With MLS' season beginning, and being a fan of the Canadian MLS franchises, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the CPL and the Voyageurs Cup. I've always followed the organic growth of the fan-created Voyageurs Cup and it's rise in stature; beginning with the CSA officially recognizing the Cup, tying it to it's newly-sponsored tournament (which was the result of CONCACAF awarded them an automatic berth in the CCL), and the manner in which it has tied the three Canadian sides together in a manner which is unique among pro sports clubs. The Welsh clubs in the EPL still compete for the FA Cup and thus there isn't anything truly special about these clubs being in the EPL. However I've always thought that the format of the tournament has left alot of organic growth potential on the table. The manner in which markets like Sac Republic, Orlando, FC Cincy, Indy 11 and others have grown can at least partly be owed to the open nature of the sport of soccer. Competition between the various levels (even sans P/R) allows even lower div clubs to feel involved in the highest eschelon of the sport in some manner. They may not be able to win MLS Cup, but they can still win the CCL. They can still play and possibly beat MLS side in official competition. USOC offers us in the US this and there have been several examples of exciting Cinderella runs; from Rodchester Rhinos & Charleston Battery to amateur Cal FC's run to the 4th round by way of upsetting the Portland Timbers at home. With all of that stated, I've gone looking but there have been no updates on the subject since this previous summer when a slew of articles were written mostly in relation to the proposed CPL. With the near certainty of the league providing significant expansion of the tournament's roster of teams, there was simultaneous talk of provincial champion involvement as well; most likely as a means of rounding out the number of teams to facilitate the knockout format. Of the latest articles, Waking the Red proffered a possible format: http://www.wakingthered.com/2016/4/...ons-to-play-in-voyageurs-cup-as-early-as-2017 http://www.mountroyalsoccer.com/2016/6/3/11854008/voyageurs-cup-time-for-expansion http://www.wakingthered.com/2016/2/4/10920108/what-the-canadian-premier-league-means-for-the-voyageurs-cup-tournament It's an interesting format which simplifies involvment for the MLS sides by not requiring any changes for them or increasing their level of involvement, however I think that it falls short of what would truly help the tournament's appeal and maximize the benefit of the MLS clubs as well as increase the drama. It would be another stage of failure to maximize the potential of the tournament. In the USOC, all MLS clubs begin the tournament against lower division sides before the possibility of meeting other MLS sides begins in latter rounds. All MLS sides are exposed to the possibility of upsets increasing the drama, and more lower division sides have the opportunity of meeting MLS sides which increases the intrigue. So, personally, I would have the three MLS sides beginning one round earlier in a single elimination before going to home and home ties for the semifinal and final rounds. So you would have an initial round of 8 with the highest seeded or rotating NASL/USL sides and the three MLS sides awaiting the winners of a succession of play-in matches for the other four spots. This would require the same number of teams as above, one more match from the MLS sides but fewer rounds overall. Any thoughts?
The last two USOCs had 17 MLS clubs, with 2 starting against each other. In 2017 MLS is up to 19 American clubs.
I think that they need to start CPL asap and include it's teams into VC. Scrap the home-away format - mainly to keep maximum numbers of games as same as now - also, my preference for domestic cup is one-and-done. There could be home-away semifinal, to prevent one team playing all of it's main stage games (two or more) away from home. That is five matchdays (1 PR, 1 QF, 2 SF, 1F) First round of main stage - quarterfinal - should include three MLS teams + five CPL teams. If there are more than five CPL teams, there should be preliminary round to make it down to five sides. Like if there's six teams in CPL - two teams play in preliminary round. And, of course, quarterfinal draw has two rules: MLS teams can't face each other and all of them play away. That way CPL would get more nationwide exposure and they could attract more fans and sponsors, especially if some of them takes down one of MLSers. So: preliminary round: number of CPL teams go down to 5; e.g. if there are 8 teams, 6 play preliminary round... quarterfinal: 5 CPL + 3 MLS teams, 4 matchups, one game, winners progress semifinal: quarterfinal winners, home-away, winners progress final: semifinal winners, one game, winner to CCL
Okay, almost all. Basically as many as possible. The fact is that you have close to twenty matches against lower division sides to open the tourney and up the "Giant-killer" metric. This is what adds spice and drama to the tourney. Granted, there are only three opportunities for upsets here, but you need to maximize your opportunities for it to happen. Look at the first tournament when there were two lower division sides in MTL and Vancouver. The odds were then stacked for an upset. The current format hasn't had one of these owing to the limited number of matches against the lower division and the 2 legged tie format. Even not getting rid of the two legged tie for the opening matches, at least expanding the number of MLS/lower div matchups will help.
Few sources mentioned Ottawa as likely CPL team. Edmonton's owner only believes in NASL, but I am sure Edmonton will have CPL team, with or without this NASL team.
So those two have to be accounted for in any future V-Cup format as well. Which means a larger tournament. It would be better to include all existing CPL teams once they start up and whatever PDL or amateur team they can qualify to round out numbers should they need a few more.
This is what I see as the future format, except I expect they will keep the home and away format so the CPL players could also get the feel for what it would be like to play in a MLS stadium. Not to mention the MLS clubs might want the financial incentive of gate revenues. I also think the CSL will probably add the winners of the L3 leagues (L1O, PLSQ, PCSL) to the tournament. But this is all dependent on the number of teams that end up in the CPL.
I doubt that CSL will participate seeing as they've lost their CSA sanctioning and don't appear to be anywhere near getting it back.
^ I think Initial B meant CSA, not CSL. To Unak78: The CSA has stated that they want to expand the Canadian Championship. At this point it is a lack of teams rather than a lack of will that has halted expansion. When the CPL actually launches, there will be enough teams with the budgets to handle cross-country travel to do something like you suggest in your bracket above. When that happens I think we'll see something like your bracket very quickly. I don't see the L1O-level teams joining any time soon simply for financial reasons.
D'oh, I meant CSA. I could still see the Div3 champions joining so long as they weren't affiliated with any of the other MLS/CPL teams. I doubt they would make it out of the first round, and whatever professional team was tasked to play against them would have to go to their location. If a Div3 *did* win, I think the CSA would have to have a slush fund set up to help pay for their travel expenses. Look at that amateur team (Cal FC?) that went on a tear in the USOC a couple of years ago (2012?) - they even beat the Portland Timbers before falling in the quarterfinals.
I think that the CSA could easily cover the travel costs of a D3 club for a few matches. Even then there's a decent chance that the games that the D3 team may not be very far. Most of the clubs are based in Ontario and Quebec and could possibly draw Toronto, Montreal or Ottawa if they went far enough. For PCSL clubs, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton are not bad for travel.
Yes it was Cal FC. I also think that the CSA could probably pay the way for a Cinderella run or two. And with the two-legged tie, they could limit the actual number of D3 clubs that would stretch those dollars too far. But the possibility would be there.
Depending on how many CPL and D3 teams they wanted in, they could deliberately set it up this way. For example, the L10 champion is automatically slotted in against the Hamilton CPL team with the winner automatically slotted in to play TFC. The PLSQ champion is automatically slotted in against the Quebec City CPL team with the winner automatically slotted in to face the Impact. I'm pretty sure the USOC sets up its early round brackets this way. Personally, even if the CSA was footing the travel bill and assuming a functioning CPL, I still wouldn't want to see more than the champion D3 teams in the tournament for now.
Agreed. It gives Div3 teams something to play for besides a trophy - and actual chance to measure up against higher level teams. It would be the game of their lives for some of them.
It's also a great way to promote these teams locally, the chance to be part of something bigger. Even the chance that an MLS team with a big name player could come to their town.
And here's the official word that the L1O and PLSQ champions will be joining the tournament for the 2018 edition: http://www.torontofc.ca/post/2017/0...-kicks-10th-edition-may-more-canadian-content Nothing on format, though.
I'm guessing that they'll have around of the four non-MLS clubs, the two winners of that round play one another, then the semi-finals from there.
Your guess sounds reasonable. I wonder how Edmonton and Ottawa feel about that? It's one thing for Edmonton to travel to Toronto knowing they'll have the gate of a home game against TFC to pay it off. It's something else if they're doing it to play, say, FC London or AS Blainville.
They could make the first round (PLSQ/L1O vs NASL/USL) a one game knock out that the NASL/USL side would host. All games after that are two legged ties.
That might be a problem if TFCIII wins L1O. Since TFCII and VWC2 aren't allowed to play, I'd assume they wouldn't get to play either.
Probably waiting to see if the CPL is going to be going by then. Until teams are announced and a schedule is released, then it could always be pushed back another season but I think that the CSA just wanted to make this much official for now. But what about BC? I thought that they had a league too? As it is, there's an even 8 teams so there's a chance for a straight knockout tournament here and you can do any number of legs after the opening round. Even better should they get the CPL on board with play-in matches reserved to qualify for the Ro8. I also like the Canadian content rule. Obviously it had to be kept to just 3 players as opposed to limiting the amount of foreign players since that would have hamstrung the bigger teams way too much but it's a good start until the teams can start signing more valuable Canadians to the team.