The Edmonton Elks have partnered with multilingual station My Radio 580 AM to broadcast its July 29 game against the B.C. Lions in Punjabi.

The team says this is the first time a professional football game has been broadcast in Punjabi.

Based in Edmonton, 580 AM has the largest broadcast range of any ethnic station in Alberta, reaching as far as Red Deer, Calgary and Lethbridge to the south and Lloydminster to the east. There are roughly 125,000 Punjabi speakers in Alberta, according to the 2021 census, but the team and station also hope to reach audiences across Canada through its online audio player.

“[The game] will be another example of how we’re working as a club to make football a welcoming place for all fans, including through the comfort of hearing the game in their first language,” said Victor Cui, president and CEO of the Edmonton Elks. “We couldn’t think of a better matchup for our Punjabi broadcast, as we hope the broadcast is also enjoyed by the large Punjabi community in B.C.”

Harpreet Pandher and Taqdeer Thindal, commentators for Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi broadcasts, have been enlisted to call the game. Pandher has been a commentator on Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi since 2014, with Thindal joining in 2015.

Last year, the Elks became the first team to broadcast a CFL game in an Indigenous language, with Cree broadcasts on Windspeaker Media stations in Edmonton and Calgary.