What's your plan, to make me agree that Pulisic is best in Concacaf over David? What's next, Dest being better than Davies? Good luck with that!
I'd put Davies above Pulisic over the last 6 or 7 years but either he's gone off the boil or we've just got too familiar with him. David is on a hot streak, I hope it continues for him.
Cavalry are the Canadian Premier League champions and wins their first North Star Cup by beating Forge FC 2-1 in Calgary. Both clubs will also represent Canada in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup 1855382374269190201 is not a valid tweet id
Canadian-born winger Enes Sali with a nice goal in the MLS Next Pro final last night. Represented Romania most recently. 1855449007163629638 is not a valid tweet id
Dest over Jonathan David? Are they out of their minds? I agree with them when they say Pulisic and Davies are top dogs in the region currently, but Dest next? I wouldn’t even take Dest over Jedi.
Is the goal simply to survive? Stuck on 8 teams, once of which draws slightly better than a top league1 team’s attendance with another founding team that refuses to spend the money to be competitive and make the playoffs in their entire history? I love the league and am glad it’s there. However, it’s stagnant. It’s stuck on a small number of teams. The play is decent but we really need a catalyst to jump start some sustained improvement or growth in the league. Slightly increasing the salary cap won’t much a huge difference. New teams aren’t coming anytime soon (this week the commish was bringing upthe usual “interest from the following cities”) nonsense again that league figureheads have been repeating for years. We have an equal chance of landing a man on the moon than finding a soccer stadium solution in this country (the real reason we have no new teams).
Antonee Robinson is legitimately playing like the best left back in the Premier League. Legitimately. There might be a few more talented guys, but they always seem injured. If you're one of the best left backs in the Premier League, then you're one of the best left backs in the world. Seriously..............Davies and Jedi spoil us in the region. Dest had a great campaign at PSV. We'll have to see how he returns from that injury. He's had an inconsistent couple of years at Barca and Milan, though. Jonathan David has been the most consistent forward in the region since 2019/2020. Period. There are other #9s that have popped up over that time with nice seasons. Santiago Jimenez had 2 nice years at Feyennord before injury. Balogun had a great 22-23 at Reims. Antonio of Jamaica. But David has been consistently scoring goals double-digit goals every year. Five years in a row. Every year since his last one at Gent in Belgium. You can't argue with his production. He's going to be in incredibly high demand. I imagine we're going to see some big club sign a pre-contract deal with him in January. The absolute best way to sign a quality player in this era of sustainability rules. Perfect signing for a big club in sustainability/FFP hell.
I wouldn't call double digit growth stagnant. On the pitch, the quality improves year after year which was made obvious this year with MLS clubs getting by on the away rule. The league is developing and past "survival mode". What you perceive as "stagnant" is just a sign of a change in leadership where they due their due diligence, refuses to rush anything with a more pragmatic approch to obstacle. The previous leadership wanted to add clubs for the sake of it (York 9, FC Edmonton, failed Saskatoon bid announcement with no stadium deal, same for Windsor). There's intelligence and competence in their approach - they tested Kelowna first and after years of working with Mississauga, the city is planning the construction of a stadium in the heart of their growing downtown, the mayor a fan of CPL and met with the supporter group and league. 1854950623227035994 is not a valid tweet id Going with your approach, we'd get more FC Edmonton and York 9 when what the league wants is nothing less than what the likes of Halifax or Pacific has done in small market and what Calgary, Ottawa and Hamilton are doing in larger markets. Realistically, there can't be expansion when the league was the owner of York United before they sold the club to the Mexican group who actually managed to improve their situation significantly. Lastly, there's the issue of TV rights and the fight they have on their hands against Bell and Rogers. It makes sense that they solve this first and the fact that CBC did broadcast the finals and the awards + pushing lots of CPL content is a major sign of improvement as well. While there's no convincing Rogers to carry Onesoccer since they own TFC, Bell could be a solution now that they sold all their shares in MLSE. Not everything is about "the number of clubs" or is the CFL "surviving and stagnant" with their 9 clubs, gotta see the bigger picture and beyond expansion as a metric on the financial health of the league Bonus point : If MLS is serious about moving to a Fall-Spring season post 2026, that leaves the summer solely to CPL which would stand to profit from that scenario expansion-wise.
According to Wikipedia, average league attendance is only up 3% from last year, and more relevantly, it's up only 123 people per actual game. It is still lower than the inaugural season. It's great that it is surviving, but it has the issue I've been saying for a while. Where's the growth plan? Growing a league requires significant over-investment in stadiums, payrolls, marketing, etc., that spans years and years. There's been some minor investment in facilities, but the payrolls and general attitude of the league is minor league, and that's now their branding. MLS may not have done everything right, but they positioned themselves as being a league on the same level of the NFL, NHL, etc., in theory. A stated developmental focus, minimum wage salaries and 5,000 person stadiums conveys something and has little upside. It's simply hard to grow when there's no clear vision. USSF got the money invested in MLS by basically selling off asset upside. But we're a country of 330 million -- I'm not sure the upside is that big for a Canada only league. But certainly it's higher than it is now.
He's obviously talking about total attendance not average and all competitions. Revenues and attendances are up, so is sponsorship and corporate nvestments as well according to his his speech. He also confirmed that based on the growth in attendance and revenues, payroll will go up next season. As for stadiums, doesn't work quite the same way in Canada than in the US, you could ask Montreal and Whitecaps - they'd tell you all about it. Also, MLS clubs actually don't own their stadiums, the city or province does. You need local governments to play ball here and that's the hardest part to achieve as the culture is different and spending public funds or selling land for stadiums is a hard sell but the league has been working diligently on this. As for MLS comparison since you brought it up, it's 6 years old and in better shape than 6 years old MLS. If CPL can reach similar metrics as the CFL (a successful Canadian only league), that would be a huge success placing it somewhere in line with some of the top Scandinavian football leagues. You'll keep missing the point if you keep making an apple to apple comparison between US and Canada when one country has 10 times the population over the other, it simply is a pointless argument. There are leagues out there that proves to be very competitive with a fraction of your population. Up to CPL to figure it out for the medium to long term (reminder that its 6...years...old)
Most MLS clubs in the US funded their stadiums. That's my point. CPL teams can't go that route because there's no path for that kind of ownership investment. My point for a while here is that there does not seem to be a viable strategic plan for significant growth. The inherent set up of creating a developmental league that does not focus on quality of play or attendance limits everything in the long run because that is what drives investment. Canada is smaller than the US, but it's more than large enough to have a league with actual aspirations. CPL does not seem to have known or consistent long term goals, and the current business model doesn't create a path to that. All that can change, but right now I'd be concerned that the league, while correct to be happy with mild success because this is hard, doesn't seem to have the accompanying strategy to get bigger.
USSF got the money invested through 3 visionary investors, Hunt, Anschutz and Kraft on the back of the success of the World Cup and the financial windfall that provided. I think the CSA has a harder job. Although they recognise there's a demand, their 3 main markets are heavily committed to another venture and their geography is even more diverse than the US.* They're also flat broke. Imagine Lamar Hunt trying to get Anschutz and Kraft to invest in MLS without any major US cities and no financial support from the fed. If only there was a soccer mad Canadian with a bit of spare cash around. *Halifax is as close to Wolverhampton UK as it is to Victoria BC (4,466 km vs 4,478 km, I checked).
I’m curious by what metric is in a better spot that MLS 6 years in. MLS had a better TV ratings in year six, better attendance, etc. And in terms of national team impact you were one year away from a number of MLS players playing key roles in the USMNT quarterfinal run. And you had more teams in the league as well at 12 teams.
CFL clubs don't own their stadiums either so your point doesn't stand. The path is to get local governments on board, like Halifax is doing to get a new permanent stadium built, like Pacific and Vancouver has done in BC, like Mississauga who's now ready to get one built to hopefully get a club. It's a slower process than in the US but viable nonetheless This in bold tells me you might want to watch a few more games especially during the Canadian Championship. As for not having a "viable plan for significant growth", that's your opinion and I respectfully disagree with it. I'll say that I like the vision better under the new leadership than his predecessor and we can see measurable & noticeable growth on a yearly basis. No, it doesn't have the ambition to be MLS-lite - it choose not too. But that doesn't mean that MLS is the only model out there. There's plenty of league that operates on a smaller scope like in Scandinavia yet their clubs are very competitive, develop players while putting on a good show. If MLS is supposed to be the measuring stick than that's ok, you'll be eternally underwhelmed and agree to disagree
Only if you don't get my point. One of the reasons MLS is succeeding is that there are ownership groups willing to invest in stadiums above and beyond government funding. Which accelerates the process. It's not a very good league. But again, you seem to miss this strategic component. Do you think the CPL is going to develop and sell its way to a higher level? Salaries are still extraordinarily low, and there doesn't seem to be a plan to increase them. That's what I am talking about. If there's something out there that makes sense, let me know. I'm not really the one that has picked MLS as a measuring stick in these discussions -- you consistently compare the two. If CPL's goal is to be third/fourth tier league that can provide some cheap family fun, that's great. I think that's where they are. If there's an intent to be a first division league worthy of a 40 million person country, then I don't know if there's a plan to get from A to B. Denmark has 6 million people; Sweden has 10 million people. (And even in Scandinavia, their clubs aren't really competitive, really only a couple of clubs in Denmark are competitive at all and its incredibly rare for anyone to be competitive anymore out of the other three.) My comment really isn't about MLS at all; it's simply, what is the actual growth plan or is CPL content with where they are. Because leagues at their size should not rely on organic growth.
Those leagues are a century old, the teams have dedicated stadiums (though they don't own them) and they don't have the geographic challenges the Canadian teams do.
The entire league nearly folded in it's 6th year if I'm not mistaken. It's not innacurate to say that in comparison, CPL is in a better place in It's 6 year. The whole debate is pointless when we are comparing 2 leagues that have a 25 year gap between them. Same as pointing out that the quality on the pitch between both leagues in their 6th season is better in CPL. In the end, that tells us nothing really useful since we're leaving out lots of context I just posted the positive of the league after its 6th season finals and it quickly became a "mine's bigger and better than yours" thing... amusing cause I'll play but pointless
Yes, CPL is 6 year old it will grow over time while coming up with solutions for it's unique sets of challenges. We all accept this will take time, doesn't mean we can't point out the positives thus far
This took time to get there and that wasn't something that even the Canadian clubs were willing to do initially, certainly not without government assistance. Again, that's your opinion and while I value it to some extend, I'll value thoses of say...clubs and leagues disagreeing with you by saying the opposite and buying players and/or foreigners investing in it like Atletico Madrid and the Pasquel for York United. If there's some area of expertise that should make me consider your opinion above theirs, I'm willing to have an open mind about it. I was being specific to the Canadian Championship in my 1st post thus the Canadian clubs, not the league as a whole Cute, the backhanded compliment. You could just not care about it and be content that your league is the second best in the region. Never understood the underlying reason to knock it down a notch... relax, we are fully aware what CPL is lol I don't think you even know what are the CPL plans for mid to long term... you could just ask instead
How so? Compare the players in each league in year 6. It's not close. MLS was better on the field in year 6. Look at the number of senior international players in each.
It’s not even close MLS was significantly ahead of where CPL is in year 6. There’s not a single metric that can be pointed to that supports otherwise. It’s great that CPL exists for Canadian soccer but it still has a very very long way to go.