I'm hearing the NASL D2 application being rejected is accurate. Edmonton likely to CanPL as a result. https://t.co/yhlPT8udkw— Chris Kivlehan (@kivlehan) September 5, 2017
I'd also like to point out that MLS also has three offices in Canada. One in Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto. What's the benefit of adding a layer on top of the existing Canadian FOs that isn't achieved by having the three Canadian teams work together?
FC Edmonton owners already said they disliked USL and wanted to retain their full independance. The CSA is unlikely to grant another USL sanctioning regardless. So their path is clear, join CPL with a partner and upgrade to CPL or fold.
That's my point. The owners of Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto are part owners of MLS. As such, they are deeply involved in the running of MLS both from a league perspective and from Canadian perspective. Without passing judgement upon the competency of the Candian teams' FOs, a MLS corporate office in Canada should be redundant to the team's FOs and, if it isn't, then the Canadian owners need to take a long, hard look at how they are running their business.
Several people close to #CanPL have confirmed to me today that FC Edmonton is now "very likely" to commit to leaving NASL to join new league— Duane Rollins (@24thminute) September 5, 2017 To be clear I have not heard directly from club, but rather from those with knowledge of #CanPL planning.— Duane Rollins (@24thminute) September 5, 2017
I can't see how it would make sense for FCE to stay in NASL. CPL won't result in a reduction in their attendance (and in fact games against Calgary would probably give their attendance a boost), travel costs would be reduced and they would have all of their costs in CAD.
You're right, that's why I think they join CPL at launch in one of the 2 scenarios: Leave NASL after this season and joins CPL for August 2018 Leave NASL after this seasons and relaunch in April 2019 with CPL after a short interruption giving them extra time to upgrade for the league. CPL is supposed to officially unveil their plans this fall
I'm glad they're releasing some information (even if unofficially) since we're now at day 120 of the 60 to 90 day bid evaluation period.
A couple of years in the case of MLS, I believe. The CPL needs to work very hard to present itself as professional and credible. That will be a key part of getting casual fans to buy in and support the league as big time, not just another doomed attempt at soccer in Canada. Part of appearing professional and credible is hitting your deadlines. No one forced the CPL to announce a 60 to 90 day window back in May. They chose to do that. So while you are correct that it is complex, if they weren't certain about hitting that target then they simply should not have announced it. This league is (unofficially at least) making some pretty strong claims that stretch the envelope. It's going to draw 6 to 8 k in cities that have never accomplished that before. It's going to be successful in metro areas that already have an MLS team. It's going to get most of its revenue from sources other than tickets. It would be easier to feel optimistic about these larger claims if the league was following through on the few, small claims it has made along the way.
Safe to assume that they know what they're doing. The people behind the league aren't amateurs Then either MLS should was "unprofessional and not credible" in your eyes when they started or you sure like to pick and choose what fits your arguments They are talking average attendance, not attandance per cities. Also, they said it was a goal to work towards, not certainty. If you ask me, they are being very conservative and sound. There's no expansion in the big 3 cities in phase 1, however, it's a long term goal. You're either misinformed or lying out of bad faith. Tickets are only 1 means to get revenues. A league's success being this dependant on ticket sales can't be taken seriously, don't you think? They just openened their headquaters downtown Toronto. The project is advancing. Try some patience
Does anybody know exactly how much money the Fath's have invested in NASL shares? That USSF ruling just made those shares worthless and probably just removed the main obstacle to FCE joining the CPL when it starts. If the Fury and FCE both join the new league that would go a long way towards legitimizing the new league by including teams that had history outside of the league coming into it. I could see FCE staying NASL for their spring season, then switching to CPL for the summer, assuming they start in 2018. So 2018: Hamilton, Winnipeg, FCE, Halifax, Burnaby, Mississauga In 2019: the above plus Ottawa Fury, Saskatchewan, K-W, Calgary In the Future: The above plus a combination of Vaughan, Toronto (@ Lamport), London, Quebec City, Saskatchewan II, Victoria, Moncton, St. John's?
I'm sure they aren't. An "appeal to authority" (to use a debating term) doesn't change the fact that they announced 60 to 90 and are now at 120. MLS did have credibility issues. In fact, it nearly folded at one point and only survived because two billionaires decided they liked it as a toy. Yes, average. And in all of Canadian soccer history there has been exactly one city not currently in MLS that has drawn those sorts of numbers for soccer. That would be the Ottawa Fury. So, yes, they can built toward that if the owners are willing to sustain losses in the meantime but they are going to have to get there reasonably quickly. Launching a six or eight team league with the expectation of those numbers may be what is required to have a league but it is not conservative. The last tweets I saw indicated a first round team in the metro Vancouver area. I'll defer to your more intimate knowledge of the CPL you say no MLS cities in phase 1. Regardless, the league has said it wants into MLS markets. This involves two new steps: a) multiple teams in one city and b) expecting a lower level soccer product to compete in the same market as a higher level soccer product. I can't say this is impossible but it is certainly not a conservative approach. What they've said is that tickets won't be their biggest source of revenue. That's far beyond saying they will have sources of revenue besides tickets. I'm willing to be patient. My initial point, which you seem to have taken as some sort of affront, was that the league will develop more credibility if it does what it says it will do. Developing such credibility will be important in wooing casual fans - people who are not predisposed to give the league every benefit of the doubt and to expect it to succeed gloriously. Since the league is not being forced to make any announcements, when they announce something (like 60 to 90 days) they should stick to it.
Actually this is the official message: http://canpl.ca/article/a-new-era-in-canadian-professional-soccer-begins The key word is assessing, not announcing the league. They never promised a press conference within 90 days but that the assessment of the bids would be completed within 90 days. Announcement is getting close, so again, try some patience and recognized that there's nothing "unprofessional" about the process. That's a bit of an oversimplification don't you think? That's not how business works and obviously, they made the right business decision by doubling down instead of folding. The numbers being used for average attendance are in line with most Scandinavian football leagues when they started and the projected growth falls in line with their progress. Those countries are way less populated than Canada and have smaller cities. Some of the Canadian markets have virtually no opposition from any other sports during that time, (Halifax). The figures are indeed conservative. Canada had the 4th highest viewership per capita during the last world cup. We hold the attendance records for the Women's world cup and for several U World Cups. You're dismissing that cities like Winnipeg, Moncton, Victoria, Hamilton and recently Regina had good attendance for soccer games featuring matches that most people don't care about. I named those cities because they have no pro clubs. It's a safe assumption that similar crowds showing up for their clubs in a Canadian league isn't in the realm of fantasy. Good example regarding Ottawa, some good attendance figures in a league filled with teams no one cares about and isn't even televised. Safe to assume that the team playing in Canadian league with teams/rivalry people can identify with and on top of that is televised & advertised would draw more than it currently is. Please don't tell me that a CPL Calgary vs Edmonton would draw less than Edmonton vs Miami FC because I'll know you'd be trolling at this point. CPL being in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto is inevitable. You need them to maximize potential revenues (TV contracts, sponsorship, exposure, etc...) It's a no brainer really. Paul Beirne vision indeed imitate the more traditional European vision for the league. As it's done in Europe, multiple teams in larger metro areas works. The rivalries are more intense (Chelsea-Arsenal, Manchester, Madrid, Milan, Lisbon) and it's easy for fans to travel, meaning, the proximity makes it more likely to have higher attendances. The GTA with over 6.5M people, Montreal Metro with 4M and +Vancouver just over 2M can indeed support multiple teams. The logic behind it has been demonstrated for decades all around the world that it does work. Why would that approach specifically fail in Canada? MLS found a formula that worked for them and that good for them, that doesn't mean that it's the only model that works. We don't have the US population nor multiple multi-million metro areas, so their model cannot work for Canada, however, it doesn't mean that Canada can't have a successful division 1 league. As for a "lower level product vs MLS", this is where the league's approach makes lots of sense. They are going into markets where MLS doesn't exist and where people don't care about it. We already established that cities that don't have MLS, USL or NASL do turn out great crowds when there soccer. The league will start there, grow overtime and the quality will improve as well. They will enter the 3 main markets when the time will be right (stable league, great attendance, TV viewership, good quality, great coverage) etc... When the CPL overall value will be at it's highest, that's when it will be the perfect time to open bids within those cities. That's reassuring don't you think? I debunk that with my first reply above. The league hasn't "lied" or "hurt their credibility" yet.
https://the11.ca/what-a-canpl-will-mean-for-us-canadian-players-speak-up/ Another article highlighting the importance of phasing out USSF leagues from Canada which in terms will give more Canadians more opportunities to play at a higher level. Those comments are from Canadians playing in PDL looking forward to CPL.
Canadian Premier League working quietly out of Toronto office https://www.thespec.com/sports-stor...league-working-quietly-out-of-toronto-office/ downtown Toronto office — located near King and Sherbourne Streets — since early July there will also eventually be a CPL office in Hamilton. Beirne says the CPL office is dealing with three "buckets" of preparation work for the new league. "Part of it is the marketing and corporate sponsorship part, the revenue-driving side of the business," he says. "Then there's the football league part of the business: we've got to figure out how we unravel this puzzle of launching a league in a country that hasn't had a pro league for a while, and has players all over the world, and youth players all over the country. How are we going to manage all that in a manner that provides a high quality of play for the fans, and also in such a manner that it is taking the appropriate steps for providing a place for people not just to play, but in an environment to improve? "The third is just the pure administration of this thing: the minutia of governance, and dealing with our partners in CSA, CONCACAF and FIFA."
Excellent recap and news on CPL http://www.northernstartingeleven.com/the-canadian-premier-league-junejuly-rumour-roundup/
FC Edmonton owner confirms attendance at CanPL meetings, says USL not an option https://the11.ca/fc-edmonton-owner-confirms-attendance-at-canpl-meetings-says-usl-not-an-option/ We can call it, FC Edmonton will join the Canadian Premier League in the near future
FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury should enter Canadian Premier League from the beginning. All canadian clubs, including MLS clubs, should join forces and work together in the CPL success! Vancouver Whitecaps 2, Montreal Impact 2 and Toronto FC 2 should enter CPL representing from the start that canadian MLS clubs. My 2018 CPL lineup: 10 teams, 18 games - Vancouver Whitecaps II - Edmonton - Calgary - Winnipeg - Hamilton - Toronto FC II - Ottawa - Montreal Impact II - Québec City - Halifax
No. The MLS B teams won't be in the league. They don't bring much value and CPL already said no to them CPL plans to have their own Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver teams at some points, totally independent from Major League Soccer