Edmonton Elks president and CEO, Victor Cui, has left the club nineteen months after he was hired — without a single home win under his tenure..The Elks said Cui parted with the team by mutual agreement. .“We thank Victor for his work during his time with the club,” said Tom Richards, chair of the EE Football Club board of directors..“This was a difficult decision for everyone involved, but as a board we believe it’s in the best interests of all parties to move in a new direction.”.Cui said he made the difficult decision so he could focus on his family..“Despite the team’s current record, I have full confidence that the positives we are starting to see on the field will lead to success moving forward,” said Cui..The 51-year-old was hired January 24, 2022 to succeed Chris Presson, who was fired after the 2021 season..The Edmonton native and University of Alberta graduate came to the Elks after being the CEO of International ONE Championship, a mixed martial arts program based in Singapore. Cui is also the founder and CEO of ONE Elite Agency..The taekwondo black belt holder was senior director of the event management group for ESPN STAR Sports Singapore and was director of corporate communications for Golf Canada. He also served four years in the Royal Canadian Navy as a reservist..However, under his leadership, the team has a 4-23 record..The club said its business operations senior leadership team will step into the gap and a replacement for Cui will be sought in the coming weeks..The Elks have lost 22 straight home games, a streak that extends to October 2019 and exceeds the former record for all of North American professional sports by two games..The Elks have also tied their franchise record with 13 straight losses overall, nine this season and the final four of 2022..The club lost $3.3 million in 2022, its fourth straight year of financial losses. Attendance fell to 23,787 fans in 2022, a 9.2% drop from the year before. They averaged 24,709 through their first four games of this season before losing their last game before 19,000 fans..TSN’s Farhan Lalji tweeted the parting of ways would happen a day before it occurred. .As the season dawned, Cui was full of enthusiasm and expectation..“Man, we’re looking fantastic!” Cui said on Global Edmonton’s morning show..“This is a championship team. We have been busy all off-season. Coach Jones and his team have been out there recruiting, finding these diamonds in the rough and we had a great draft. So I think we’re in a really good position for our performance on the field to make a good run this year.”.Cui even had a “guaranteed win ticket” for home fans in what he called “a cheeky approach.”.“Our record is our record and that’s what it is, and we’ve embraced it. And we took Select P1, our best seats, and we said, ‘You know what, buy this ticket. It’s guaranteed to be yours until we produce a win. We’re going to win on June 11, so it doesn’t matter…It is going to be, I think, one of our highest-attended events in years.”.Cui said, “People are starting to show their love for the Edmonton Elks again” but added, “People think of Coach Jones as really stern and maybe mean. And he does have a tough side, I’ll give you that.”.The Elks are still paying out the contracts of former general manager Brock Sunderland and head coach Jaime Elizondo who were fired after a 3-11 season in 2021. Chris Jones now carries both responsibilities..In mid-July, Cui told media at a press conference, “I think him wearing multiple hats has helped us because we’re working with less money with our salary cap. Because if you remember in 2021 when we made these massive changes in the organization, we’re still carrying that severance for multiple years,” Cui noted..“We’re essentially working with half a million dollars less than every other team…That impacts our operations, (on) multiple levels of the quality of people and coaches and all that kind of stuff that we can hire.”.At the time, Cui denied reports that Jones’ contract is structured as four separate one-year deals, which would spare them from another situation with multiple years of severance. He said the club is committed for full four seasons with Jones, so firing him would leave them “absolutely” hamstrung..“Of course, that would hamstring any business,” he insisted. “Those are the financial things that we have to think about.”.Then again, it’s hard to sell fans on being disappointed in person..“Without a doubt when our performance is poor like this, casual ticket sales just get hard. It doesn’t matter what you do, because it’s hard to attract fans into the stadium,” Cui admitted.
