Welcome to the Ottawa MLS Expansion forum!

St. Louis already stole a hockey team from us, so I think you owe us a franchise:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Eagles

Thanks for the subforum though, it's much appreciated.

Will it get us a Stanley Cup?

 

An Ottawa sub-forum! And that is jut the beginning

Seriously, when Mr Melnyk announced his intentions of getting an MLS franchise, my first reaction was: "Huh?". We never had USL-1, every soccer forum I was on had nobody else from Ottawa. In the last month I have seen an explosion of Ottawa soccer fans... Facebook, BigSoccer, SoccerByIves etc. etc. they are everywhere. I am at the point that I think MLS soccer would be well supported in Ottawa.

I have to admit, I am a BIG CFL fan. And it pains me to see the CFL vs MLS battle because I hope we could have both. Actually, the CFL fans and MLS fans are very different people. They actualy cater to different crowds.

So good luck for the rest of the way! We were considered an impossible shot, now were just a long shot. If we don't make it, I hope the soccer fans continue were they left off and try for 2013.

There is room in Ottawa for CFL and MLS.

 

...and somewhere Googs67 is smiling. His awkward attempt to troll has turned into a sub-forum. This is Big Soccer history I tell ya!

Congrats Ottawa fans. I can't wait to see the next place this forum goes...

 

I'd like to think so, and quality ownership is key for that scenario. Despite what Melnyk is saying, if he gets an MLS team and it's successful, I almost expect him to bid for a CFL franchise down the road to bring in an extra tenant for his stadium. That, and I don't think he could resist the idea of potentially hosting a Grey Cup.

 

Hell hath frozen over.

Anyway, who the hell even needs a team when you've got a Bigsoccer subforum, right??

 

We do

 

I'm really starting to come around on more MLS teams in Canada. If you guys can replicate the passion of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, the league as a whole will be better off.

 

Replicate? We want to do much better!

 

That's fine too! I just love the support that Toronto is getting. More MLS cities need to be like them. If Ottawa wants to out-do Toronto, more power to ya!

 

One thing you need to understand about Ottawa - it always wants to out-do Toronto!

 

It's a pride thing I guess. No different then what we see for other teams up for bins. It's just Toronto. ( I'm going to get hate for this ) They think they are the Capital of Canada when they are only the provincial capital. It's like the big brother thing lots of teasing going back and forth....no matter how hard you try to get something Toronto seems to get things easier. The big joke years back was they got hit by a snow storm and had to call the Army in to help bail them out. It's also a very corp. town. I haven't seen that much at TFC games but it happens a lot their other sports. So to be better then big brother you have to try that much hard. Make sence?

Also if you want to compare an US city to Ottawa? Through my travels, Philly, Conn, Tex, Calf. I would think we might line up a lot with San Jose. A central core with many communities around it. Just one mans option.

 

My personal observation is based on the combination of Toronto's success, and the way Montreal has reacted to the CCL quarterfinals game. To me, that says Canada has a passion for soccer unlike some parts of the US that could care less about the sport.

The assumption might also come from most people's perception that soccer has less competition for attention amongst Canadian sports fans. I'd assume the NHL is #1, but after that, there's CFL? I'm not sure what else is big in Canada. Toronto has the Blue Jays, but baseball can't be that popular if the Expos couldn't survive. In major US cities, it's not just the NHL (which is #4 or 5 in the US, depending on the area) but the NFL, MLB, NBA, plus college football and NASCAR.

For soccer to replace the NHL in the US, it would be a major victory. In Canada, it seems as if all soccer has to do is overtake the CFL to be in a solid position for success.

* My apologizies if I've overgeneralized. I'm an American from Florida, not a Canadian, so I am by no means an authority on the matter *

 

It's inevitable that you overgeneralize when you talk about whole countries in short posts, but I don't think you are far off the mark.

Baseball in Canada never seemed to recover from the strike, the NBA has a toehold but doesn't seem likely to grow. The NFL is making noises about Toronto and that might damage the CFL if it ever happened.

MLS and the CFL are not really in direct competition (except for a stadium in Ottawa).

 

As an MLS fan, its great to see such an explosion of new fans. MLS seems to have been largely ignored in Ottawa, for obvious reasons, but the publicity of this expansion process has done very well in making new fans for the league. Back when the list of expansion bids were announced, Ottawa was the only one with no expansion fanboys. That's obviously changed.

Baseball is still very popular around Canada, but MLB isn't as much, especially since the Expos left. If MLS were to place two or three teams in Canada, it's quite possible that it could become the second most popular league in the nation after the NHL. The sporting landscape is wide open there, especially after the failed Canadian MLB and NBA teams in the past decade.

 

It is unfortunate that the Expos and the Grizzlies couldn't stick it out. I also never understood why the Jets and the Nordiques couldn't survive.

This isn't really the right thread, but why is it that Canada is basically treated as part of the U.S. market? I'm not against it by any means, but why don't first division leagues in Canada develop?

 

It's basically just population. There are only around 32 million people and there just aren't enough large cities to support Canadian-only leagues. The CFL only has 9 teams in a league with franchise fees of only $7M.

 

Canada can support leagues on their own, like the CFL, just not very good ones. Canadians are used to having better teams than what they would get with Canadian-only leagues.

 

There is not a single person in the city of Toronto that thinks that the city is the capital of Canada, or the centre of the universe. None. Really, none. There is, however, millions of Canadians that consider it absolutely appropriate to call T.O. all sorts of nasty things and to suggest that those that live in the city are arrogant and un-Canadian.

The hate always comes back to this:’ Toronto thinks it`s better than us.’ Again, no, Toronto does not think it’s better than any other part of the country. It`s actually every other part of the country that thinks it`s better than Toronto.

Here`s the thing. Toronto actually doesn`t really think of the rest of the country at all. That`s what pis$es off the rest of Canada. It`s not that Toronto hates them, it`s that Toronto is indifferent to them.

That and the fact that CBC plays the Leafs every Saturday night. If you really broke it down for many hating Toronto really comes down to being sick of watching second rate hockey.

 

So you already noticed where our biggest rivalry will be once Ottawa (along with St.Louis?) get a team in 2011.

 

Great to have our own subforum now! Saw it a couple days ago but have been too busy to post. Thanks for the modding Sport Billy.