PRESSON HIS CASE
New Esks boss on the job
The sky, apparently, is the limit for newly named Edmonton Eskimos president and CEO Chris Presson.
After spending the last five seasons under a roof as president of the Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers, he is venturing north to the wide-open heavens of the CFL — 2,880 kilometres from his native Oklahoma, where he grew up dreaming of a slightly different football profession.
“When you look at this opportunity and you look at this possibility, when you’re on Pine Valley Road in Catoosa, Okla., running out routes, you’re not thinking of being the next president and CEO of the Edmonton Eskimos,” he said. “It just doesn’t happen. I’m thinking about, for that day, do I want to be Golden Richards, Preston Pearson, Roger Staubach or Tony Dorsett?
“When you have the opportunity to advance your career and go through a process like this, you understand that literally anything ’s possible.”
A graduate of Oklahoma
State University with a journalism degree, Presson has spent 30 years in sports management, working in everything from professional hockey to baseball, basketball, golf, tennis and soccer.
“A lot of them were challenging,” Presson said. “I look back now and the knowledge I gained from those challenges is what puts me in line for a position like this, which I enjoy.”
And he’s certainly been winning on the business side of sports.
Presson was named the latest AFL Executive of the Year with a Rattlers organization that earned the past three Franchise of the Year awards. All the while, he was also presiding over the Northern Arizona Suns — a development team for the NBA’S Phoenix Suns — which he launched in 2016.
“To get an opportunity to be a part of a brand like the Eskimos in a league like the Canadian Football League, it’s an honour, it’s a privilege, it’s a pleasure and I truly do not take it lightly,” said Presson, who along with wife Tracy has three daughters. “I know what I’m getting into, I know what I’m in store for and I can’t wait to get started.
“You’re not going to see drastic change overnight, you’re going to see us get in and if we don’t know exactly who our fan is and who our customer is, we’re going to figure it out so we know what they want. We need to understand our client, in my opinion, a little deeper.”
It turns out he had an acquaintance working on the inside of the Eskimos throughout the hiring process.
David Turner, who took over for longtime Eskimos player-personnel director Paul Jones in the off-season, worked for the Rattlers from 2011-15, first as player-personnel director before being promoted to assistant general manager.
During that time, the Rattlers won three straight AFL championships.
But Presson said Turner didn’t open the door on his incoming presidency.
“I know D.T. pretty well. He and I worked together for, I want to say, two years,” said Presson, adding the two haven’t spoken in at least that long since Turner left the Rattlers.
“I know people are trying to make the connection that he was the correlation. I didn’t even know he wasn’t (residing) here, he lives elsewhere. It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to him, but I know him quite well.
“After I knew I was in a position to have a deeper discussion about the job, I asked the Eskimos to not talk to him.
“I wanted it to be me on my own getting the job. I didn’t know if he had influence positively or negatively. So I still haven’t talked to him.”
OK, so apparently Turner — who wasn’t made available for any interviews Thursday — didn’t connect Presson with Eskimos GM Brock Sunderland and, from there, the hiring committee as one might have surmised.
But one thing is certain: Presson wasn’t the Eskimos’ first choice to replace Len Rhodes.
Multiple sources have indicated the club came within “a hair’s breath” of hiring TSN executive producer and vice-president Paul Graham.
But the deal fell through when the Eskimos didn’t end up coming to terms financially with the native of Edmonton, who was the 2018 media inductee in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
We don’t know exactly who our fan is and who our customer is, we’re going to figure it out so we know what they want.