CPL General

[shermanator]

Cavalry almost at 1000 members

 

[Watchmen]

"Higher salary cap vs free kit" would be an interesting poll question.  

[Complete Homer]

1 hour ago, shermanator said:

Cavalry almost at 1000 members

 

Calgary is going to get close to selling out IMO. If 1000 memberships translate to 2000-3000 tickets, throw in people getting partials, and the walk-up crowd could get pretty close to 5000

[Watchmen]

4 minutes ago, Complete Homer said:

Calgary is going to get close to selling out IMO. If 1000 memberships translate to 2000-3000 tickets, throw in people getting partials, and the walk-up crowd could get pretty close to 5000

Sorry, we can't make that assumption, since every time people mention "Victoria and York only have just over 200 memberships", other people leap in to say "memberships mean nothing!  They don't relate to season tickets!"  But it's obviously an encouraging number.

[shermanator]

I don't think Calgary will sell out, but I'm starting to get optimistic that they can beat FC Edmonton's best NASL average of 3400. But I also have a very cynical view on the Calgary sports scene as a whole.

They sold 1500 tickets to a prospects game where there was little seating, in a terrible location in the city, during 3 degree weather, at prices which many were screaming about as being too high. 

Edited October 6, 2018 by shermanator

[Complete Homer]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

Sorry, we can't make that assumption, since every time people mention "Victoria and York only have just over 200 memberships", other people leap in to say "memberships mean nothing!  They don't relate to season tickets!"  But it's obviously an encouraging number.

York might have a reason to think the number might be higher - they apparently were focusing on selling seats in the youth soccer section that didn't go towards the membership total. 

Even so, even if that's true, it's only one stand 

[Macksam]

On 10/5/2018 at 11:06 AM, tyler453 said:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/toronto-fc-ticket-prices-on-the-rise-although-damage-varies-depending-on-spot-1.4122571

TFC raising season ticket prices at an average of 10%, some sections are 20%. Think this could maybe help the CPL teams in the future?

Not surprised at all and I just rolled my eyes at what Manning said. I can only assume they asked him about the price increase and he just goes on about making sure they don’t have a bad season again. This is a good reminder why I can’t stand that organization at all and haven’t been to a TFC game since 2013. 

Edited October 6, 2018 by Macksam

[Blackjack15]

I know the majority of you would rather have each CPL club have total freedom to sign whoever they want for the first season 

But realistically there’s of uncertainty there

FCE wants to sign all their academy kids, Calvary bring. Good chinch of their PDL squad and HFX Wanderers lots of Maritime content. 

Which is great on a local level, but that doesn’t guarantee good soccer being played. 

Theres 125 Players playing professionally in North America and a bunch more in Europe and around the globe 

We need to use them as a template since they are established and fought for their place overseas as a international for this long, it would be disrespected to not include them into this because they’ve earned the congrats from the fans 

The Spector from Hamilton reported a long time ago That there would be 5 pools and that a draft system would be in place etc, Important to see that come into fruition 

We can have all the boxes ? checked but if the coaches don’t put their best foot forward into having the best possible players then what are we doing here 

Canadians Abroad have the right to come Home and display what they’ve learned elsewhere, we need the highest quality there is aside from the national team level

Pro contracts need to be earned not given, This Canada’s Tier 1 League. Time to make a strong statement about it

Edited October 7, 2018 by Thomas

[shamrock]

4 hours ago, Blackjack15 said:

Which is great on a local level, but that doesn’t guarantee good soccer being played. 

Theres 125 Players playing professionally in North America and a bunch more in Europe and around the globe 

We need to use them as a template since they are established and fought for their place overseas as a international for this long, it would be disrespected to not include them into this because they’ve earned the congrats from the fans 

This doesn't guarantee good soccer being played either. You do realize most of those players abroad play low level football? And if they don't, they're unaffordable. Moreover it's likely to see a mix of know N-American-based players, relative unknown talents and some pro's from abroad.

Edited October 7, 2018 by shamrock

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

9 hours ago, Blackjack15 said:

...Pro contracts need to be earned not given, This Canada’s Tier 1 League. Time to make a strong statement about it

From a CMNT standpoint the best thing that could happen is a low budget league that gives a lot of young Canadian players in smaller markets from coast-to-coast a shot at being fully pro for a few years (in a junior hockey sort of way but more U-23 with some older players to add experience than strictly U-20) that can be used as a pathway to the leagues where you can make some serious coin. I am pleasantly surprised by what is unfolding at the moment as that appears to be what we are getting.

Edited October 7, 2018 by BringBackTheBlizzard

[Ansem]

4 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

From a CMNT standpoint the best thing that could happen is a low budget league that gives a lot of young Canadian players in smaller markets from coast-to-coast a shot at being fully pro for a few years (in a junior hockey sort of way but more U-23 with some older players to add experience than strictly U-20) that can be used as a pathway to the leagues where you can make some serious coin. I am pleasantly surprised by what is unfolding at the moment as that appears to be what we are getting.

That can be done with a medium-high budget league too. That's the whole point of making 6 Canadians be on the pitch at all time and maybe some allocated minutes for U20 players mandatory.

$5M+ a year in total expenses isn't "low" budget in the North America soccer scene.

Keep that "junior hockey" reference to USL

Edited October 7, 2018 by Ansem

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

A strange post given we have been told that the Ottawa Fury decided to avoid the league because of the low salary budget involved along with things like the junior hockey style billeting of players with local families. Another six months and we'll finally be dealing with reality.

[Ansem]

2 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

A strange post given we have been told that the Ottawa Fury decided to avoid the league because of the low salary budget involved along with things like the junior hockey style billeting of players with local families. Another six months and we'll finally be dealing with reality.

A strange reply... since you pick and choose your sources. You choose to believe some strange "Fury Fanatic" over the CPL commissioner, who said that teams would be required to spend over $5M a year and that salaries would be north of 1M.

Keep it "strange" with your odd comparison with junior hockey who barely pays its players.

*Honestly, I could care less that you think CPL is minor league, I care that you speak your opinions as hard facts when it isn't. I don't want people who come here casually to look for information to take your "opinions" as facts. 

Edited October 7, 2018 by Ansem

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

It was salaries and soccer operations that were north of $1 million according to David Clanachan and I'm pretty sure the $5 million thing was actually from the PLSQ commissioner rather than the CanPL one. There have also been comments from Dean Shillington the co-owner of Pacific FC in print and an employee of York 9 on Facebook that pointed to a salary cap  south of $1 million, so it isn't all about "Fury Fanatic" on the low budget thing although the Ottawa Fury steering clear after all the ongoing hype about an 8 team launch is something that's difficult to ignore obviously. Something along the lines of what Dean Shillington was describing recently:

https://biv.com/article/2018/08/canadian-premier-league-owners-ready-launch

“I’m traditionally a very conservative investor. The businesses that I have are based on that premise, but the way this league has been structured, it is able to be viable on Day 1.”

“We want all the clubs to have responsible owners and not have one go out and spend a lot of money to start an arms race of player signings,” he said.

“The key, as a business guy, is for this league to be around in 20 years, 50 years or 100 years. The owners have to be on the same page and to grow the league responsibly in time.”

sounds good to me.

[Ansem]

27 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

It was salaries and soccer operations that were north of $1 million according to David Clanachan and I'm pretty sure the $5 million thing was actually from the PLSQ commissioner rather than the CanPL one. There have also been comments from Dean Shillington the co-owner of Pacific FC in print and an employee of York 9 on Facebook that pointed to a salary cap  south of $1 million, so it isn't all about "Fury Fanatic" on the low budget thing although the Ottawa Fury steering clear after all the ongoing hype about an 8 team launch is something that's difficult to ignore obviously. Something along the lines of what Dean Shillington was describing recently:

https://biv.com/article/2018/08/canadian-premier-league-owners-ready-launch

“I’m traditionally a very conservative investor. The businesses that I have are based on that premise, but the way this league has been structured, it is able to be viable on Day 1.”

“We want all the clubs to have responsible owners and not have one go out and spend a lot of money to start an arms race of player signings,” he said.

“The key, as a business guy, is for this league to be around in 20 years, 50 years or 100 years. The owners have to be on the same page and to grow the league responsibly in time.”

sounds good to me.

Could you stop being so damn irresponsible and stop those comparisons to junior hockey and leagues?

You're entitled to your opinions but getting on people's nerves when you say dumb statements like theses

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Are you describing Dean Shillington's comments as dumb? They seem sensible to me.

[Aird25]

Deleted

Edited October 7, 2018 by Aird25
I'd rather talk about soccer.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

What's clear is that he didn't even bother reading what he replied to given there is nothing about junior hockey in the reply he quoted. There are instead some very sensible comments from one of the main investors involved about starting with a relatively low budget that is consistent with revenues and growing responsibly from there so the league is still there in 20, 50 and 100 years time. Sounds good to me and winding things back to what I first responded to I would rather see that sort of approach happening than a strong statement being made financially about being Canada's D1 league if the latter approach leads to seven figure financial losses every season and the league folding within only a few years.  Over and out for this thread for a bit.

[baulderdash77]

 I’m pretty pleasantly surprised at what I’m seeing so far for CanPL.  The open tryouts are going to probably unearth 6-10 new pro players.

I expect that another 20-30 players will make it up from PQSL and L1O next year.

Also I suspect that the ranks of USL players will be thinned out excluding TFC2 and Ottawa Fury. This will consolidate another 40 or so players.

The final group looks like another 20-30 players from abroad.

We’re going to see a really great consolidation of the 2nd tier of Canadian players every week.  Stars from that group will emerge and fill in the week depth spots like CB and RB.  Plus is V’s are going to be able to watch and dissect every match and player.

This is going to be very exciting.

[baulderdash77]

Actually now that I think of it our player pool will suddenly have a strong “middle class” of pro players.

The core MNT pool of say 30 players generally are at a level of play superior to what I think the CanPL will have.

Then there’s going to be the middle class of say 100-120 players (Including Ottawa for all intents and purposes because it’s a simlar level).  This class is composed of solid vets, aging stars and young up and comers.

Then there’s everyone else including the bottom rung of our MLS players and V’s abroad toiling away at semi pro football somewhere. 

The middle class is important though because we won’t have anymore unattached FC and also our young players don’t always have to go to Europe to develop and only have to leave for D1 (or elite D2) leagues abroad.

[Winnipeg Fury]

Anxiously awaiting Valour's season ticket packages.  Hopefully it will be along the lines of Hamilton's.  ?

 

[Cheeta]

2 hours ago, baulderdash77 said:

 

....

 

The middle class is important though because we won’t have anymore unattached FC and also our young players don’t always have to go to Europe to develop and only have to leave for D1 (or elite D2) leagues abroad.

A straight up numbers game.  Every season somewhere someone is going to happily surprise everyone with how they perform and develop when tested by this league.  Every season.  Mark my words.

[Blackjack15]

3 hours ago, baulderdash77 said:

Actually now that I think of it our player pool will suddenly have a strong “middle class” of pro players.

The core MNT pool of say 30 players generally are at a level of play superior to what I think the CanPL will have

It’s worth noting that In Herdman’s First 3 Windows He’s called up 37 Players

Of which I would say 4-8 would be good for CPL and the rest are playing at a high level in MLS or Div 1 Europe or close to that 

GK- Simon Thomas (Strommen) Div 2 Norway 

GK - James Pantemis (Montreal Impact) | MLS 

CB - Derek Cornelius (Javor Ivanjica) Serbian Second Division 

*RB - Zach Brault Guillard (Olympic Lyon B ) French 4th division 

MF - Kris Twardek (Sligo Rovers) Ireland First Division 

You could make the case that maybe later down the road Ricketts or Wotherspoon could join CanPL, since they’ve fallen out of favor at their clubs but would need to take a pay cut in the first or second season. 

Crepeau is somewhere between levels. Too good for USL, and not good enough yet for a Starting role in MLS. We’ll see where he ends up

*ZBG graduated from the academy to the reserve side and has a contract until summer of 2021 to see if he catches on and is promoted to First Team or goes to another club instead so who knows there 

Edited October 7, 2018 by Thomas

[Ansem]

50 minutes ago, Cheeta said:

A straight up numbers game.  Every season somewhere someone is going to happily surprise everyone with how they perform and develop when tested by this league.  Every season.  Mark my words.

A reminder that Jonathan David came out of nowhere. There's more like him. 

Thanks to this league, he certainly won't be the last

[Blackdude]

3 hours ago, Ansem said:

A reminder that Jonathan David came out of nowhere. There's more like him. 

Thanks to this league, he certainly won't be the last

He didn't come out of nowhere. We knew about him. He was the best player of our U17 2 years ago.