The Edmonton Elks will have a new president — and possibly even a permanent general manager and head coach — by Grey Cup, according to outgoing president Rick LeLacheur.
“(Hiring a president) is going to happen fairly soon. We’re in some final interviews and discussions and we’re going to do it the way that it is normally done. We’re going to get a president, then that president will have involvement in the general manager, and then the general manager will have involvement in the coaching staff. We want to get that done quickly,” LeLacheur told the media in Edmonton.
“If you dither in this business, you don’t get the people you want. We hope to have the president first, and then the president will start with discussions immediately with general manager, then head coach, and then coaching staff. Hopefully, we can get it wrapped up all in this year, then move into 2025 with a full group on the team and they’ll get after things like free agents.”
“I’d like to get all (three jobs) wrapped up before the Grey Cup — don’t know if we can, but we’re certainly going to try.”
LeLacheur joined the Elks on an interim basis in August 2023 following the departure of Victor Cui. He was previously the president in Edmonton from 2002 to 2012 before serving in the same role with the B.C. Lions, retiring in 2022.
The 76-year-old native of Edmonton, Alta. fired head coach and general manager Chris Jones in July following an 0-5 start to the season, after which the club went 7-6 under interim general manager Geroy Simon and interim head coach Jarious Jackson.
“I knew them both well enough that I knew they were going to give 110 percent and that’s what they did — they both gave 110 percent. Geroy on the personnel side made some changes — there’s not a lot you can do during the season, but I think some of the changes we made were very positive for the club and Jarious and his coaching staff worked tremendously hard,” said LeLacheur.
“The coaching staff led by Jarious did a great job and they were plus-.500, so we just all wish that we could have had a couple of those wins and be playing this weekend in the playoffs because I think in the last couple of months, there was talk around the league that no one wanted to play us because we’ve got that much better.”
The Elks missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year at 7-11 but won almost twice as many games as they did in 2022 and 2023. With the Grey Cup set for Sunday, Nov. 17 in Vancouver, it appears things could start moving quickly in Edmonton.
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