Commonwealth Stadium is about to get loud again.
The Edmonton Elks had moved more than 27,000 tickets for Saturday’s West Final against the BC Lions as of Tuesday, a team spokesperson said, and they’re selling about 2,000 a day. The club thinks 35,000 is a reasonable bet. It isn’t ruling out 40,000.
Sales have already passed the two biggest crowds of the season. Either projection would be the biggest crowd at Commonwealth since 2019. And it’s the first playoff game played in Edmonton since 2015, the last time the franchise won the Grey Cup.
“We need our fans in this game, it’s a big game,” quarterback Cody Fajardo said Tuesday.
The winner goes to the Grey Cup in Calgary on Nov. 15. The loser goes home.
The upper bowl is open for the third time all year
The Elks shut Commonwealth’s upper deck for the entire 2024 season, on purpose, to pull fans closer to the field. They reopened it this summer only when demand forced the issue: Aug. 1 against Saskatchewan, which drew 31,757, and Sept. 12 against Calgary, which drew 31,531. Those were the two biggest crowds of the year.
Saturday is the third.
“It’s uplifting because I’ve always wanted to see the upper bowl filled up,” running back Justin Rankin said. He said it’s been a long time since it was.
He’s right. The Elks averaged 22,421 at home this season. That’s up 17.7 per cent from last year, the biggest jump in the CFL, but it’s still a long way from the 35,000 the team pulled in 2010. The last crowd over 32,000 was Sept. 7, 2024, against Calgary. The last over 35,000 was Sept. 7, 2019, when 40,113 watched Edmonton play Calgary.
In between came the worst stretch in franchise history: five years out of the playoffs and a record 22-game home losing streak. Commonwealth, the biggest stadium in the league, became the emptiest.
That’s why 35,000 would mean something beyond the gate.
The last time Edmonton hosted a West Final, it won the Grey Cup
Nov. 22, 2015. Edmonton beat Calgary 45-31 in front of 34,414 at Commonwealth, then beat Ottawa 26-20 a week later for the franchise’s 14th Grey Cup. The team was still the Eskimos then; it became the Elks in 2021.
Nothing since has come close. Playoff trips in 2016, 2017 and 2019 ended on the road. Then came the drought.
This year flipped it. Edmonton finished 13-5 and first in the West, clinching the division and home field with a 35-27 win over Winnipeg on Oct. 16. Fajardo threw for 4,788 yards and 25 touchdowns. Rankin ran for 1,170 yards. Austin Mack caught 82 passes for 1,254 yards. Head coach Mark Kilam, in his second season, got a contract extension through 2029.
“The Edmonton fans were the difference tonight,” Fajardo said after the clinch. Saturday, he wants more of them.
Why the Elks want the place packed
It’s not just atmosphere. BC runs a fast, no-huddle offence built around Nathan Rourke, and that style depends on communication at the line.
“Football is a game where the fans can make a difference,” Kilam said, pointing to the Lions’ tempo and empty-backfield sets.
Fajardo put it more directly. Crowd noise makes it harder for an offence to hear, he said, and the fans “can be the difference.”
The forecast helps. Saturday is calling for sun and a high of 8 C. For November in Edmonton, that’s a gift.
Don’t sleep on the Lions
BC started 1-5. It finished 10-8, winning nine of its last 12, then beat Saskatchewan 33-26 in the West Semi-Final on Oct. 31 to get here.
The regular-season series was a split. BC won 36-24 in Kelowna on July 4. Edmonton won 19-17 at Commonwealth two weeks later.
Rourke is 3-2 as a playoff starter. Fajardo is 3-3. Kilam has never coached a playoff game. BC’s Buck Pierce is 2-1.
“For Larry”: the owner who bought the team to see this
The man who paid for this turnaround won’t be in the building.
Larry Thompson became the Elks’ first private owner in August 2024. He’d been going to games since 1972, and he funded the purchase by selling the Spruce Grove construction company he built over 40 years. All he wanted, he said, was a team fans could be proud of.
He died in September 2025 at 65, before he got to see it. His wife, Deb, kept the team and said she’d carry on his vision.
Fourteen months later, the Elks are hosting a playoff game for the first time in 11 years. On Saturday, the first 5,000 fans through the main gates get a keepsake in his memory.
“Larry will be with us in spirit,” the club said. The post was titled “For Larry!”
Saturday’s weather: dress for the second half
Edmonton got lucky. Saturday’s forecast calls for a high of 9 C with a 10 per cent chance of rain, which for a November playoff game is about as good as it gets.
The catch is kickoff. At 5:30 p.m. the sun is already down, and the overnight low is 3 C. Commonwealth’s upper bowl catches wind. Bring layers, bring a toque, and plan for single digits by the fourth quarter.
History is on Edmonton’s side
The two teams have met seven times in the West Final. Edmonton has won five. The last one was 2011, and BC took it 40-23.
The home numbers are more lopsided. Edmonton is 39-16 in home playoff games, a .709 winning percentage. BC is 11-28 as a playoff visitor. Since 1972, the team hosting the West Final has won 32 of 52.
None of that scores a point on Saturday. But it explains why the Elks spent all season chasing first place.
A Grey Cup three hours down the highway
Win, and the Elks play for the 113th Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Sunday, Nov. 15. It would be the first time Edmonton has played for the Cup since 2015, and the first time it’s done so in Alberta since the 2009 Grey Cup in Calgary, which it didn’t reach. An Edmonton-Calgary Grey Cup week would be the biggest sports week the province has seen in years.
Calgary is still selling tickets.
Read more: Grey Cup 2026 in Calgary: Game Date, Free Festival Events, CTrain Guide and What to Know
Elks vs. Lions: kickoff, tickets, how to watch
What: CFL West Final
When: Saturday, Nov. 7, 5:30 p.m. MT
Where: Play Alberta Field at Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton
TV: TSN1, TSN3, TSN4 and RDS in Canada; CFL+ internationally
Tickets: goelks.com, through Ticketmaster. The upper bowl is open.
Also Saturday: Winnipeg at Montreal in the East Final, 1 p.m. MT
What’s at stake: The 113th Grey Cup, Nov. 15 in Calgary
If you’re going, Commonwealth is on the LRT at Stadium station. Park-and-ride beats driving.
Saturday is Edmonton’s last home game of the year no matter what. For a team that spent a decade playing to empty seats, 35,000 would be a win before kickoff.
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