CPL General

[Aird25]

1 hour ago, jonovision said:

A Vancouver to Winnipeg trip is easier, physiologically, than Vancouver to Ottawa, for example, but I doubt the travel cost equation changes a whole lot

Exactly. We have a couple of hubs for flights, and basically everything flows through them. It's just as cheap or cheaper to get to Toronto from a lot of cities, than it is to get to closer ones

[Kingston]

2 hours ago, narduch said:

It also complicates the second Concacaf spot. At least with a balanced schedule the winner of that spot won it fairly. 

Although maybe only needs like me care about that

It does a little bit, but that's pretty much inevitable.  Even with a balanced schedule, there are always differences.  "We played Team X when it was on a hot streak but you got to play them on short rest with their best striker out injured."

I'll take it if it means the CPL is expanding.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

...they need to sort out York (sounded like there is stuff happening in terms of potentially interested investors as Rocket Robin let us know about and they intend to stay in that market but you could have said the same a year ago about Edmonton obviously) and get the Valour, Pacific and Vancouver in a healthier state in terms of bums in seats before what would happen with 12 clubs is likely to be a pressing issue.

Found it interesting that the league commish was talking up a scenario I get grief for on here though. If they ever got to more than six teams in the east there would be plenty of bus travel happening even if they didn't go full WHL out west. Now, if they eased up a bit on stadium requirements and expansion fees I could really get behind what they are trying to do, but a more cynical take would be that talk of discussions in a dozen markets could simply be a case of throwing enough darts at the wall in the hope that something sticks.

[jonovision]

2 hours ago, Kingston said:

And I suspect it will stay at 28 due to weather constraints.

I'd have no problem with a schedule that is unbalanced with the extra games being determined geographically, but I wouldn't want to see a literal east-west split.

Beyond 8 teams, balancing the schedule becomes very difficult mathematically until you get to like 14 teams, but I do think there is room in the schedule for the occasional mid-week game (say, one a month for each team after May when most teams are out of the Canadian Championship) should that become necessary.

[jonovision]

7 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

...they need to sort out York (sounded like there is stuff happening in terms of potentially interested investors as Rocket Robin let us know about and they intend to stay in that market but you could have said the same a year ago about Edmonton obviously) and get the Valour, Pacific and Vancouver in a healthier state in terms of bums in seats before what would happen with 12 clubs is likely to be a pressing issue.

Found it interesting that the league commish was talking up a scenario I get grief for on here though. If they ever got to more than six teams in the east there would be plenty of bus travel happening even if they didn't go full WHL out west. Now, if they eased up a bit on stadium requirements and expansion fees I could really get behind what they are trying to do, but a more cynical take would be that talk of discussions in a dozen markets could simply be a case of throwing enough darts at the wall in the hope that something sticks.

Not a fan of professional athletes being made to ride the bus. Shortest Valour road trip would be 14 hours. Even with a reduction in stadium requirement and fees, there is no way you are getting more than 2 or 3 more teams between Winnipeg and the Rockies

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Saskatoon, Regina and Edmonton? Think Winnipeg to Regina would just about be doable day of the game rather than overnight by bus even if it wouldn't be the recommended thing to do if you wanted three points. Long distance bus travel isn't something you do because you want to. It's something you do if it makes the difference between having a professional league and not having a professional league.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[jonovision]

36 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Saskatoon, Regina and Edmonton? Think Winnipeg to Regina would just about be doable day of the game rather than overnight by bus even if it wouldn't be the recommended thing to do if you wanted three points. Long distance bus travel isn't something you do because you want to. It's something you do if it makes the difference between having a professional league and not having a professional league.

A Regina trip could be just about doable. All of the others would require realistically require spending a night each way on the bus. For me that is a difference between having a professional league and having a league that is not professional. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by jonovision

[Bison44]

Over 5hours on the bus, then play a game?  Then come home same day to save on hotel bills? And this would be the closest for WPG...even if its a made up scenario ie barely any news from Saskatoon let alone Regina.  As much as some people like to make this some sort of choice thing, its geography.  A cross country league is going to involve air travel.  No one arrangantly chose to have be a step up from minor league bus baloney, its just a fact of Canadian geography. Some teams will be able to cut a % costs with clusters closely packed foes, but not a choice for lots of places in canada.   

[Ansem]

I don't fault Noonan to think about conferences due to his background in MLS, it's logical he's thinking "why not CPL". However, there's way more teams per conferences down south than here - won't make sense for us unless the league gets to like 18-20 teams.

[Tigers]

I don't really have much belief in these mentions of 16-18 teams. I think 12 stable teams is a very realistic end state.

Home and away with 12 teams is 22 games.  Not gonna fit in another round, so you're going to be unbalanced, and in country as large, and as spread out E-W as Canada is population wise, East-West conferences just make sense. 

Play another round in-conference get you to 27, and you play one team a 4th time. Home fans would still only see each team a max of twice before playoffs. 

That all seems perfectly reasonable to me, and we should be so lucky to see that come to fruition. 

4 more teams...

W: Van, Vic, Edm, Cal, Wpg, Sask/Kelowna

E: Halifax, QC, Mtl, Ham, Ottawa, York / other Ontario 

Stadiums: is the biggest obstacle to using University stadiums the lined turf? Or other objections? From what I've heard a new turf field is between 500k-1mil. Seems like it would be a decent tradeoff for a team to offer to replace a school's turf, installing a new plain surfaces, and covering some costs to repaint it as needed. Not a lot of overlap between CPL and Usports football, it could stay soccer painted throughout spring and summer.

Edited August 18, 2023 by Tigers
Locations

[jonovision]

^ New commish right here.

[Big_M]

more simple than that and either way would be almost the same:

6 in east 6 in west

you face teams in your conference 3 times for a total of 15 games

you face teams in the other conference 2 times for a total of 12 games

grand total 27 games

 

if you can push it to a grand total of 32 games you simply face teams in your conference a 4th time and keep 2 matchups against teams in the other conference

[Kingston]

10 hours ago, Tigers said:

Stadiums: is the biggest obstacle to using University stadiums the lined turf? Or other objections? 

From what I've seen and heard in the context of the CPL and other leagues, the objections are mainly from two sources.

The CPL reportedly doesn't want teams using university stadiums.  No idea why specifically.

On the other side, universities are often opposed to giving pro sports teams the scheduling preference the pro teams want for the period of time when things do overlap with the university schedule.  This was part of what sank plans to redo Varsity Stadium for either the Argos or TFC back in the day.  On the other hand, some universities are fine with it - McGill was more than happy to let the Als pay to upgrade Percival Molson Stadium and accommodate the Als' schedule.

[Ansem]

CPL wants clubs to control their venue or be 1st tenant - hard to do with university stadiums as you're limited in what changes you can make to the venue which takes the whole in game experience out of their control (This was an issue for York United and obviously Edmonton). Also, clubs needs to make money on not just the ticket sale but everything else going on like parking, concessions etc...

[Kingston]

3 hours ago, Ansem said:

CPL wants clubs to control their venue or be 1st tenant - hard to do with university stadiums as you're limited in what changes you can make to the venue which takes the whole in game experience out of their control (This was an issue for York United and obviously Edmonton). Also, clubs needs to make money on not just the ticket sale but everything else going on like parking, concessions etc...

That would clearly be the first choice.

However, if it is a choice between an expansion CPL team playing in a university stadium and an imaginary CPL team not actually playing in their own unbuilt stadium, I'd be inclined to see what I could work out with the university rather than insisting on an ideal case.

[Ansem]

Just now, Kingston said:

That would clearly be the first choice.

However, if it is a choice between an expansion CPL team playing in a university stadium and an imaginary CPL team not actually playing in their own unbuilt stadium, I'd be inclined to see what I could work out with the university rather than insisting on an ideal case.

I'd rather no team at all than rushing a club and doom it to fail

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

9 minutes ago, Kingston said:

...However, if it is a choice between an expansion CPL team playing in a university stadium and an imaginary CPL team not actually playing in their own unbuilt stadium, I'd be inclined to see what I could work out with the university rather than insisting on an ideal case...

Hopefully that's the direction things will move in. If they stopped insisting on 6000+ seats and could live with something in the 3000-4000 sort of range in a York Lions stadium sort of way it's not just university stadia that could become viable, it would also make it easier to do pop-ups with various other public sector bodies and maybe even ethnic social clubs in some cities.

[Kingston]

1 hour ago, Ansem said:

I'd rather no team at all than rushing a club and doom it to fail

Yes, but I'm not convinced that making a decent, if imperfect, deal with a university is rushing it.  There's going to be a limit to how many ~6000 seat stadiums a city needs.  Teaming up could actually be a plus instead of a minus.

[DoyleG]

10 hours ago, Ansem said:

CPL wants clubs to control their venue or be 1st tenant - hard to do with university stadiums as you're limited in what changes you can make to the venue which takes the whole in game experience out of their control (This was an issue for York United and obviously Edmonton). Also, clubs needs to make money on not just the ticket sale but everything else going on like parking, concessions etc...

The problem was that Foote was a better venue than Clarke was for FC Edmonton. The money spent on the stands, and the fiasco that came from it, would've been better spent on improving the playing surface at Foote. It would've been one that would've satisfied football and soccer while the Field Hockey players could've had their own facility.

The post-game options on leaving Foote were so much better than what Clarke offered.

[jordan]

Says a Canadian Algerian signing in CanPL, I wonder if Mekideche is coming back. 
 

https://x.com/algeria_fc/status/1696888556726141145?s=46&t=KtwBDROwUH8sPUlYu2GlIA

[Aird25]

1 hour ago, jordan said:

Says a Canadian Algerian signing in CanPL, I wonder if Mekideche is coming back. 
 

https://x.com/algeria_fc/status/1696888556726141145?s=46&t=KtwBDROwUH8sPUlYu2GlIA

Who else might it be, Farsi or Yesli? Columbus just brought in Julian Gressel in Farsi's position

[jordan]

4 hours ago, Aird25 said:

Who else might it be, Farsi or Yesli? Columbus just brought in Julian Gressel in Farsi's position

Could be Bahous. 

[jordan]

Looks like Goteh Ntignee could be headed to FC Annecy 

x.com/julientrivero/status/1697153234983346358?s=46&t=KtwBDROwUH8sPUlYu2GlIA 

 

[jordan]

Done 

https://x.com/fcannecy/status/1697308852985741544?s=46&t=KtwBDROwUH8sPUlYu2GlIA

[Big_M]

Just now, Big_M said: