{"id":932444,"date":"2026-10-14T07:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/932444\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T07:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:30:12","slug":"edmonton-elks-looking-to-clinch-first-place-in-west-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/932444\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Elks looking to clinch first place in West Division"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Edmonton Elks<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 11 years since the Edmonton Elks hosted the West Final, but the team is only one win away from ending that drought and ensuring to path to the 113th Grey Cup runs through the Concrete Castle of the North.<\/p>\n

After winning back-to-back games against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to improve their record to 6-1 over their last seven outings, the Elks can clinch first place in the West Division with a win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this week, and team they\u2019ve already beaten twice this year. For franchise quarterback Cody Fajardo, the timing seems perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been telling the guys this week, this is almost like two games because if we find a way to win this football game, we\u00a0guarantee ourselves that (first-round playoff) bye, and so essentially you\u2019re winning that West Semi-Final by playing the bye week, so it\u2019s big,\u201d Fajardo told the media on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve played on both sides of it \u2014\u00a0I\u2019ve been in the West Semi-(Final), East Semi-(Final). I\u2019ve been in the West Final,\u00a0I\u2019ve been in the East Final, and sometimes it\u2019s that rest versus rust mentality, but I\u2019m happy that we\u2019re taking this\u00a0to the wire because now you don\u2019t put yourself in that situation where you have to think about (whether or not to rest players down the stretch).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Elks are 7-1 at home this season, which has led to increased ticket sales.<\/p>\n

The club is averaging crowds of 22,412 so far in 2026, a 17.6 percent year-over-year increase. Before the season started, team president and CEO Chris Morris told 3DownNation that the team would need to average between 22,000 and 25,000 fans per game in order to be profitable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Commonwealth Stadium once played host to the CFL\u2019s biggest crowds, which dwindled amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a record-setting 22-game home losing skid. Edmonton has officially turned the corner, and the team is clearly thrilled to be giving their fans plenty of reasons to cheer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means everything, it\u2018s\u00a0what we\u2019ve been working for. We\u2019ve always wanted to play well at home, and then if you win enough games, you earn that opportunity to play in front of your fans in a\u00a0meaningful game, and\u00a0that\u2019s important,\u201d said head coach Mark Kilam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said that going way back to last year, we wanted to\u00a0honour the fans with the style of football that we played, and I think that we\u2019ve been doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fajardo was the quarterback with the Montreal Alouettes when the team was the consensus Grey Cup long shot back in 2023.<\/p>\n

The club was coming off a tumultuous offseason at the time, which included the CFL taking control of the franchise from then-owners Gary Stern and the estate of Sid Spiegel. The uncertainty led to the departure of several key free agents, including Trevor Harris, Eugene Lewis, and Adarius Pickett.<\/p>\n

The Alouettes ended up finishing second in the East Division that year at 11-7, then won the East Semi-Final and East Final in convincing fashion. Montreal then upset the 7.5-point favourite Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 110th Grey Cup at Hamilton Stadium by a score of 28-24.<\/p>\n

It appears Fajardo hasn\u2019t forgotten about the team\u2019s fateful run, and drew a parallel to this year\u2019s Elks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the\u00a0largest [sic] odds to win the Grey Cup, and here we are with a chance to claim the West Final. The last time this league did that to me, everybody else knows what happened, so I take that stuff personal,\u201d said Fajardo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a good opportunity ahead of us against a good Winnipeg team to clinch the West and do something that I don\u2019t think anybody outside this building thought we could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Edmonton Elks (12-4) will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (8-8) on Friday, October 16 with kickoff scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET. The Blue Bombers got a key win over the Calgary Stampeders last week, while the Elks completed their sweep of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n

The game will be broadcast on TSN in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on 680 CJOB in Winnipeg or 880 CHED in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Edmonton Elks It\u2019s been 11 years since the Edmonton Elks hosted the West Final, but the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[166835,166836,49,48,7028,520,14973,23752,13264,77213,266177,527,13416,1627,7338,26055,262827],"class_list":["post-932444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-cfl","tag-cody-fajardo","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-elks","tag-elks","tag-fajardo","tag-football","tag-mark-kilam","tag-qb","tag-quarterback","tag-west","tag-west-final"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}