Am I correct in understanding that they plan on selling season tickets for $15? Talk about devaluing the product.
Hopefully it's just $15 for youth players as part of some type of family package. But your right, that would devalue the product. Not too mention the value of any other season tickets they tried to sell.
The Impact have some of the lowest ticket prices in the league (if not the lowest) and the 3rd best average, with (significantly) increasing local notoriety. Tickets for 2003 are 15$ reserved seats, 10$ GA, 5$ youth and 20$ Fan Club season pass for U18s. 5-game Flexpass for 40$. All prices CDN of course. http://www.impactsoccer.com/tickets.htm Expect new stadium talks (with the Alouettes) if the Impact manage to sell out 2-3 games this year (8,000 people; last year there were games with 7,800, 7,700 and 7,200 notably). Similar talks surfaced after the Alouettes semifinal success in front of 57,000+ at the Big O and their subsequent Grey Cup victory.
The article doesn't make that clear. If that is the ticket price per game, then those are some pretty hefty prices for season tickets. I'm getting Whitecaps season tickets which includes 4 individual tickets to the womens team (plus another 2 games which will be doubleheaders with the womens team) which works out a price of $10.64 for each Whitecaps ticket.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves and talk about things not discussed in the article. The article states in regards to SEASON tickets: "The Edmonton Minor Soccer Association has been asked by a member of the group to deliver thousands of season-ticket buyers -- at the reasonable price of $15 apiece for what could be an 18-game schedule" Now this could either mean they want thousands of people to have season tickets at only $15 ensuring there is plenty of people in the park, it could mean they are selling them for $15x18 games which would be $270, or it could mean as someone said over on another board that perhaps they are asking people to put $15 down as a deposit on season tickets (although this seems unlikely reading the above quote). The article doesn't make it clear, then again what do you expect from an article that refers to the old CSL team as the Brick Men as opposed to the correct "Brickmen".
Since it's also mentioned in connection with the Edmonton Minor Soccer Association, maybe it's some sort of youth season pass. Lawd knows they'd have plenty of surplus seats at that stadium. If they could fill some of them with kids, maybe they'd sell a few tickets to parents too.
I was at Commonwealth for the WCQ's for France 98. Having A-League size crowds in Commonwealth is a little hard to swallow. I just can't see them being there.
OK....but I have some questions It's good news for Edmonton and Canadian soccer in general. But is Mr Barnes (no relation to the A-league.com Dan Barnes I'm sure) on drugs? From the article: "A number of those failures may be at least partly attributed to the leagues they were playing in and the stability and the travel burden," said Askinas. "We are conscious of trying to play regional schedules." The A-League already has franchises in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. If the Canadian contingent swells to six, the A-League is likely to establish an all-Canadian division and those teams would play most of their games among themselves. Last time I looked Canada was a huge country. Having an all-Canadian division amounts to huge travel costs. A Canadian Cup Competion is certainly possible. Thunder Bay has a team that plays in the PDL, last I heard they had no intention of jumping to the A-league. So who would be the other expansion team? Ottawa? Victoria? Yellow Knife? Not a very well written article.
If you look at the schedule, Canadian teams will be making long distance travel in the US. Calgary and Vancouver will make trips to Texas, Indiana, and Ohio. Toronto and Montreal will travel to Virgnia, teh Carolinas, and Georgia. This plan wouldn't be different.
Apparently they want an all Canadian divison in name only. Because the silly CSA is too cowardly to plan for a league of our own they figure that they'll get together with the A-League and get a Canadian division together. A team like Vancouver for example would still be playing Portland and Seattle all the time, but would be lumped into a divison with the Canadian teams. This idea is poorly thought out. For instance I posted on another board that Vancouvers rivalries are with Seattle and Portland. It was mentioned that Vancouver would still be playing them as much as they do now, so the rivalry would still be there. But it won't. Part of the rivalry is the fact that we are battling those two teams for a playoff spot. Take away that battle and you lose most of the rivalry. Secondly, if indeed the Canadian teams are still playing their regional opponents more often what happens if one of their opponents (or 2) are really weak? Deciding the Canadian division playoff spots would be unfair. For instance, say Montreal and Toronto have a really poor team from the east on their schedule and play that team 4 times each. Thats 4 games that both of those teams are guaranteed to win, while the Western Canadian teams wouldn't play that team. Not to mention western teams always having harder travel during the year. At least as it is now, with regional divisions all western teams are in the same basket.
Victoria? Shouldn't they be a decent candidate for A-League expansion. I attended a c license clinic at Shawnigan Lake and most of the people there felt the city would support a team. You could put the pitch in Bouchard Gardens and have a built in audience.
Though your Buchart gardens stadium was obviosuly a joke there are already two decent stadium in Victoria that are far better than many in the A-League. Centennial Stadium: http://web.uvic.ca/atrsweb/recplus/Facilities/FacilitiesCentennial.htm Royal Athletic Park: http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadiu...british_columbia/victoria_athletic_park.shtml
Centennial Stadium doesn't look half bad. The other one looks a bit small though, unless there's another stand on the other side. Where did the Victoria Riptides play back in the WSA days?
Actually Royal athletic park seats 5700 whereas Centennial Stadium seats 5000. I don't know where the riptides played but the Vistas of the CSL played at RAP. Centennial on the other hand is modern and has real seats as opposed to benches.
Let's get down to the real question: Can either venue sell beer? Absolutely would not mind a Victoria A-League team.
I don't see why not, this is Canada, were all drunks and they know better than to have a no alcohol policy in our stadiums.
OK that settles it, Victoria it is. Royal Athletic Park doesn't appear to have a running track putting the fans closer to the field. 5700 seats would be about right, good rivalry potential between Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and Calgary. All you need now is a wealthy retiree to step forward!
Apparently the seats at Royal Athletic Park are not that great. Not having been there I have heard that plenty of seating is for baseball, meaning that it is in the corner of the field for soccer, and doesn't have great sidelines. On the other had Centennial (regardless of the track) looks perfect for soccer, having held a few CONCACAF games there recently. That being said, I don't think theres a chance in hell of them getting an A-League team, even though it would be great for the western teams, having another close rival.