Ottawa is the one city that has it in place already 1. Ownership Group 2. Parnering CFL and NASL clubs 3. Stadium in place converted from soccer to football lines and back.
Ottawa's fall season is key to kickstarting this. They have everything in place already for what is been hypothesised. So they need a successful season, both on and off the pitch. That way, the Fury/RedBlacks owners can say to the other CFL owners: "yes, this will work". If that happens, except some big news this November/December/Early 2015 where hopefully there will be at least 3 teams starting up in 2016 (Hamilton, Calgary, Winnipeg), followed by the others before 2020. If come November, the season has been a disaster for Fury... I am not saying this wont happen, but the other owners will need further convincing. Just read an interesting article on MLS.com about the possible reasons behind why Canada has been absent from the World Cup for 30+ year.
That is right on the nose. The climate in Canada does really not lend itself to soccer. Its not quite but similar to Mexico having an Ice Hockey team. Where Canada has naturally built up an infrastructure of ice hockey arena's Mexico has that with soccer pitches.
Sweden and Russia have the same climate we do, and they've both made it to the World Cup on more than a few occasions.
Yeah, climate is really not a legitimate reason. as the MLS season shows, we have decent weather March to October, if not November.
Apologies if this has been posted already but came across this really neat piece yesterday on the MLS website: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...referral&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=Unpaid
Is this article still on the website? I get a screen "Access denied: You are not authorized to access this page."
14 593 to watch the Fury in their first game at the new stadium. Their second home match at the new stadium is this weekend. That should give us a truer glimpse of their attendance potential in their new digs. For comparison, their average attendance in the spring season at the old stadium was 2684. Here's to hoping they can hold on to at least some of the check out the stadium" crowd.
The good news is that I think that is significantly higher than they got for their friendly against Rangers......I always take it as a positive sign when crowds for "regular" games are higher than one off friendlies against big/famous clubs....I take it as an engaged support rather than just casuals that "heard about it on the radio".
That's a very huge number for NASL who I believe on average draw about 5k. Of course there's no way that they'll hold that figure, but I have confidence that they'll remain above the league average. If they hold on to really good numbers, hopefully that will inspire soccer fans in Edmonton to give bigger support to FCE and provide a good business case argument for those looking to set up for NASL in other Canadian cities.
With the backing of CSA and the out of the box thinking of the NASL, helping to create at the very least a Canadian division of the NASL at the NA D2 level. MLS and the three Canadian clubs will do well for Academy and even for filling their D3 USL roster spots, there are few spot for Canadian players on the MLS roster. NASL having Canadian and US players count as Nationals on a roster, NASL clubs will fill the National spots with Canadians. In part helping develop players but also as marketing the NASL Canada with Canadian National players. Local Networks are doing well by the Fury and FCE. having the support of the cities new stadiums. The CFL and a National Sports network will help immensely for marketing and owerships. Having these two would also help bringing corporate sponsors into the mix.
Well, League 1 Ontario wouldn't be a real North American footballing conference, until they threw a team out the door. "As of August 8, 2014, the League1 Ontario standings reflect the removal of any matches that were played in the 2014 season that involved Internacional de Toronto. Internacional de Toronto had their license terminated on July 22, 2014. All teams will now play a 16 game regular season schedule." http://www.league1ontario.com/page/standings They were also removed from the L1O League Cup standings (group A): http://www.league1ontario.com/page/l1-cup-standings I had them with one draw in seven matches, through August 3, with 8 GF and 28 GA. Tue Jul 22; *Notification* Please be advised that, effective immediately, the licensing agreement of Internacional de Toronto has been terminated because of a failure to comply with agreed-upon league standards throughout the 2014 League1 season http://www.league1ontario.com/article/notification