I’m in Quebec City this weekend for the first time. It’s criminal the CPL doesn’t have a team here. This is a 1st class city with a metro population of 800-900k. I know it all comes down to having a stadium and an owner but damn, this city is impressive as hell.
The club is coming soon. There's an ownership group with deep pockets and a deal for a stadium is said to be done. COVID delayed everything which is understandable...why launch when there's a risk of reduced capacity?
I'm in Quebec City too for a few weeks, and I am wondering if anyone can advise me how to find MEX v CAN and USA v JAM on TV. Bonus points if you can advise on a bar that would be willing to show these games!
Just realized I did not put that message in the World Cup qualifying thread like I thought I did, but I am guessing there is some overlap in posters between the 2 threads, so therr you go.
I was in Quebec City during the last World Cup. I can't remember the name of the bar/restaurant where we watched the game while we ate, but it was in the main tourist district. They also had a big TV in the window facing the street so there was a large collection of people (i.e. guys) gathered on the sidewalk watching the game while other members of their groups (i.e. our wives) went shopping nearby. The bar actually encouraged this gathering so, if they do it again with these games, it should be a pretty easy place to spot.
Canada v Mexico is on Sportsnet 360 tv channel. Sports bar should have it but probably need to ask them to switch to it. But 100% chance they'll have the French channel RDS on already which will have the match also. USA match isn't on Canadian tv. I think TSN got the rights as part of getting the Nashville match but they're not showing it on tv or streaming it. Other Concacaf matches are on onesoccer.ca
All the audio from the post game press conference for the Canadian Premier game of October 8/21 between York United FC (Jimmy Brennan and Jordan Wilson) and Atletico Ottawa (Mista and Drew Beckie) http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports21/21york066.htm
Fabrizio Romano just announced on Twitter that the CPL will be announcing a new expansion club tomorrow! This would bring the league to 10 clubs
All the audio from the Nov 9/21 CPL post game press conference between York United FC (Jimmy Brennan and Isaiah Johnston) and Forge FC (Bobby Smyrniotis and Tristan Borges) http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports21/21york072.htm
Ten would make a nice number. I hope the new team will be able to start soon. I'd prefer Quebec City over another team in BC.
They are although they aren't actually going to start playing for at least two more years. EDIT: The announcement about the new Vancouver team (see post below) now says that the league has offered the Saskatchewan group rights to negotiate but does not yet consider it a done deal. So I guess we aren't actually at ten teams yet.
And it is Vancouver (or at least the Vancouver area): https://canpl.ca/article/canadian-p...-in-vancouver-to-sixfive-sports-entertainment To start in 2023.
No. In the announcement for the Vancouver team, they said Saskatchewan still had several hoops to jump through before they became official. All of the press for the Vancouver team also says they are the 9th CanPL club. That isn't to say that SK won't happen, just that it isn't official yet.
I will say... I think CanPL is handling these expansion announcements wrong. At least make the teams nail down a stadium agreement before you award the expansion.
There are markets I think would have been better choices for the next team, but I'm not too worried about the stadium. Many expansion teams have been granted in different leagues without firm stadium plans.
I'm not too worried about a CanPL team in the Vancouver area given how poorly the Whitecaps have been doing on pretty much all fronts. The Whitecaps have driven away a lot of fans that should be more than willing to pick up another local team. As for other teams not having firm stadium plans... Eh. This isn't a lower division league. They should be acting like a division 1 league and part of that is making sure their teams are set-up for success. It isn't that hard to get a stadium lease lined up before the league announces them as an expansion club.
Creating a buzz and generating support helps when comes time to lobby politicians to get behind their project. They already won a round with the city support over the change of vocation of the venue. This is useful to get provincial support so there's logic behind their approach if that helps put pressure (in a very conservative province) to get some public funding / breaks.
According to Manuel Veth, the intend is to have a soccer specific stadium built for the club. The Metro Vancouver area challenge is all about land. Langley seems ahead as the league had tried to get to Surrey but they weren't easy to deal with...just like Vancouver in regards to the Whitecaps. The league actually learned fairly quickly what to do when it comes to expansions. Saskatoon is a big indication that the league no longer wants to deal with venues like FC Edmonton or York United. Canada is different than the US - government aren't eager to allocate funds for professional sports team, same for cities who aren't willing to give any tax breaks or preferential treatment over land unless the group has a bigger project attached to the stadium that will benefit the community... (CF Montreal are still begin the city for tax breaks - goes straight to voicemail every time)
York had a plan but they cleaned house with their front office after the 2019 season. The new president still says that a stadium will be build in York Region but later. I understand why they put up with FC Edmonton which was already an existing entity. The league didn't anticipate that the city of Edmonton would shutdown everything the league and the club wanted in regards to upgrades to the stadium due to the CFL club being opposed to any amendments regarding how the stadium was being used. The commissioner even talked about moving the club to a new venue.* *Rumours has it that the Fath Brothers are looking to sell the club to another group
^ In reality, despite talk from some markets, we have had only one team build a stadium so far. And really, for the CPL at this point in its development, that is okay. Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Ottawa are probably never going to build. Their CFL stadia are oversized but can be made sufficiently intimate to be workable. Their markets also don't need venues of, say, 8000 - that is, there wouldn't be enough events to fill all the non-soccer dates to tip the economics in favour of building. The other non-Halifax teams are in less than ideal situations but they are workable. I know many of the ownership groups are very wealthy but that doesn't mean they're willing to drop eight figure sums on building their own CPL-size stadia. The math simply doesn't work when compared to renting their existing places, especially for a league that is still getting its feet under itself. Saskatoon will need to go the Halifax route because they have no other option unless they can convince U of S to let them use Griffiths Stadium. But that's probably why they are looking at starting "no earlier than 2023" instead of putting together their line up for next season. Again, this is not bad - it's just a reflection of where the league is at. If we can get it to grow to the point where crowds of 10 000 are common, then the dynamics will start to shift. I understand where Yoshuo is coming from with the new Vancouver area team. Why not come in after you've figured out your stadium arrangement so you can say, "Here we are! We'll be playing at X stadium in Y city! Come sign up for season tickets!" By all means talk about how you want to build you own stadium one day if that is the case, but let people know where you will be playing for now. They're taking a different approach but it may not be the best one.
I don’t love how expansion has been rolled out either. However, there is a purpose to announcing expansion this way. When the CPL announced a club for Saskatoon, conditional upon a stadium being built, it gave leverage to ownership there for their negotiations with govt to say “hey, let’s get this stadium built, we have a guarantee we’re in the league.” Building sports infrastructure in Canada (excluding hockey arenas) is next to impossible.