Canadian Soccer News has reported on a number of occasions that NASL expansion to Ottawa is imminent for the 2013 season, including an interview where the NASL's CEO all but confirmed that fact, but a little read news report out of Ottawa last week has shed new light on the particulars of that ownership group and when they expect to secure a franchise.
Speaking at the Ottawa Business Improvement Area's annual meeting, Roger Greenberg, CEO of The Minto Group (an area real estate developer) confirmed that he was working with John Pugh and the Ottawa Fury group to bring a team to the capital city for 2013.
Greenberg went a step further and even suggested to the local area busniess men that his ownership team expected to secure a conditional entry from the NASL before 2010 was out.
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While Canadian Soccer News cannot confirm the announcement date at this time, it is interesting to learn some of the names behind the push - they include Jeff Hunt (owner of the Ottawa 67's), Bill Shenkman (chairman of the Shenkman Corp - a real estate developer), John Ruddy (president of the Trinity Development Group) and the City of Ottawa itself.
That's a lot of money and a lot of political clout assembled in one place for an NASL team. And don't get me wrong, the NASL has made great strides in the last year but my eyebrow did raise when I realized that the as yet unnamed team will play out of Lansdowne Park, which will have an estimated 24,000 seating capacity when construction is completed in June 2013.
To put that in perspective - Montreal's Stade Saputo has a seating capacity of around 13,000, Vancouver's was 5,000 at Swangard Stadium and both were considered attendance successes for the NASL.
So if the Ottawa group is looking at a 24,000 seat stadium for an NASL team (shared with a CFL franchise) then they're either prepared to play their games in a largely empty stadium or, perhaps, they're preparing to set their sights higher.
To say, MLS?