Victor Cui has caused quite a stir on social media since he was hired as the new president and CEO of the Edmonton Elks in January. He is extremely active with his 139,000 followers on Twitter — he also has 41,500 followers on Instagram — and has connected via direct message with a huge number of local fans.
“I feel a responsibility to reply and write back to them because they took the five, ten minutes, half an hour out of their day to tell me why this team is important. And if I as the leader … of this organization cannot respect each one of our fans that has taken the time to show their love and passion, then how can I expect anybody else in my organization to do that?” Cui told The Sportscage in Regina.
“We’ve got this magnificent tool called social media that allows us to talk to every single person. That would’ve cost you hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in marketing if you wanted to reach out to fans directly (decades ago) but today we could do that for free.”
Cui has used social media to not only connect with fans but members of the Elks organization. He had dinner last week with assistant general manager Geroy Simon — who said it was the first time he had dinner with a CFL team president — and revealed he’s in contact with the team’s players as well.
“I have messaged, personally, every single person on our roster either on their Instagram or on their Twitter account and followed them and reached out to them and just said, ‘Hey, I’m looking forward to a great year. Anything you need, shout out to me and I’ll do what I can.’ And that’s why I love this sport: because I want to talk to the guys,” said Cui.
“Geroy? What an amazing man. I always say that you could tell a lot about a man by the way they talk about their family. … He’s one of eight siblings and he’s a father to five children and he was so proud to list off every single one of his nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters and just talk about them.
“I could see him going through his mind he was listing them off name by name, just so proud about his family and that meant a lot to me that he was sharing that with me because to me the most important thing in life is family. It’s always about family first.”
Cui was born in Edmonton and spent most of his formative years in the city. He hasn’t been on the job for long but appears to have won a tremendous amount of support in the city, recently drawing comparisons to Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings.
Among the changes Cui has made during his short tenure with the Elks is a return the club’s ‘EE’ helmet decal as well as a partnership with the University of Alberta that will see the organizations host a double-header in October.
Edmonton recently sold a record number of season tickets during a Family Day long weekend sale. The club initially declined to reveal the number of tickets that were sold, though it was later reported that 4,000 new seats were purchased.
