With the end of another PDL season comes the opportunity to take a look at the attendance from the Canadian teams this season. Since the CSL doesn't publish attendance numbers, the PDL numbers are perhaps our best look at the state of the lower tier Canadian game. The average attendances are as follows (all the numbers here are complied from the USL website): Victoria: 1017 (up from 992 last year) The only team to consistently break the 1000 mark. Vancouver: 108. Down from 254 last year because there was no big Canada Day game against Victoria this season (otherwise flat). Data is questionable because a suspicious number of games have a reported attendance of 77. Fraser Valley (formerly Abbotsford): 76 down from 116 Winnipeg: 469 up from 263. One of only three teams with a crowd of at least 1000 for a game. Thunder Bay: 539 down from 599 (which was down from 794 in 2010) London: 507 down from 841. The third team to have at least 1000 for a game. For some reason London started reporting round number crowds this year instead of exact counts as they had done in the past. (So all games had attendances like 500 or 400 instead of 513 or 428). Hamilton: 135 down from 168 Toronto: 106 down from 194 Ottawa: 188 down from 220 As a group, the average attendance for the Canadian PDL teams this year was 349. This is the third straight year of appreciable drop in crowd size and is less than half of the 716 the teams averaged back in 2009. (If we exclude Winnipeg and Hamilton, which didn't exist back in 2009, the league average this year is still only 363 so the drop cannot be pinned on new, low-drawing teams entering the league.) I'm not sure why we're seeing this steady erosion of support during a time when soccer interest in Canada overall seems to be increasing. I do wish the CSL would publish attendance numbers so we'd have more data available.
Perhaps the vigorous debate amongst Canadian soccer fans sparked by my first post demonstrates the level of interest driving the attendance figures.
How many levels would you have to go down in England to get to clubs as bad as the Canadian PDL clubs and what attendance would those English clubs get?
i'd measure PDL close to level 8, probably more like level 9. basically county-level English premier leagues. not terrible, decent amateur play, i don't really like calling them semi-pros.
The first post says the Canadian PDL clubs averaged 349 fans, which is more than double the average of 164 for the 130 clubs in the six leagues at Level 8 in England for 2011-2012. Note that England has 226 clubs in Level 7 or better, whereas Canada doesn't have anywhere near 226 clubs better than the PDL clubs.
i think we were going off on a tangent about level of play, not so much attendance. but good on you for the topical attendance comparison.
While helpful, I think this comparison probably undervalues (if that's the word) the Canadian attendance. In England, a small-town sports fan wanting a local fix is most likely to pop out to a soccer match. In Canada, that same fan is more likely to swing by a hockey game. So drawing 349 for a soccer game in Canada is more "impressive" than drawing 349 for a soccer game in England (much as 349 for a hockey game in England would be more impressive than 349 for a hockey game in Canada). Sadly, almost all the Canadian PDL teams draw significantly less than the 1000 or so that I figure they need to be legitimately financially viable.
It would be great to get stats on the new PLSQ (Premiere Ligue de Soccer de Quebec). It's a 5 team D3 league that got some decent buzz. Have not gone to a match in a couple months, but I'll try to find some numbers. http://www.premiereliguedesoccerduquebec.ca/
Do you think that Impact de Montreal will move their academy team to that league? It would certainly make sense since the travel to play all of their CSL rivals is immense. If they did, perhaps it would make sense to rename the CSL since it would be an Ontario only league, follow Quebec's lead and call it the Ontario Premier League.
The impact academy regularly play "friendly's" in the league, and there was some hope that they would join in an official capacity at the outset. But realisically would have to show that they are stable before such a move would be considered. There were more teams that were slated to join the league but did not, and may do so next year. It would not surprise me to see the impact make the move in the future. Here are some key facts for those not aware: - League has Division 3 status (same as CSL) - 5 teams (all in the Metro Montreal area): FC l’Assomption, Blainville Soccer Association, FC Brossard, St-Leonard FC and FC Boisbriand, a team from Aylmer (Ottawa-Gatineau area) will join in 2013 - Each team plays 16 game season + 4 friendly games - Team salaries will be capped at $45,000 with a salary floor of $25,000 for a 20 player roster - A minimum 3 players must come from local associations pasted from http://www.cansoc.org/showthread.ph...ever-changing-Canadian-soccer-landscape/page4
Disappointing that there hasn't been much news about this in the broader Canadian soccer community, it's definitely a great thing, not just for soccer in Quebec, but for soccer in Canada as a whole.
I liked to see the Canadian tournament between the PDL teams. Other than that I don't have much use for them. It seems the PDL is best served in cities too far away to participate in a CSL/PCSL. If there isn't a serious chance of "promoting" themselves to NASL or USL I'd hope for these teams to work toward a Canadian div3. It's just better for the sport here.
In 2009 the (then four) Ontario-based PDL teams held a preseason tournament they called the Victoria Challenge Cup. It wasn't repeated so I can only assume it didn't turn out to be worth the effort. I suspect the usual travel cost problem prevents any sort of national Canadian PDL championship. Outside of southern Ontario I think this is true. And it therefore fills an important niche. In southern Ontario I'm not sure what motivates an individual ownership group to choose PDL versus CSL. The PDL is actually part of the USL, but I know what you mean. I think any of the PDL teams could "promote" themselves to a D2 league if they wanted to. Crowd sizes and costs would be the principal barrier, not league affiliation issues.