CFL NOTEBOOK: ALS CONTINUITY, COMBINE NEWS, ELKS OWNERSHIP

Danny Maciocia was flying home the day after his Montreal Alouettes won the Grey Cup when he leaned over to head coach Jason Maas and said: “Now what do we do?”

“I know we won a Grey Cup, but what are our next steps?” the Alouettes general manager thought at the time.

The organization’s two central figures got off the plane from Hamilton — where the Alouettes upset the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-24 on Nov. 19 in a dramatic championship victory — and instantly drove to a restaurant in Montreal’s east end to chart out a plan for the off-season.

Early into their three-hour discussion, it became abundantly clear that keeping the team together and having continuity into next season were priorities.

“We fell on a recipe that worked for us, and I wanted to keep that recipe,” Maciocia said Friday in the Alouettes’ locker room. “That’s the reason we got to work, because we wanted to keep our key players and that core intact.”

A little over a year ago, the Alouettes didn’t even know who their owner would be — or whether the team would play the 2023 season. Several key players packed their bags for other CFLcities in free agency.

Instability plagued the franchise in the years preceding last season’s triumph, with the CFL taking over operations twice in four years.

Now businessman Pierre Karl Peladeau has owned the team for a full calendar year, and the Alouettes seem as stable as ever with most of a championship team returning to attempt a repeat.

In the weeks that followed Montreal’s championship parade Nov. 22, Maciocia signed defensive linemen Shawn Lemon and Mustafa Johnson, linebacker Darnell Sankey, quarterback Cody Fajardo and Canadian receiver Tyson Philpot to contract extensions, among several other moves. Maciocia and Maas also signed long-term extensions of their own.

“It’s about as much of 180 as you can get,” said Maas, who was hired as head coach before last season. “Totally different feel this year.”

“Stability is a great thing, I believe, in sports. Continuity after winning a championship is huge,” he added. “Having an owner for an entire calendar year, a president, a GM, everybody that’s worked together and had success together now. That to me is the biggest thing and it’s the way it should be, to be honest, that’s what you hope it to be.”

Not only are many of key players returning. Montreal also brought back most of its coaching staff — including offensive co-ordinator/quarterback coach Anthony Calvillo, defensive co-ordinator Noel Thorpe and special-teams co-ordinator Byron Archambault — somewhat of a rarity in a league where coaches often get poached after successful seasons.

CFL COMBINE

CFL officials will have the chance to get up close and personal with DK Bonhomme.

The South Alabama linebacker has been added to the league’s national combine, which will be held next week in Winnipeg. On Friday, Bonhomme’s name was on the list of participants released by the CFL.

The six-foot-two, 237-pound Bonhomme was invited to participate in the CFL’s regional combine Friday in Waterloo, Ont., but was unable to attend.

Bonhomme began his college career at Indiana, appearing in 24 games over three seasons before transferring to South Alabama. Gifted athletically, Bonhomme has battled injuries throughout his collegiate tenure.

After being limited to just three games with the Jaguars in 2022, Bonhomme was hurt before last season and didn’t play in 2023.

EDMONTON ELKS OWNERSHIP

The Edmonton Elks may be looking to sell to a private ownership group for the first time in the franchise’s 75-year history.

The Elks announced that team president and CEO Rick LeLacheur, as well as board chair Tom Richards, provided an update to the Canadian Football League’s Board of Governors on its ongoing ownership review. 

That update is based on the findings of a special committee working with Park Lane, a sports investment bank that managed the sale of the Montreal Alouettes a year ago.

Richards told reporters in November that the goal of the five-person committee is to ensure “professional football continues to thrive as a member of the Canadian Football League in Edmonton and northern Alberta.”

“The special committee will bring forward recommendations to the club’s board of directors, which will ultimately determine the best ownership structure for the club moving forward,” reads a statement from the Elks. “The club has no further updates on the special committee’s work at this time and will provide more details when appropriate.”

Edmonton’s football team has been community-owned since it was founded in 1949.

The team had an operating loss of $3.3 million in 2022, the fourth straight year it ran at a deficit.

The franchise has amassed 699 all-time wins — tying it with Calgary for the most in league history — and won 14 Grey Cups, the last coming in 2015 when it finished atop the West Division with a 14-4-0 record.

Edmonton hasn’t reached the CFL playoffs since 2019 when it crossed over into the East Division after finishing fourth in the West with an 8-10 record.

Since the CFL resumed play in 2021 — the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to cancel the 2020 season — Edmonton has recorded three straight last-place finishes in the West Division, with records of 3-11-0 in 2021 and 4-14-0 in both 2022 and 2023.

A 30-20 win over Ottawa on Aug. 28 ended a 22-game home losing streak, the longest in North American professional sports history.

The franchise averaged just over 24,700 spectators per game this season — which included a season-low crowd of 19,921. This year’s attendance is down significantly from 2015 when the franchise averaged a CFL-high 31,517 fans per game.

Next season, Edmonton will close the upper bowl at Commonwealth Stadium, which has a seating capacity for 56,400 fans.

(Canadian Press)