Tic toc on this! Anyone heard any rumours/leaks/speculation on what teams are to make up the original 8 or 10 or, even, when something will be announced? We are over 4 weeks since the commish was appointed and said teams would be named over the next 6 weeks? What is the over/under on how many teams will be officially in by the end of February? If it is higher than 4 i’m Taking the under.
6 weeks brings us roughly after the Winter Olympics. Announcements should follow shortly after. CPL held focus groups last month in Toronto. I tried to attend but it was already full. As other did, I got this email: ***** Thank you for your interest in the Canadian Premier League Focus Groups. We’ve had an incredible amount of interest in the groups since Paul’s tweet, and currently don’t have space for any additional participants. We’ve put you on a wait list in case we have cancellations for our groups on Tuesday, and have also added you to a contact list for future research about the league. Thank you again for your interest! Eric Eric Dickinson Accounts Coordinator J. Walter Thompson Toronto 160 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3P7, Canada T: +1 416 9267475 M: 647 469 1295 ***** This was the comment from someone who attended from the Voyageurs Forums: Anyone who was at the recent CPL focus groups in Toronto knows for a fact this thing is very close to happening. Logos, branding is basically ready to go. They have top class professionals working on that side of things, probably the best and most well known firm in Canada handling their branding. That is the kind of professionalism we are going to see from top to bottom. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this league is going to exceed all of our expectations.
*Rumors/unofficial CPL Calgary According to a source close to the Calgary Foothills executives, the owner of Spruce Meadows & ATCO Group. (energy & construction) is on board with the Canadian Premier League which changed the team position of initially stating that they would not upgrade to CPL to now being on board with CPL and signing Canadian International players such as Ledgerwood who stated: Nik Ledgerwood: "I could have gone back to Germany, but I wanted to be close to home. This is an opportunity that I can look forward to carrying over to the #CanPL." pic.twitter.com/Qv3HTJbPwq— The CanPL Hub (@thecanplhub) January 17, 2018 The plan is that the owners, the Southern Family, would fund the team's expenses to upgrade to the Canadian Premier League and build a soccer specific stadium (most likely modular and on Spruce Meadows grounds) and be the team's financial backer. All club management would be under the Foothills responsibility. About the owners: The Southern Estate net worth is evaluated at $2.3B, higher than the Molsons -$1.75B (Montreal Canadiens owners), Eugene Melnyk - $1.15B (Owners of the Ottawa Senators). I think it's important to point this out to reinforce that there is indeed lots of money backing this league and this time around, the quality and wealth of the owners are very substantial. The Calgary Foothills were founded in 1972.
I see four markets as "must have" for CPL: Hamilton, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton. (Québec City and Winnipeg are close.) They need good owners, solid venues, and excellent support in each of those four to make it.
Those are certainly markets in which the league will have to succeed. In reality, however, to be viable, it will need good owners, solid venues, and excellent support in each of at least eight cities.
Of course they all need to be solid in terms of ownership and venue.....it could be argued that the need for really strong ownership is inversely proportionate to the inherent strength of the market. So far (of the markets committed and rumoured) the only venue plan that “excites” me is Halifax......the rest all have something “wrong” with them as far as I can see. It is concerning, though,that Halifax was introduced with so much hope/optimism.....got their stadium plan approved......but have yet to write a chq and commit to the league.
I don't mean it could be a four team league; I mean that those are essential markets if it is to have any real chance to endure. If a team fails in Winnipeg or Quebec City, it hurts but the league will survive if it has enough healthy teams elsewhere. But losing a team in one of those cities would jeopardize ongoing sponsorships and call into question the viability of any team.
Very interesting video of former FC Edmonton coach & former CMNT Colin Miller on how to build CPL team from scratch. I'm sure he'll be coach on a CPL team 964177048213311488 is not a valid tweet id The full show also includes Aaron Nielsen talking about the same but from an analytic perspective http://www.nextsportstar.com/index.php/show/red-card-february-14-2018/
Wales is also about the size of the Golden Horseshoe with about half the population. Most of the League 1 Ontario teams play in that area, so does that make L1O the equivalent of the Welsh League? And if you need a solid core of cities to have teams, then Halifax, Quebec City, Ottawa, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Calgary would be the 8 clubs you would want to build around.
Does anyone think if the 3 Canadian MLS clubs joined the CPL they would be better off because they'll be freed from restrictive MLS rules that prevent them from reaching their true potential?
MLS diehards can't admit that Canada is about to launch a superior league and that MLS has got it all wrong. Since the USSF has almost completely sabotaged the NASL's attempt to provide a better alternative to MLS, the CPL is our next chance. Since the CPL won't be controlled by the dysfunctional USSF, they have every chance to create something much more appealing than MLS. It isn't hard to see how CPL can be better than MLS in the future. Even now, they already have a much better plan and compared to the chaos of MLS launching, the CPL is carefully doing things step-wise and getting soccer people involved. The CPL was created because Canadians love soccer and want to improve the game in Canada, while MLS had to form because FIFA demanded a professional league if the US wanted to host the World Cup.
Also I feel like TFC is being held back by restrictive MLS rules from going after their ambitions to be something bigger. If TFC were allowed freedom to pursue their plans they could reach the level of Tigres or Club America. If TFC joined CPL would it have more freedom to make its own decisions?
This guy has been spewing trash all over the boards for the past few days please don't encourage him.
MLS is the fastest improving league in the world over the last 20 years. In 10 years, the big 4 euro league's will be looking at the superior MLS model to see how MLS so quickly became the greatest league in the world. The Canadian MLS teams don't want to miss out on that!
TFC just went on to have the most successful season in MLS history--they won a domestic treble--Voyageurs Cup, Supporter's Shield, MLS Cup. I dont think it is quite right to say that Toronto is being "held back" when they just finished winning all the marbles. Wanting to ensure league parity to avoid the league becoming 1 or 2 giant teams and a perennial bunch of middling also-rans is different from "handcuffing" a team. The NFL is also a parity league with rules to ensure it and yet that does not keep dynasties from happening-- such as the Cowboys, the 49ers, the Steelers, the Packers, Patriots. etc. If you know how to handle finances,recruit players and build teams you can have a powerful franchise for a quite a while. But the wheel does inevitably turn and that's great for the sport and the league. The beauty of a parity league with playoffs is that anything can happen---hence Philly beat New England this year in the Super Bowl. This is definitely one area where I am convinced that MLS has got it right--we should not seek to become a Euro clone league in this respect. The only champion that was not TFC last year was Sporting KC as US Open Cup Champs and that's because TFC as a Canadian club could not participate in that tourney. I'm sure if they would have participated they would have won that one also!! If in doubt however, i guess you can always ask Toronto if they'd rather leave MLS and join the CPL. I'm sure that if Toronto ever decided to leave the league some type of deal could be worked out. Perhaps a league exit fee or something similar. However I'm not so sure that right now they want to leave... ** By the way I should add that I love the idea of a CPL and totally support it and hope that CPL will be very successful. My dream is having a CONCACAF where every time the CCL is held you don't know what will happen. A strong Liga MX, CPL, and MLS competing amongst each other along with the big teams of Central America and the Caribbean is a good thing. CONCACAF as a region will only be stronger when its individual leagues are stronger.
I'm impressed with the quality of people running the CPL. I'm impressed with the rumoured ownership groups, large capital directed towards the league and solid business plan. This league will be run in the most professional way possible. What I can't figure out, for the life of me, is how to get Canadian butts in seats over a long weekend in the summer time, or at any other time for that matter. Canada has a very short window for warm weather. We don't have a long Spring and Autumn like the United States does. Many cities in Canada go from winter to summer. During the short summer season, people go on vacations, they go to their cottages, they put their kids in sports and activities. The competition from the CPL to get those people to regularly attend soccer matches is one that I can't figure out a successful route to. Has it been done in Toronto? Yes. But how does one do that in Halifax or Winnipeg?
You clearly don't know the history of the CSA..................which until VERY recently has been way more dysfunctional then the USSF.
^ So true. As a Canadian Soccer Fan, I gave up on the CSA after they sacked Holger Osieck. It wasn't until they managed to pass the governance restructuring documents that I started to have hope for the future again. I have no delusions about the initial quality of the CPL - it will be at MLS 1996 levels for the first couple of years. I'm sure that in 20 years, CPL will be at the level MLS is now, but by that point MLS will probably be mentioned in the same breath as the big Euro Leagues for quality.
hahahaha, you are delusional if you think that it is going to be at 1996 MLS levels. it is going to be at edmonton/calgary of the past few years in USL/NASL level. with similar attendances to calgary of the past few seasons.