him, Thompson — a longtime season ticket holder and former owner of Thompson Brothers Construction — suggested a new stadium might be needed.

This was not discussed during the organised ‘city meeting’ on Wednesday, but the emphasis was on the renovation of the stadium, where three sold-out concerts recently took place.

A rendering by the City of Edmonton of potential upgrades to Commonwealth Stadium, released on September 4, 2024. (Source: City of Edmonton)Also Wednesday, the City of Edmonton’s website posted renderings of improvements to Commonwealth, including updated concessions, restrooms and translucent panels replacing metal panels to increase the amount of natural light on the concourse. The information about the stadium states that the city “recognizes the need for improvements to meet modern event standards and enhance the overall spectator experience.”

“These improvements will improve flow through the concourse and address challenges such as access to concessions and overall accessibility,” the report said.

“The project is currently approved to perform the required repairs and ongoing maintenance. The full scope of work required to modernize the stadium will require a significant capital investment. If and when that funding is approved, the design and construction of the stadium modernization can begin.”

Rick LeLacheur, the Elks’ interim president and CEO, said during the virtual meeting that the team is focused on improving the fan experience with any stadium upgrades.

“It actually helps us when we have a big audience and the concerts they’ve had the last two weeks had three full houses,” LeLacheur said.

“The requirement under our licensing agreement is that they have to put a percentage of their concessions towards upgrading the concessions. We’ve done a number of things this year and hopefully from these three concerts we can do some further upgrades on the concessions next year.”

Commonwealth Stadium, which will host the Grey Cup in November 2018. (Source: CFL)

Team Bids for 2026 Grey Cup

Thompson and LeLacheur also told season ticket holders that the Elks have submitted a bid to host the 2026 Grey Cup.

“We’re pretty confident in our bid,” Thompson said. “We’ll know by the Grey Cup this fall if we’re successful.”

Edmonton last hosted the CFL championship game in 2018. This year’s edition is expected to be held in Vancouver, while the 2025 game will be played in Winnipeg.

LeLacheur said the Elks weren’t counting on the game being available, but the CFL opened the bidding process “a couple of months ago” because stadiums in Toronto and Vancouver are hosting FIFA World Cup games and Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is currently undergoing renovations.

He said Edmonton’s 100-page bid, submitted to the competition last week and involving the city and province, competes with a bid from Calgary.

“I think we’ve answered all the questions and we’ll present the offer to the CFL committee in a couple of weeks,” LeLacheur said.

Commonwealth Stadium has hosted the Grey Cup five times, in 1984, 1997, 2002, 2010 and 2018.