[dfffd61]

There's a lot of rumors about Toronto getting an MLS team, but I think they'd be better off setting up their own 12 team league.

East
Montreal Impact - Robillard (8900)
Montreal Olympique - UdeM (5400)
Ottawa Capitals - Harris (3000)
Quebec Nordiques - PEPS (10,000)
Toronto Lynx - Birchmount Stadium (6000)
Toronto Metros - Lampart Stadium (9000)

West
Calgary Mustangs - Rugby Park (4500)
Edmonton Aviators - Foote Field (3000)
Hamilton Thunder - Timmis (5000)
London City - JW Little (7500)
Vancouver Whitecaps - Swanguard (7100)
Winnepeg Royals - Soccer Complex (10,000)

Add in some temporary bleachers to bring them all up to around 7500 and you'd be in business.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

It has been tried and did not work.

[Johnnie Monster]

Forget it. It will never work... at least not for another 20 years.

When it comes to soccer there are only three cities in this country capable of attracting 5K - 10K+ per match:

Vancouver.

Toronto.

Montreal.


All three of those cities have USL clubs, and two of them have MLS aspirations.

A "Canadian league" would be viewed by the players and fans alike as a step down from USL, not an improvement.

[wcgcapone]

Originally Posted by BringBackTheBlizzard

It has been tried and did not work.

And this is why you "people" will never be Americans and instead always just try to piggyback on everything we do. People said that MLS would never work.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

MLS would have folded within three seasons like WUSA did if it hadn't been for two billionaires who wanted to save face and were therefore willing to pay the bills until a more sensible business plan could finally be put in place based on SSSs, instead. People like Joe Saputo in Montreal who was offered charter membership of MLS were right in that regard and saved themselves a lot of money by remaining on the sidelines. We have a tenth of your population. When the USA has 80 full-time professional soccer franchises it will be reasonable to suggest that Canada could start a league of its own. Right now you only have 20 (if USL-1 is included which is a bit of a stretch in some cases like Virginia Beach) so it's comparabe to asking the Metrostars, Revolution, Rhinos to form a league with PDL and USL-2 level ownership groups and cities from only the NE of the USA. Crowds would soon sink to NY Centaurs and Boston Bulldogs levels and the league would eventually struggle to get its linescores mentioned in the major daily newspapers and on local TV and radio news.

[PJohnson]

Originally Posted by BringBackTheBlizzard

It has been tried and did not work.

But why give up trying? That's the part that we Americans don't understand. It's not in our nature. As a culture we don't have a defeatist attitude.

Why not take a look at the success that Montreal Impact are having and try to replicate that in other Canadian cities? They are doing it at the USL 1 level. Which completely contradicts the idea that Canadians will not support soccer below the level of the Premiership or even MLS.

[petersoccer]

Originally Posted by wcgcapone

And this is why you "people" will never be Americans and instead always just try to piggyback on everything we do. People said that MLS would never work.

We are Canadians and just fine with that.

[dfffd61]

Originally Posted by petersoccer

We are Canadians and just fine with that.

Then don't join America's Soccer League, start your own.

[RedandWhite]

There is a good discussion going on here:

http://www.canadian-soccer.com/forum...?TOPIC_ID=7463

I think we should use CHL formula and have three different leagues.

[Krammerhead]

A couple of responses. First off to the person who responded "we tried it and it didn't work" well nearly everything doesn't work the first few times around. It doesn't mean you never try it again. However the proposed league above wouldn't work.

First off Winnepegs soccer complex hardly exists any more, whats left is lucky to have 5,000 seats. I hear there are plans to sell off the piece of real estate the complex sits on. Toronto can't even support the one team they have in the USL now, a league like above would be the same level, how could they support 2 teams? Take away Toronto's bused in school day crowds and their hugely inflated announced attendances and they are hardly averaging 1,000 per game. and now you propose to split that numebr in two?

Calgary Rugby park? Have you ever seen it. More like a park out in the middle of nowhere with a set of bleachers for fans to sit on. Foote Field in Edmonton with it's astroturf pitch covered in gridiron lines? JW Little stadium in London City? Here's what it looks like now: http://www.csd.uwo.ca/staff/zebulon/...7_12_02-01.jpg

How would a league playing nation wide survive playing out of such small stadiums? Even if they could fill them they'd be killed by travel costs. How do you end up with London and Hamilton in the Western division? Ridiculous.