CPL General

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

7 minutes ago, ironcub14 said:

Still couldn't believe how little outrage there was not just among the general public but among V's that we only got 10 games...

...and all at the early stages of a bloated 48 game format meaning several of that handful of games are likely to be Cape Verde vs Montenegro or Kenya vs Uzbekistan type games. It's the knockout stage where the bulk of the interest and attention is going to be and the Americans have that pretty much to themselves. 

[harrycoyster]

15 minutes ago, ironcub14 said:

Still couldn't believe how little outrage there was not just among the general public but among V's that we only got 10 games.

People just can't see the future, the investment in infrastructure, and what things could look like just 9 years from now.

I've seen first-hand the profound transformational impact that a World Cup hosting duty can have on a national infrastructure, both stadium and sport-wise, including for its domestic league and the system as a whole. Harry Coyster can debate with me the sustainability of all that, but that's a nice fun problem to have and to discuss later on.

Bottom line, we should be outraged that the 2026 WC bid has been split 60/10/10, our current stadium infrastructure be damned. There's a ton of federal stimulus money to be spent ya know.

Imagine how the Mexicans feel.

[ironcub14]

2 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

...and all at the early stages of a bloated 48 game format meaning several of that handful of games are likely to be Cape Verde vs Montenegro or Kenya vs Uzbekistan type games. It's the knockout stage where the bulk of the interest and attention is going to be and the Americans have that pretty much to themselves. 

I honestly naively thought at the time that Canada would have got at least one semi-final game. That game alone would have accelerated Canadian soccer as a whole and CPL's development by 5-10 years.

For me, that 60/10/10 announcement hardened me on the need for a CPL. BUT, the lack of outrage amongst most Canadian soccer fans also dawned on to me what a huge challenge CPL and Canadian soccer still has as a whole to succeed.

[ironcub14]

1 minute ago, harrycoyster said:

Imagine how the Mexicans feel.

They've hosted 2 WCs by themselves; I don't care about them at all

[Rheo]

Coles notes of Rollins on the Fury/CPL

-Ottawa has a lot of balls in the air in where they are going to play in the next couple of years "it's increasingly becoming more likely that that 2018 launch for the 2018 seems like a stretch" citing things he's heard of complications and the Hamilton situation

-Fury are "frustrated with the USL in lot of ways", no clarification on reason

-Talk JDG being an ideal coach, growing into the role, if they go younger/prospect oriented, for future and mentions possible CPL

[Ansem]

34 minutes ago, Rheo said:

Fury are "frustrated with the USL in lot of ways", no clarification on reason

Very curious about that one!

[Kent]

Yeah, I'm outraged with the World Cup hosting split. I feel like it will essentially turn into this.

*USA 2026

*Canada and Mexico also hosting select matches

[Ansem]

1 minute ago, Kent said:

Yeah, I'm outraged with the World Cup hosting split. I feel like it will essentially turn into this.

*USA 2026

*Canada and Mexico also hosting select matches

Already is

[-Hammer-]

1 hour ago, Ansem said:

Very curious about that one!

Same here.

I would guess because certain teams openly making cases to move up to MLS (who are the league's strongest teams) and certainly teams (MLS Farms) aren't making the same investments the Fury are and that hurts the identity of the league and thus the club's ability to grow. It's hard to show how great your league is when you show a packed house in Cinci followed by a barren field in Orlando. However that's pure speculation. The sheer volume of politics involved in North American soccer is almost a sport unto itself.

[harrycoyster]

5 minutes ago, -Hammer- said:

The sheer volume of politics involved in North American soccer is almost a sport unto itself.

 

And sometimes it's more enjoyable to follow than the sport itself. At this point I think I'd be bored following soccer in a fully developed European country.

[Kent]

1 hour ago, -Hammer- said:

Same here.

I would guess because certain teams openly making cases to move up to MLS (who are the league's strongest teams) and certainly teams (MLS Farms) aren't making the same investments the Fury are and that hurts the identity of the league and thus the club's ability to grow. It's hard to show how great your league is when you show a packed house in Cinci followed by a barren field in Orlando. However that's pure speculation. The sheer volume of politics involved in North American soccer is almost a sport unto itself.

I would assume those likely aren't the reasons Ottawa are unhappy with USL. Those issues were wide out in the open before they joined the league, so if they are unhappy about that, they REALLY didn't do their homework before jumping in. I imagine it's more behind the scenes stuff.

[Rheo]

Finally listened to the Larson pods (still not on my pod catcher but streamed it at work.  Just a couple of things I didn't see in the recaps from last week and the new one 

-Rollins mentioned there were government things that had to be dealt with by the league, but no further mention on what that could be

-Rollins did a long interview with Beirne for a magazine piece that will be out in the fall and sounded like there will be more revealed in there

-Larson mentioned how CPL really had no interest in talking to him for the paper or the pod.  But at the same time MLS had no interest in talking CPL with him

-From the latest one today with Oliver Platt of Waking The Red, Larson has talked to some ownership groups.  There are some "very, very ambitious groups that envision small, tight stadium, that’s filled to brim, real close knit club” and not sure how that fits in with the Edmonton and Ottawa teams that “aren’t that”

-Larson's view on the league has changed, he thought it would have as many Canadians out there as possible and that the quality wouldn't be appealing.  Yes the league is for Canadians by Canadians but talk to some and that’s only a part of it, “they know for the league to work the soccer has to be good" and that "they know the need for good, attractive players" so he's more optimistic on it's chance.

[Rheo]

Victoria bidding for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and bid includes a stadium component (I found the link but Footy Soldiers pointed out the bid on Twitter today)

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/440842903.html

[-Hammer-]

1 hour ago, Kent said:

I would assume those likely aren't the reasons Ottawa are unhappy with USL. Those issues were wide out in the open before they joined the league, so if they are unhappy about that, they REALLY didn't do their homework before jumping in. I imagine it's more behind the scenes stuff.

That is true, my other guess is the USL head office is putting pressure on the Fury to stay and not even consider the CPL as a jumping choice, or be their lines of communication to CPL owners so they can convince them to instead invest in the USL. Once more though, wild speculation.

[harrycoyster]

22 minutes ago, -Hammer- said:

That is true, my other guess is the USL head office is putting pressure on the Fury to stay and not even consider the CPL as a jumping choice, or be their lines of communication to CPL owners so they can convince them to instead invest in the USL. Once more though, wild speculation.

Sacramento and Richmond have expressed unhappiness in the last few months with the way the USL heavily promotes newer teams like FCC and Phoenix without promoting older teams. Numerous teams have complained about the quality of the refereeing and other small issues like that. Without Rollins getting more specific or naming sources that needs to be taken with a grain of salt in regards to its effect on the CPL.

[maccaliam]

4 hours ago, Rheo said:

-From the latest one today with Oliver Platt of Waking The Red, Larson has talked to some ownership groups.  There are some "very, very ambitious groups that envision small, tight stadium, that’s filled to brim, real close knit club” 

Thanks for the highlights. This point in particular makes me smile. 

[Complete Homer]

4 hours ago, Rheo said:

Larson's view on the league has changed, he thought it would have as many Canadians out there as possible and that the quality wouldn't be appealing.  Yes the league is for Canadians by Canadians but talk to some and that’s only a part of it, “they know for the league to work the soccer has to be good" and that "they know the need for good, attractive players" so he's more optimistic on it's chance.

Honestly, I know Larson catches a lot of flak (and I've said one or two things about the PDL comment), but he's becoming pretty level headed in his CPL coverage. I'm sure one could come up with cynical reasons but it seems sincere to me

[Rheo]

CBC story on the issues in Hamilton http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/hamilton/ticats-soccer-1.4251801

[Complete Homer]

Footysoldiers seem to be implying there's long term interest in Victoria in this thread (click it to read further). They aren't the type to create rumours out of nothing really, though could also just be awkward wording. 

 

Edited August 18, 2017 by Complete Homer

[Rheo]

CPL official response to the Hamilton situation in the story and tweet 

 

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

If the Ticats think they still have exclusive rights and the City think they don't, legal action is likely to be involved at some point on that angle as well as that will determine the financial terms under which the stadium gets used. Am I reading it right that the Ticats think they have a one year exclusivity from the point that their team starts playing in the stadium rather than the one year exclusivity being from the point that the stadium opened for soccer with an L1O game in May 2015?

http://sirc.ca/news/semi-pro-womens-soccer-launches-tim-hortons-field-saturday

[Rheo]

Oh yeah it's going to court unless cooler heads prevail.  Find it interesting that the league felt the need to comment on the situation publicly though

[mpg_29]

I don't get why the city would even be fighting this...is there another group in Hamilton looking to put a CPL team in there?...that's the only thing that would make any sense to this...

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

I suspect some councillors see the financial terms involved as being bad for the City and something voters will not like. What is this all about, for example?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/ticats-soccer-1.4251801

"I'd like to share numbers with you because I think you'd be surprised," he said of the settlement the city offered the team. "I think the public would be surprised. But I can't talk about them."

[Rheo]

5 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

I don't get why the city would even be fighting this...is there another group in Hamilton looking to put a CPL team in there?...that's the only thing that would make any sense to this...

If you read any of the articles it's just bad blood from the beginning.  From the location, to the time to get it completed, to the lawsuit.  They just keep uping the ante.  I'm sure there's more than enough blame to go around on both sides of this and the CPL is stuck in the middle.