If the rumors going around today that the NASL won't see the 2017 season, what are the odds that FCE makes the jump to the CPL now?
There is no CPL yet to jump to. It's supposed to start in 2018 in the most optimistic case. If NASL goes bust, FCE will have to either follow Ottawa to USL, or take a hiatus.
I was thinking CPL in 2018, but I think you get my point. But a hiatus would be the worst thing for the club, as the players would probably disperse and play elsewhere. If they came back, they'd be at the same level as any other expansion club. The CPL would need one established club both east and west for the other new clubs to benchmark against.
Why can't Canada be a division of a CPL NASL merger (as both would be below MLS but both wanting to be considered level 1/2; and there would be strength in the number of team as well as number of viewers), with an additional 2 divisions in the US (East and West)?
We could but that wouldn't be substantially different than just having more Canadian teams in the NASL. This would be a valid option but the thinking behind the CPL is to have our own league where we control the domestic player rules, don't have to deal with currency exchange, etc. There's also the idea that, if we're going to be seeing teams from tier-two cities, Canadian fans might be more likely to come out to see fellow Canadian cities. It would be one thing if the US teams would be from big name places like New York or LA that we're used to seeing in other sports. When we get into smaller places, however, Canadian fans might prefer to see Winnipeg and Quebec over, say, Jacksonville and Indianapolis.
With a Canadian division with 6-8 teams playing one away and one home, it would mount to 10-14 division games, then add games against the US, 1/2 of which will be at home. With a pure Canadian league, how many regular games in a season?
Unknown. Word is the CPL will start with eight teams. A double home and away with everyone would be 28. Home and away with everyone and a second with just your division would be 20. I suspect something closer to the 20 mark is more likely to start but like everything else with the CPL there aren't any details yet.
That would surprise me. 20 is VERY low for soccer, and it's a number we haven't seen in the pro ranks in decades (1994 APSL, OG CSL in 1987 and 1992). Expect between 26-32. Hell, the CFL plays 18 games!
True, but this would be an 8 team league whereas most leagues are more like 20 teams. They could start at 20 games and add more games as they add more teams without changing the format. But maybe you're right and they'd go with more.
Absolutely right. I should have specified men's soccer. Shit, maybe it's me being optimistic. FWIW, the (pirate) CSL plays 21, League1Ontario plays 22 and the PLSQ plays 18. I'd be curious if someone counted the matchdays possible with our weather. And it'll probably be a league that's played ENTIRELY on turf; I haven't seen that talked about too much.
When the Scottish top flight shrunk to 10 teams they played each team 4 times for a 36 game schedule....when they expanded to 12 the number of matches was a great concern. They felt that playing a traditional schedule of home and away with each team would produce too few matches (22) to a) generate revenue to sustain teams and (importantly) satisfy world bodies (UEFA/FIFA) that the schedule was sufficient enough to produce a "true" champion. They also felt that playing each team 4 times would produce too many matches (44)....it led to their fairly bizarre practice of splitting the league after each team played each other thrice and the top 6 then play each other one more time while the bottom 6 do the same.....so you get 38 matches but it leads to an imbalance in number of home and away matches.....it ain't easy to get this number right.
Australian A-League can serve a nice example here. They have started with 8 teams and ended up with a schedule where every team played every other team three times. ("Extra" home and aways were to be reversed every other season to maintain balance.) For 8-team league the number of games per season was 21, which is a bit short, but when the league grew to 10 teams the schedule correspondingly grew to 27 games that were nicely packed into seven months' time. One 11-team season produced even more ideal 30-game schedule. Canada has about 7 months with good soccer weather from April till October. So the down under scheme can be borrowed and applied.
I've long said that the Australian model is the best one for Canada to follow. Lots of similarities: relatively small population spread over a large area, similar culture and economy, similar level of popularity for the sport (soccer is also the commonly used word for it down there). The only major difference is climate, but as you said, we still have a roughly 7 month window of decent weather (though turnout for early season and late season matches will likely suffer), but Canadians do sit on cold stadiums from time to time. They've been doing it for the CFL for decades.
Four times against each opponent would be fine and most suitable. If they want proper league, if they want success, if they want to use expansion and football growth in North America, they must be present for as much as possible and play as much as possible. Roughly four matches a month (seven months, 28 games) seems like optimal solution. Beside number of games, I am very curious about will the league have any involvement in Voyageurs Cup and, eventually, in CONCACAF Champions League.
A ~20 game regular season would leave room for playoffs and Voyageurs Cup matches without clogging things up.
My thought is that they do a split-season format with Eastern and Western Conferences. For an 8-team league, Spring Season would be 10 games (6 Intra-Conference, 4 opposite conference) from beginning of April to beginning of June. Take a break in June for the the World Cup or Euros (nobody would be watching CPL then anyways). Then have a 14 game Fall Season (2 home-and-away against each team) from the beginning of July to the beginning of October. Single-elimination Playoffs between the four Spring and Fall winners of each conference would occur to finish by the end of October. In the case of the Gold Cups which occur in July, switch the number of games per season to 14 in Spring and 10 in Fall and Take the break in July. 24 games should be the minimum played by the league. I would think they'd want more games due to gate reciepts being a greater portion of revenue than TV rights.
Sources seconds ago confirm to me there is interest from 12 cities coast to coast to join CPL #CanPL— A. Totera (@4totera) December 4, 2016 A follow-up tweet suggests that "coast-to-coast" truly means that, including a team in the Maritimes. I have no idea if this guy is legit though, so take it with whatever amount of salt you need.
Totera has been correct on some rumors and off on others. To me, it seems a bit much to have 12 teams in the league. Where would these teams go? Are there enough large urban centres to support them? I've only heard Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, GTA, Ottawa, Quebec City, and Maritimes (Moncton/Halifax?) mentioned. I'm assuming that maybe London and/or Kitchener/Waterloo might also be able to support a team. Maybe Montreal and Vancouver will also include teams despite the MLS presence in those markets. If you divide the CPL into 2-3 conferences, you could end up with a 28-32 game season between 12 teams. I've also been wondering if the TV numbers (1.4 million viewers for TOR/MTL on Wednesday) have had some effect on the perceived popularity of soccer in Canada and more ownership groups are looking to jump on the bandwagon. I'm wondering if TSN is going to renegotiate their MLS rights again and the CBC trademarking "Soccer Night in Canada" is actually preparing for bidding on the CPL games. Since the CBC is government-funded, any payment for TV rights they could be considered part of an indirect government support by Sport Canada to grow soccer in this country.
Finally an own canadian football championship. That's really important to increase the game in Canada. i hope it can bring too many new fans in the country
I have a doubt about a possible Draft. What about bring overseas players to new league??? there are some NT players around the world and join the very 1st PRO canadian league to them would be nice
It all depends if they bring some good players or semi decent players otherwise noone is going to watch it except for the hardcore canadian fans. It would be fine if they bring a semi tire player with a big name on it just to attract viewers while the younger ones get more exposure and the fans start knowing the "other" less known domestic players
Someof canadian NT players are playing in 2nd divisions of european countries or in asia... IMO if they join a CPL club would be come idols there so easily. I dont know how popular the game is in canada but i guess that u dont care about your players at all, like Radzinski, Stalteri or DeRosario. You need to create it, a fanaticism to both canadian players and the new league that are coming, u know? PS: I dont have an english class for ages... sorry for my bad english