Best Seat In The House: Larry Thompson’s full circle journey to Elks’ ownership

Larry Thompson remembers his first steps into Clarke Stadium in 1972. He was 12 years old and remembers sitting alongside his stepfather in the old stadium’s grandstands and watching streams of larger-than-life athletes take the field. He was captivated.

In 1978, when Commonwealth Stadium opened, their seats improved. They were season-ticket holders, front row, right behind the Edmonton bench.

“I thought that was pretty cool,” Thompson recalled. “We still have those same two seats today.”

Now, Thompson has those two seats and control over about 56,300 other ones.

Thompson was announced as the new owner of the Edmonton Elks on Thursday, bringing a 75-year run of community ownership to a close. While questions will naturally surround the team’s brand new owner, fans of the team and the CFL at large can rest easy knowing that Thompson is in many ways just like them: a passionate fan who wants to see his team and the league as a whole thrive and grow.

“Well, what I want to bring to the team is hard work. When you’ve got hard work, you’ve got success and I want the team to get back to their winning ways. We want to start winning football games,” he said.

“I want to increase the amount of fans we have in the seats too, because fans are so very important to our team. We need to have our fans support us. And in order for that to (happen), we’ve got to be good on the field, the whole clubhouse to be good. We all have to contribute and work hard.”

Thompson doesn’t just talk about hard work; he knows firsthand what it is. Born in Gibbons, Alta., Thompson said he’s lived in all four corners of Edmonton before he and his family settled in Spruce Grove, just outside of Edmonton. Having worked in construction his entire working life, he founded Thompson Construction and turned what started out as what he described as a handful of people into a company of 1,500 employees and over 2,000 pieces of equipment. After 45 years running the business that bears his family name, he sold it in 2023.

Through a life spent in Edmonton and its surrounding area, Thompson is a part of the pulse of the city. He understands what the Elks mean to the people of Edmonton and the pride that the city has taken in its extended success over the years. In building his own successful business, there’s a lot that he can apply to this new venture.

“The largest thing that I’ve always worked off of is getting the best people I can find, to get the best team,” Thompson said. “I’ve done that all my life, it’s all people. I have to have the best people. I want the best people and I’ve been very successful with the best people and so have they. That’s kind of the bottom line, right there, is people.”

While Thompson and the Elks have eight rivals in the CFL, he looks one province to the West for an example of the type of owner he’d like to be for his team. Thompson has admired the work that BC Lions owner Amar Doman has done since he took control of that team in 2021.

“I think Amar has done a lot of super good things with the club,” he said. “He’s very good at entertaining fans. He’s brought entertainment back into BC and he’s hired the right people. They’ve got a good quarterback, and they just got another good one back from down south.

“I think he’s attracting talent and I think he’s doing a tremendous job in BC.”

As he takes control of the team that he’s spent the bulk of his life watching as a fan, there’s a great sense of joy in Thompson and his family this week. He lists off some of those early favourite players of his: Dan Kepley, Tom Wilkinson, Brian Kelly. Rather than recite them all from Warren Moon through to Ricky Ray, Michael Reilly and Tre Ford he just says, “you know who I’m talking about.”

Ownership of this team is something he’s wanted for a long time. He said he expressed interest in it five years ago, but hit a dead end. When the deal was finalized, the longtime season ticket holder let the people he often shares those seats with know first. There’s an eagerness in his voice and a clear comfort with the product as he embarks on this new challenge.

“They’re very happy, they congratulated me,” he said of delivering the news to his loved ones.

“Our whole family is football fans.”