FC Edmonton have announced their team. They are playing Montreal Impact June 16th as their first game. Congrats!
I'm pretty sure Shaun Saiko was in Middlesbrough's youth set-up at one time. Ajax also used to have a Canadian kid named Lam in their youth set-up and I'm wondering if it was that Sam Lam FC Edmonton have listed.
just looked at their website. WOW. very impressed. They have scheduled some very good clubs to play. And they're still a year away! This team really looks to know what they're doing. if only St. Louis had such competent owners, we could draw Sounders numbers........
FC Edmonton! Exhibition Game Schedule 2010 June 16 Montreal Impact 7:35pm July 6 Ottawa Fury 7:35pm August 11 Victoria Highlanders 7:35pm August 15 Spokane Spiders 2:05pm August 28 Miami FC 7:35pm FC Edmonton will host Chilean giant Colo-Colo on June 20th at Commonwealth Stadium, Brazil’s Vitória of Brazil’s premier division on June 27th at Foote Field and finally Portsmouth FC formerly of the English Premier League on July 21st at Commonwealth Stadium for the 2010 Edmonton Cup. •June 20 — Colo Colo (Commonwealth Stadium) •June 27 — Vitória (Foote Field) •July 21 — Portsmouth (Commonwealth Stadium)
Re: FC Edmonton! I wish Edmonton the best of luck and the rise of any soccer clubs in MLS, USL, and NASL is always a welcome as long as they arent a 1 and done.
Re: FC Edmonton! The way that this team is organizing is amazing! As many of you might know, I do the AC St. Louis Fanatic website, and the organization is, well, just a few steps short of hell. It is nice to see a team that has all of their ducks in a row. Hell, I followed to Oilers in the 80s (though I am a Blackhawks fan till I die), and I love how they keep the blue color scheme with the FC logo. I still think it is a great logo! Oh, and I have started the FC Edmonton Fanatic, and I will have it up and running in the coming days as well.
FC Edmonton beat Montreal 3-0 last night. While the Impact fielded a squad mainly comprised of reserves, it's great to see the club in Edmonton this far ahead. Their team is probably more stable than most D-2 teams and their inaugural season is still a year away! I like that the team's owners expect to lose money and are more focused on growing soccer in that area. There was about 2,000 fans at the game last night, which isn't bad, and hopefully they draw even more against the Chilean team on Sunday!
Report on the game from 24th Minute. Interesting notes... - Ticket prices were at NASL levels, so that was a nice barometer of possible support, especially since it was a friendly against Impact reserves. - Salary budget for next year is set at 1 million Cdn. - A 17 year old scored 2 of the goals in the game. Nice start. - Blue and white for the uniforms? I think we have enough of that colour scheme in Canada already. Hopefully those are only practice jerseys.
Actually, doesn't that stadium hold like 60,000? So I think from a technical stand point, yes it wasn't that bad. The coaches and players are doing a good job. But from a marketing/financial point of view, its almost a disaster. Maybe scheduling a friendly during the World Cup WASN'T a good idea.
They only sold tickets for one area of the stadium, which would amount to about 10,000 seats. Getting over 5,000 for an event with little to no promotion and going up against a big ticket event up the road (WEC at Rexall Place) turned out to be very good. The game was at 4pm, long after the World Cup games for the day were actually finished. They also got a good response from the Chilean community, including a good sized group of vocal supporters.
That's a pretty good number and result for a team that only played it's second game and against a rather obscure foreign team. How was the game? Did they look good?
Media seems to think they played very well, as did the Chilean side. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Edmonton+holds+against+Chilean+side/3179683/story.html Local media also thought attendance was rather small. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Ticket+sales+light+Colo+Colo+match/3169935/story.html
Well, it is going to take a while for the crowds to come out. Anything between 3 k to 5 k average would be great for the first year. Hopefully the owners have the money to absorb years of losses. If you look at the Impact, it took a good decade for them to get where they are and it was all because of a deep pocketed owner who had patience and vision.
Here's a nice pic http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Bogado+takes+boots+Edmonton/3180028/story.html I guess if team owner Fath is okay writing those big checks then its okay. I wasn't trying to diss FC Ed. I think they are doing a great job. But I am sure it costs more than the 5,000 who did attend to pay the rent check for the Commonwealth Stadium. Hopefully a lot of them will become return fans when they are more permanently at Foote.