According to Gerry Dobson on Soccer Central (Canadian soccer TV show) Edmonton will be in the A-League in 2004. Perhaps we will see actual confirmation of this in the weeks to follow? It would be great to see another Canadian team in the A-League, and another team out West...
Re: Re: A-League and Edmonton in 2004 I really don't know.... Perhaps they should go with the Brickmen (old CSL name)
Sounds great. The more Canadian teams in the A-League, the more stronger Canadian soccer will be and will be one more step closer to a new Canadian division one league forming.
Re: Re: Re: A-League and Edmonton in 2004 I notice the smiley, but I have to add that the Brickmen is a terrible name, unless you are owned by the guy who owns the Brick-hence their old name.
Re: Re: Re: Re: A-League and Edmonton in 2004 Yeah, it had to be one of the worst names in the old CSL.
I don't know where they'd play, I'm sure the attendance would be fine (theres plenty of interest there). As for ownership, who knows how they'll be?
Stadium is the biggest problem in my opinion. They could play out of Commenwealth, but a 60,000 seat stadium might be a little large for the a-league. Clarke stadium would have been perfect (I think it did seat 7,000), but they tore it down for the World track and field championships and replaced it with a 1,000 seat stadium. Too bad Foote Field has astroturf... http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/expressnews/articles/news.cfm?p_ID=938
Well it seems the league doesn't care if teams play on astroturf anymore. Also Seattle will be playing out of 67000 Seahawk stadium next year, so Commonwealth is not a farfetched idea.
Commonwealth isn't really a good place for soccer with the exception of most NT games. The NASL Drillers averaged about 10K/game during their time at Commonwealth. Foote is the best option at the moment for soccer in Edmonton. Getting a team in there may help push for improvements to the stadium. The way Foote looks now wasn't how it originally planned.
Well it's got a pitch and it has seats, therefore it's good for soccer. Let people create their own atmosphere, not the stadium.
Really? If the 7-8K (and I doubt it will be that high) are put in the same area of the stadium (easy to do, Vancouver did it before when they had to play a few games at BC Place) provide some entertaining action on the field and have some fans who aren't afraid to make noise and there should be no problem. Do you watch any highlights of European action that they sometimes show on TV? Not EPL but some of the other leagues. I see enough huge stadiums with tiny crowds inside. The fans that are in those stadiums make enough atmposphere for themselves.
It hard to get an atmosphere for many sports here in Edmonton (The Esks seeming to be the exception). Most people rather have the music blasting out of the speakers do it for them. I've watched the Italian games provided on TLN and find that with a few exceptions, the larger stadiums don't tend to provide the atmosphere needed. I'm a fan of small facilities which can cater to soccer.
So am I. But if you don't have one you do the next best thing. If you set aside only a small part of the stadium where all 6000 fans will be sitting together. All other sections are off limits. If 6000 people sitting together can't create atmosphere then they never will no matter where the team plays.
We have options that would be better suited for such an endeavor than Commonwealth. Although I have no problem with it, I just don't see Commonwealth as part of the plan. I would more likely see an improved Foote Field or a redeveloped Johnny Bright Park.