Everyone wants QC. Of course, an ownership group needs to be in place. There’s no indication that is close.
The most extensive story on CPL in Quebec was by him with interviews with Soccer Quebec president. Quebec City was further ahead than Montreal and there are investors for Quebec. Talks with the city took place and sites were identified. Now he's saying the Montreal area has advanced but the pandemic has caused serious setbacks to the project. Quebec will happen, just later than the anticipated 2022-2023. As for Montreal, it's obvious what's the endgame of the league here. There are more than one group for the area but the league wants Montreal with ideally a French club on the Island. With the large French expats community in central Montreal, such a move would give CF Montréal a run for its money. Il est très compliqué d’obtenir de l’information, mais on m’a aussi dit qu’il y avait des discussions pour MTL. Depuis un an m’a-t-on précisé.Moins d’échos venus de Québec ces derniers temps. La pandémie a semble-t-il eu un effet dévastateur sur le projet.#CanPL #CPL https://t.co/XDq320cmEl— Quentin Parisis (@QParisis) November 10, 2021
You can do that without announcing the team as an expansion with a certain year. They are going to be wasting a hefty chunk of their expansion period one things that should have been done prior to the announcement of their expansion. This is one of the reasons that MLS does expansion bids before they do the announcement. You build interest via the bid process, the ownership group gets to spend the time greasing the palms of local politicians and getting local fans behind them, then, once they've laid the groundwork, you put in the bid, make the announcement, and spend your time actually doing things you need to do to build the team and gets season tickets sold. Yeah... BC didn't bend to the will of the Whitecaps (when they wanted to do the land swap for their waterfront stadium) or to FIFA when they wanted Vancouver as a host city for the WC. What makes you think they'll bend to the will of CPL just because they made a nondescript expansion announcement? If anything, this puts pressure on the owners of the expansion team as they now have a deadline to meet.
Exactly. They should have been able to open up season ticket deposits the same day that they made the announcement. This is one of the times where there is going to be a ton of interest in the team and they are wasting that.. You only have so many opportunities to build interest as an expansion team and burning one of those times on a cameo and a nondescript press release. It just seems like CPL is overly focused more on meeting the aggressive expansion schedule they set when they first launched the league and are just making expansion announcements to meet that schedule rather than making the announcements when the teams are actually ready to build an FO and field a team.
We aren't the states - it's far harder for politics to kill professional projects in their infancy than in the US. The approach can't be the same. You mean the city wouldn't play ball with the caps for their waterfront stadium. It's a "Metro Vancouver" expansion. This means they are putting Metro Vancouver municipalities in competition. I don't think they will be in the "city of Vancouver" but I could see Langley (said to be ahead) sweeten the pot for a land & stadium deal if there's a risk that Surrey changes their minds or Burnaby, Richmond, North Vancouver or even Coquitlam wants a professional team. All those cities are on the Skytrain so any of those will do for ownership.
That seems like a bit of wishful thinking. I mean, sure, if you ask any local politician if they are in favour of economic development in their city they will say yes. But I don't see local municipalities fighting each other with incentives and sweetheart deals to lure a CPL team to their city. This isn't an NHL team. Objectively, it's a small budget sports team that is likely to make noise about building a stadium but which will, in reality, end up filling a few rental dates at an existing venue with attendance in the low thousands. Langley or Surrey or whoever will take it, and won't put up obstacles, but they're unlikely to actively compete for it. (They may even get push back from local sports groups who don't want to give up prime dates, just like many teams do when they try to swing deals to use university stadiums.)
Langley is said to be virtually a wrap and isn't a bad option with the Skytrain extension going to the city centre soon. The city is growing rapidly and becoming urban much faster. You have to think that Surrey would be #1 on their list since that was their previous target. The ownership ended up going on Vancouver Island and started Pacific FC. It's totally logical to go back to Surrey and give them a sample of what it could be based on Pacific. In 2019, CPL wasn't a thing - no one knew what it was and how does that look. Now, you have something to show them. Definitely worth revisiting before settling for Langley. Langford nor Halifax regret agreeing with CPL owners for land and stadium deals. It's up to them to pitch that to Surrey or any other municipalities on the Skytrain path. Trying to see if there are better options isn't a bad idea and besides, that exactly how Langley landed Pacific FC instead of Victoria. The ownership pushed Langley to get them a sweet deal on the stadium as the municipality is growing rapidly and didn't want to miss out on having that kind of entertainment offer to Victoria.
That actually makes the timing of the announcement worse, tbh. If Langley is a virtual wrap, they should have just waited until it was a wrap to make the announcement. Perhaps? I seriously don’t see Surrey’s government giving a crap about CanPL. They’ve got much bigger fish to fry right now and a 5k-10k seat stadium with room to grow just isn’t that important to them compared to absorbing the companies and people moving out of Vancouver. Another thing to consider is when the SkyTrain extension to Langley is finished in 2028 there isn’t really going to be a difference between Surrey and Langley. That’s assuming their stadium is going to be within walking distance of the Langley station, of course. This is particularly true considering how fast Surrey is growing. It’s only a matter of time before Surrey grows out to Langley. You probably mean Langford, but even if Langford is happy with Pacific FC, I’m not sure Pacific FC is. I’ve seen tweets from Dwayne Rollins suggesting Pacific FC wants to move into Victoria. Given where people actually live on Vancouver Island, Langford is just not a good location for the team. I’ve also seen comments from people claiming to have a source in Pacific FC’s front office claiming that one of the reasons why SixFive got the Vancouver expansion was because CanPL was blocking them from moving Pacific FC to the lower mainland. However, as we all know, everyone online claims reliable sources for wild speculation, so who knows if that is actually true.
I guess there's the prospect of a real Cascasdia Cup with more than 3 teams. Maybe a pre-season tourney.
The Langley LEC (Langley Event centre) is getting redevelopment for cultural and sporting events - CPL or not but having a tenant there who would invest in the stadium and maximize that project is a plus - with track record of what happened in Langford and Halifax. Announcing the expansion with a set date means they have a deal but they want to explore who else is interested in the area to host them. Seriously, that's a no brainer move. You either get a better spot or you're forcing Langley to sweeten the pot like Langford did to not lose Pacific FC to Victoria. It's the same ownership using the same strategy which already worked... they know what they are doing. You know this how? They were sold a concept in 2019 of a league that never existed with a sport that had limited success in the country. They were ask to give prime land for a stadium about something no one had ever seen. Surrey does have the ambition to compete with the city of Vancouver. I'm not saying they will throw dollars and land at the ownership - I'm saying it's worth revisiting them since now they have something concrete and hard data to present them with. They have nothing to lose to try to convince Surrey one more time. Besides, they already confirmed being in talks with multiple municipalities in Metro Vancouver. Ownership already said that the stadium being close to the Skytrain was important. Anyone who's been to BC or lived there agrees that Surrey Central is a much better choice than Langley. Why not make another pitch? Duane Rollins is a very biased and unreliable CPL source ever since the league shut him out from their periphery. Agreed that Victoria is better than Langford but at the time, the city didn't want to deal with Pacific. I'd say the league is more unhappy about Langford than Pacific FC due to the Hydro Pole affecting the TV angles. Pacific wants to invest into downtown Victoria to have it's playoffs, Canadian Championship and potential CCL game there but committed to keep regular season games in Langford. It's more about Victoria being a better than the club being unhappy with Langford who gave them practically everything they wanted. The play is actually for the current ownership to sell Pacific FC to someone else who will keep the club on Vancouver Island. The league will not allow the club to move out
“Worked”. They got a stadium at a location that was objectively the worst of all their possible locations. Any location on Vancouver Island that is not in Victoria is a failure. I’m at no point disagreeing with you on them getting a sweetheart deal in Langford, but not having the stadium in Victoria or North Victoria is a failure. What do you mean by sold? If Surrey’s government had been sold the concept of CPL then there is zero chance Pacific FC would be on Vancouver Island right now. Literally any location in the lower mainland would have been superior to Langford. There isn’t anything wrong with going for Surrey. Outside of Vancouver, it is the best place for a team. Hell, in many ways, Surrey would be superior to Vancouver. Particularly if they got a stadium in their new Downtown where all the HQs are going. It’s just a timing issue. Get the location nailed down, announce the expansion and start rolling in the season ticket deposits. Although.. Alternatively.. New Westminister by the Columbia station on the Fraser.. *drool* Easy access from Vancouver, Surrey, and Couquitlam. They might as well just print money. Oddly enough, I’ve found Rollins to be more accurate since he lost the ear of the league FO due to his stance on the players’ association. He’s gotten connections with all the disgruntled CPL sources and, because he’s actually good at his job, when he goes to his league sources for confirmation of the info the disgruntled sources are feeding him, he often gets the league’s side as well. Agreed. They just aren’t going to find anyone with their stadium in Langford.
Same statement about the Revs not being in Boston or the Fire not being in Chicago all that time? What about Inter Miami? I think "failure" is a bit of an exaggeration. Langford is far from being that when it's around 15 minutes by car from Victoria. "Any" location on the mainland would be better than Vancouver Island? You're not serious right? Have you been to the Victoria area? Or they could do exactly what they previously done which worked out for them before? It's not like they just "started" talking to those municipalities this week. They've been already at it for awhile. Halifax was announced before we got the details on Wanderers Grounds and the deal with the city. We can disagree with the approach but so far, whatever club announcement they've made happened. Lol - we'll disagree on Rollins... the guy lost tons of credibility in regards to league's affair and the way he "tries" to report on the league. He's "alright" at what he does - minus CPL where he's been called out many times on his inaccurate reporting. He's even being mocked on the Voyageurs forum now. There are far better sources out there than him. We'll see, won't we? Victoria metro area is an excellent Canadian market - we aren't the states no matter how much some insist in making the case. Of course CPL will do things differently. Speaking of stadium...how's NYCFC stadium situation so far
York United fires their coach Jim Brennan after their loss to Forge in the semi-finals The club has parted ways with Head Coach Jimmy Brennan. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours. https://t.co/LSKhaqEG6u— York United FC (@yorkutdfc) November 23, 2021
Finally my year end summary of Rocket Robin Soccer in Toronto with personal comments on the teams/leagues I followed in 2021. York United FC, the Canadian Men's national team (when in Toronto), Toronto FC II, and League1 Ontario. http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/soccer00.htm
Dec 21/21 All the audio from the CPL York United FC press conference announcing appointment of Martin Nash as their new head coach. http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports21/21york085.htm
FC Edmonton are looking for new owners. The club operations have been transferred to the league in the meantime. Best outcome for all parties involved. An update on @FCEdmontonNow ahead of the 2022 #CanPL season. ⬇️— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) December 31, 2021 The operations of FC Edmonton are being transferred from the Fath family to the #CanPL head office while the league searches for new ownership for the club. David Clanachan says there has been “significant interest” from domestic and foreign investors.— Oliver Platt (@plattoli) December 31, 2021
It’s certainly an option. A better option would have been transferring/selling the team to another local owner. However, given the alternative of shutting down the team, transferring ownership to the league is definitely better. Hopefully they can find a good owner for the club. I wasn’t very impressed with how Fath ran the team and he seemed to have issues with the Elks and I’d imagine that caused some of the issues.. Remove Fath from the equation and things could improve.
There was interest from Daryl Katz, the owner of the Edmonton Oilers but I can't find out why the league aren't interested in his proposal. The billionaire who owns the Rexall chain in Canada would have been great for the club but he's been known to be a "d---" to governments to try and get public funds for the Oilers. At the bare minimum, they need a rebrand and a new venue. I'm hearing moving the club is on the table as the last resort
I lived in Edmonton and was a STH from 2013-2015. Only possible way the team can “potentially” be viable is by putting a modular stadium somewhere like where Scottish soccer club is based in South Edmonton and try to emulate Cavalry’s match day experience. I personally think a move is more likely.
Where would you move the team that would be better than Edmonton? As with most teams that aren’t successful, the problem lies with the owner, not the market. There are always exceptions, but Edmonton does well with the national teams, so they should do well with a club team. Get a new owner that actually knows what they are doing and maybe a rebrand to “reinvent” the team and I would think the team would work.
The problem with a team in Edmonton is that there is no interest by anyone anymore, just apathy. That is an extremely big hole to dig a club out of for let’s face it, a minor league team. Asking fans to give pro soccer another chance after having a crappy experience for the last 10 years is asking a lot. That’s a far bigger challenge than starting fresh with a blank slate in a new city. First impressions are everything with a new minor league club. You only get one chance to build hype and make it an event in your city. Obviously that ship has sailed in Edmonton.
Nope I agree with Yoshou here. Ownership, venue were the main issues. I don't think there's anything wrong with the market when you look at the CanMNT games and CEBL long surpassing FC Edmonton. Even the former coach Jeff Paulus said Clarke Stadium is a big reason for the club having problems. Also heard that the Fath were part of the faction wanting to keep budgets as low as possible while others wanted to raise everything. It's obvious that the Fath and CPL had divergent visions and a split is for the best. The league will be looking for new owners willing to keep the club in the city and will be building a stadium. Also, there will be a rebrand one way or another