We are now up to nine PDL teams with the additions of Winnipeg and Hamilton this year. Three in BC, one in Manitoba, and five in Ontario. The BC teams have already kicked off and the others start soon. What are people hoping/expecting to see this year from the Canadian PDL teams? How do you see them fitting into soccer development in Canada (or do you)? Do you foresee further PDL expansion in Canada or will our tier-three system ultimately go another route?
The regular season has ended (as you can tell from the flurry of posts on this thread ). Three of Canada's nine PDL teams made the playoffs which is about what you'd expect in a league where 30% of the teams make the post season. Regular season attendance was down markedly in every city except Vancouver. Vancouver's difference was entirely due to a Canada Day game against Victoria that brought in two thirds of all the fans for the entire season. The numbers are as follows with last year's numbers for comparison: Code: Team 2011 2010 Victoria 992 1497 Vancouver 254 129 Abbotsford 116 133 Winnipeg 253 NA Thunder Bay 599 794 London 841 1246 Hamilton 168 NA Toronto 194 504 Ottawa 220 379
To be fair, London moved from an 8,000 seat stadium to a 1,000 seat stadium beside a swamp this season.
"The regular season has ended (as you can tell from the flurry of posts on this thread ). Three of Canada's nine PDL teams made the playoffs which is about what you'd expect in a league where 30% of the teams make the post season. Regular season attendance was down markedly in every city except Vancouver. Vancouver's difference was entirely due to a Canada Day game against Victoria that brought in two thirds of all the fans for the entire season. The numbers are as follows with last year's numbers for comparison:" Sorry, only found out about this site recently. In the NW Div of the PDL, 2 of 8 make the playoffs, and I'd prefer to see 4, since it's such a tight race, and my local team needed to beat 2 MLS Residency teams this year just to get there. Decline in Victoria attendance has been discussed at length among the Lake Side Buoys. Increased advertising for the womens team (moving to W-League this year) meant a decrease in local advertising of the mens team and games. Novelty factor is wearing off (this was season 3). There are some people who stopped coming out when the team didn't immediately move to the NASL or USL Pro. Despite all this, crowds of 800-1200 are much more enjoyable for me than the 100 or so who attended PCSL Victoria United games. If a Canadian league is formed, or Victoria's ownership can make the move to NASL, crowds will certainly increase; but by enough to afford continental travel? That's the million dollar question. Since 1500 have come out for PDL, I think 2000 would be a low-end crowd for Victoria at NASL level. Cheers.
And the only reason Victoria's average was 992 was that the last four games of the season were played at Royal Athletic Park (downtown, easy transit connections and nearby pubs) which drew decent attendances for a really exciting "run to the playoffs". Prior to the move, 750 or so I believe.
I had a number of long and turbulent arguments with two posters from Victoria. I had lived in the city for a couple of years and my folks are still there. They were adamant that the Bear Mountain Stadium was the place to be and perfect, they pooh-poohed the whole idea of RAP (too old) and UVIC stadium (admittedly UVIC, doesn't want tenants but its built with public money). They had all sorts of vast predictions of financial success because...........are you ready for this..........a transit bus ran from downtown towards the stadium. That was it. That was the ENTIRE reason the Highlanders was going to be successful at Bear Mountain, according to these two. Now the Victoria Seals proved RAP can be a tough place to play as they have to use union labo(u)r to staff it as it is a city facility.
Hi Shelts. The Victoria baseball team in the CBL was one of the few successes in that venture. Baseball in Victoria seems to suffer more for the leagues it is in than for any lack of support from Victorians. It will be interesting to see if Highlanders can get the average back in the 1500 range next year at RAP. Of course, not spending the entire advertising budget on the womens team might help in that regard. Cheers.