Hmmm, TSN and RDS took the rights to the MLS games again, so where does that leave the CBC and their "Soccer Night in Canada" trademark? It's looking more and more like they'll be the ones to put a TV bid on for the CPL broadcast rights.
Hasn't this been pretty much set in stone? Was there any question about this? I've even heard that the provincial champs from Ontario and BC could be involved as soon as this season. I really wisher there were more up to date news. The push for V-Cup expansion (the initial step of which was moving the timeframe of the tournament to make room on the calendar for future expansion) really came to the fore when Montagliani took over the CSA. Now with him over at CONCACAF, I wonder how far that movement has gone since he left. I guess they'll announce any changes once the MLS season starts as they seem to often do. Too bad that there are no insiders on CSA deliberations to keep ppl up-to-date on the developments. I'd really like to see the V-Cup grow in the manner that it should and to become a more competitive tournament with upsets and drama.
the schedule for this year's Canadian Championship was released today....couple of tidbits was that if someone other than Toronto wins this year there will be a one match play off between Toronto (last year's winner) and this year's winner for one spot in the CCL (another readjustment caused by another change in CCL).....the second tidbit was that starting in 2018 the tournament will be expanded to include " winning teams from both League1 Ontario and Première Ligue de soccer du Québec."....interestingly, as the below tweet points out....no inclusion for CPL teams...prompting some worry that the league may not launch in 2018. We're not worried then 😅 @Paulbeirne pic.twitter.com/zOWwCwrN0g— Barton St. Battalion (@BartonBattalion) March 9, 2017
Of course PB is going to say "don't worry". Any sort of perceived waffling will kill the league before it even starts. I'd imagine at this point there would be some concerned people in the CSA backrooms as people start asking aloud about what the holdup is.
the point of me posting that tweet was to show that people are concerned about startup date.......not point out anything about Paul Bierne........if I was intending it to show something about PB it would be to show how candid he actually is.....a couple tweets later in the conversation (available to see if you click the first tweet I posted as a link) he actually says this: 839934367073972224 is not a valid tweet id
They also can't announce CPL participation if the CPL hasn't been announced, can they? And they didn't say that the D3 champions will be the ONLY new teams.
it is the CSA's tournament.....and the CPL is a CSA initiative...I am pretty sure if they wanted to (and were confident CPL was going to exist in 2018) I am pretty sure they could say whatever they wanted to. [QUOTE="Daniel from Montréal, post: 35217177, member: 10043"And they didn't say that the D3 champions will be the ONLY new teams.[/QUOTE] No they did not say ONLY...but they also did not couch it with words like "expand by at least two teams" or "expand by two or more teams" or "expand the tournament with other teams INCLUDING the champions of Ontario and Quebec"....they said:
I'm guessing the CPL doesn't launch in 2018. I'm of two minds about this. First, they will only have one chance to make this succeed and it is up against the serious obstacles that we have all discussed over the past couple of years. If they aren't ready to launch it properly, I'm glad they are holding off on launching it at all. The last thing I'd want to see is a rushed, half-baked league that is doomed to failure. Second, the longer things drag on, the more I wonder how likely the league is to launch at all. Like I said, I don't want to see them launch until they've overcome the obstacles they face. If they haven't been able to do that by now, however, I wonder what they are hoping will change to let the league succeed if they just wait a little longer. It's not like the obstacles are changing on the negative front or that we're expecting huge news on the positive front like three new NASL teams they can poach or two Canadian cities suddenly doubling in population so that they can support new teams. It would be nice if the CSA could be at least a little forthcoming with fans about where things stand now. I'm not expecting all the details or that they announce rumours or hopes. A status update would be nice, though. Maybe something like "Hey, we've lined up five teams and are talking with two other ownership groups for additional cities plus with one MLS club about shifting their USL team to the CPL."
I don't think they are going to leak any information and get our hopes up. People will pounce on them if it fails before launch. At this point they have deniability. I honestly think that the problem is that the league isn't sustainable without TV revenue and the CBC won't give them revenue without a team in the Toronto TV market. TFC has made it clear that going against them in their hometown would be suicide and the CSA has made it clear that they won't accept a lower tier TFC team in the CPL because the public would assume that it's an inferior league and not watch the televised games or attend in person. I think we're at a Mexican standoff. I think if MLSE created a new team called Toronto Blizzard or something (like the Marlies/Leafs organizations), they might be able to work around the public perceptions.
^changing the name of the farm team won't change the impression of the league if it has farm teams.....do people really think the AHL is a major league just because the team in Toronto is called Marlies as opposed to Leafs II? Is Raptor 905 fooling people into going the Hershey in droves to watch D-League basketball?
They also held off on announcing a possible format. I expect that once they're more certain about the composition of teams during that season, you'll have a new format announced then.
I think the CSA needs to get over this. Even if the CPL doesn't have MLS farm teams, it will be an inferior league as compared to MLS. It's not like they're going to trick people in Hamilton or Calgary into thinking the CPL is the best league going. So just acknowledge it and let the MLS teams move their USL teams to the CPL. By analogy, the CHL is a well supported league. It doesn't present itself as the NHL. The people in the cities involved know they aren't going to get NHL teams, so they go out and have a good time watching decent (but not absolute top end) hockey at a reasonable price.
I for one hope they hold firm. It is not a case of pretending that you are a better league...but, rather, that you are independent and not a farm league. That if team X develops a good player the fans will know they can come and watch him play without fear that the parent club will just call him up. Yes there will be the harsh reality that the player will seek a move to a better league but the club will have input into that and will sell him for cash which will, directly or indirectly support the development of the club....it won't just be some parent club saying "call him up". That is a poor analogy, though, and may actually argue the opposite to what I think you are suggesting. The CHL clubs are all independent professionally run organizations. They happen to be the best league(s) in the world at what they offer....that is junior hockey. They are not beholden to some parent club...they operate in their own sphere and control their own club and operations.....and, guess what, manage to garner a very good audience for the most part.
If anything, the AHL, not the CHL makes that argument. And I'd say that there's probably less fan loyalty in the AHL.
I'm assuming all the non-MLS farm teams would operate as independent, professional clubs. It would only the be the (maximum three) MLS farm teams that would risk having key players called up. In those markets, however, the CPL team wouldn't have to rely on fan support for its survival so developing fan interest in those markets isn't really important. I see it like this: The CPL isn't going to be able to have viable, independent teams in the MLS markets. So instead of throwing away the three biggest markets in the country, let the MLS farm teams in. Yes, it means having farm teams who will likely draw small crowds in these cities. In return, it means the league has three teams that aren't going to fold. Now they can put eight other teams in place and if a couple of them don't make it they don't take down the entire league. I think this could make the difference between the league succeeding or failing because otherwise it really depends on every single one of the new markets making it. So, to me, accepting the less than perfect three farm teams is a better bet than not. And, who knows? Maybe in a decade the CPL will have ten established, successful independent teams and won't need the MLS farm teams any more.
^and I just don't like how it impacts competitive integrity......the mixed model is not something that interests me at all.
^ And that is a legitimate opinion for you to hold. I just believe it might be a choice between an imperfect league that exists or a perfect league that doesn't. For what it's worth, it's a model that seems to be working well for the USL.
it is working well for USL...where either every player on an affiliated team or every team that is not affiliated is really just trying to get to MLS ....not the case in CPL. I guess we are at that "agree to disagree" point...at least we got there respecting each others' opinion.
I am glad that we (and others here) can discuss things respectfully even when we disagree. I'm curious about your comment about the goal of CPL players not being MLS. I think we also have a different view on that. I'm assuming the CPL will be at about the level of the USL/NASL. If so, we certainly don't want that to be the ceiling for Canadian talent development. I actually am assuming that most CPL players will want to be graduating to MLS or Europe. Some, of course, will stop at the CPL level but I'm assuming we won't want to be stocking our NT with guys who have topped out in the CPL.
got caught in my own sentence structure there....I think the goal of CPL players will be the same as players in the USL...ie. get to as high a level as possible and that would include MLS....but none of the owners of non-affiliated/non-farm CPL teams will be trying to achieve MLS status (ie. be the next expansion team in the league)...that is the difference I was trying to highlight.
In some countries, most of the top NT players end up "graduating" from the acedemy of one of two or three major clubs, even though they started their development at a smaller club. In The Netherlands for example, the members last WC squad filtered through PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord. I'm guessing that it's likely that the Canadian players destined for bigger things will likely all (or nearly all) finish their youth careers at TFC, VWFC and Impact.
Well then, the people who would own the Halifax team are certainly acting like this league will launch in 2018. They were at City Hall today discussing their stadium plans/needs.
I'm a bit surprised that they would build a stadium when they have three universities that participate in varsity sport. Huskies Stadium itself is definitely an appropriate size. But hey, whatever, just glad to see Halifax as being part of it.
An example of what they envision is here: I guess a few other people have had the same idea as us! This looks fantastic but picture it in the heart of downtown Halifax #gettingcloser https://t.co/JJDrqSucI2— Derek Martin (@WandererDerek) March 21, 2017 here is a cbc story about the idea http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...x-pop-up-stadium-pro-soccer-1.4037963?cmp=rss