Northern Super League to launch in April 2025

[shermanator]

Spruce Meadows was asking 6 figures per game to rent Atco Field. If you want to point figures at a group not looking to make it work, might want to start with them...

[Ivan]

4 minutes ago, shermanator said:

Spruce Meadows was asking 6 figures per game to rent Atco Field. If you want to point figures at a group not looking to make it work, might want to start with them...

Is that what Cavalry pay? Or, I thought one of the owners of Cavalry (Sothern) was involved with Spruce Meadows?

[Big_M]

spruce meadows and cavalry are owned by the southern family

[Bison44]

Its never that simple, Spruce Meadows sports Inc wont have the exact same shareholders as Spruce Meadows grounds Inc, or there will be deals in place agreed to years ago.  Ie outside 3rd party interests pay x, Cavs pays half that etc etc.  It still seems like a no brainer, its not that big, real grass, nice play for the ladies to start of playing.  

[Ivan]

3 hours ago, shermanator said:

Spruce Meadows was asking 6 figures per game to rent Atco Field. If you want to point figures at a group not looking to make it work, might want to start with them...

Then that really is too bad. I guess it all started when CSB couldn't get a women's league going fast enough. Then the women started on their own, bitterly running down the CSB. Now the CSB owners not doing them any favors. Will be interesting what happens in Halifax, although I believe Wanderers Grounds is municipality owned.

All too simplistic , I know, but it would be nice to see all Canada Soccer parties work together for once.

[Colonel Green]

9 hours ago, Ivan said:

Will be interesting what happens in Halifax, although I believe Wanderers Grounds is municipality owned.

Yes, it’s municipal land. But more to the point, the Wanderers should be aligning with the women’s team to bolster their case for the permanent stadium that they are trying to get built.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

16 hours ago, Big_M said:

spruce meadows and cavalry are owned by the southern family

...who probably thought they had obtained guaranteed exclusivity from the CSA on pro soccer in Calgary when they invested in CanPL and CSB so I doubt they are thrilled about a new pro soccer team emerging in a more accessible downtown location. My recollection is that back around 2015 or so it was CSEC (owners of the Flames and Stampeders) that were rumoured to be the probable Calgary investors in the CFL-oriented league Victor Montagliani was planning linked into a solo 2026 WC bid. Not sure why that would have ultimately changed by the time CanPL launched and what their level of interest in having a pro-soccer co-tenant is at this point but I suspect the relationship between CSEC and the Foothills will need to be a strong and harmonious one for the NSL team to have any hope of being successful.

Edited June 2 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[shermanator]

21 hours ago, Ivan said:

Is that what Cavalry pay? Or, I thought one of the owners of Cavalry (Sothern) was involved with Spruce Meadows?

Spruce Meadows own Cavalry and own the stadium. It is one of a few stadiums on their complex that has been there for 50 years. They have plans to build a 12000 seat stadium on the complex when they outgrow the current one, although that will be many years away.

18 hours ago, Ivan said:

Then that really is too bad. I guess it all started when CSB couldn't get a women's league going fast enough. Then the women started on their own, bitterly running down the CSB. Now the CSB owners not doing them any favors. Will be interesting what happens in Halifax, although I believe Wanderers Grounds is municipality owned.

All too simplistic , I know, but it would be nice to see all Canada Soccer parties work together for once.

My understanding is that CPL was pretty taken aback when Project 8 was announced and I can see why there would be some friction between the two. I imagine Spruce Meadows didn't really want to share the stadium given their struggles with maintaining the pitch at times so asked for an outrageous amount of money for rent.

Couldn't make the launch event of the Wild but from everyone I talked to it was a very different vibe than the Cavalry launch. Feels like the two clubs exist for very different reasons; one is a true community club that exists to give women in the game something to aspire to, and the other exists to help the Southern's not fund Spruce Meadows with their own money.

Publicly Cavalry was supportive of the launch as Tommy and Marco were there along with Mason Trafford and Tofa Fakunle from the front office so hopefully they are actually pulling in the same direction. Not sure what Spruce Meadows really thinks though...

Edited June 2 by shermanator

[shermanator]

 

[Mihairokov]

I like the colours of AFC Toronto but I think my fondness with the identity stops there, unfortunately.

[mtlfan]

1 hour ago, Mihairokov said:

I like the colours of AFC Toronto but I think my fondness with the identity stops there, unfortunately.

I dislike the colours

[Ansem]

On 6/1/2024 at 11:08 PM, Ivan said:

Then that really is too bad. I guess it all started when CSB couldn't get a women's league going fast enough. Then the women started on their own, bitterly running down the CSB. Now the CSB owners not doing them any favors. Will be interesting what happens in Halifax, although I believe Wanderers Grounds is municipality owned.

All too simplistic , I know, but it would be nice to see all Canada Soccer parties work together for once.

I'm not sure I understand the whole "doing them a favor" part. CPL isn't profitable as it is, why should they (a private entity) be the only onedoing favors? Will the broadcasters do NSL any favors when the lowball them on a media deal? Will municipalities do them a favor for renting their facilities? 

Yeah, a bit too simplistic and their business model most likely isn't based on getting "favors"

Edited June 3 by Ansem

[Cblake]

When will the NSL and all the teams get their own section on this board, time to move the conversation out of the national team section, don't you think?

[red card]

15 hours ago, shermanator said:

 

Wonder if RiseUp is linked to Toronto band Parachute Club.

 

[Rocket Robin]

All the audio from the post game press conferences and player interviews after the Tue June 4/24 Women's Friendly between Canada and Mexico game in Toronto. I asked both coaches and Shelina Zadorsky a question about the new Northern Super League 

 http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports24/24cana01.htm

[SoccMan]

What stadium will the Toronto team play in ?

[narduch]

39 minutes ago, SoccMan said:

What stadium will the Toronto team play in ?

I was wondering this too.

Was it mentioned at their big press conference?

[SoccMan]

2 hours ago, narduch said:

I was wondering this too.

Was it mentioned at their big press conference?

I’m not sure , but have heard rumours it might be Lamport. 

[Mihairokov]

4 hours ago, SoccMan said:

I’m not sure , but have heard rumours it might be Lamport. 

If this turns out to be the case i'd like to see how they finance the renovations to the facility. It's in disrepair at the moment and even when Wolfpack were playing there it was not up to a high standard. I'm not sure what else their options would be throughout the city. Like a lot of the news with this league i'm hesitant about the financials required.

Edited June 10 by Mihairokov

[narduch]

1 hour ago, Mihairokov said:

If this turns out to be the case i'd like to see how they finance the renovations to the facility. It's in disrepair at the moment and even when Wolfpack were playing there it was not up to a high standard. I'm not sure what else their options would be throughout the city. Like a lot of the news with this league i'm hesitant about the financials required.

I can't find it now, but apparently a few weeks ago Mayor Chow had mentioned helping out the Toronto team with its stadium. Centennial and Lamport were mentioned. 

However nothing was concrete.

My prediction is they will play at York Lions

[narduch]

 

 

[shermanator]

Great for the league to get exposure on TSN and CBC, which hopefully leads to more butts in seats at the end of the day. I would be surprised if any TV money comes into the league but maybe NSL is more valuable to these networks than CPL.

Also maybe this means that games won't just be called and covered out of a broom closet in Toronto...

Feels like NSL is building this league the right way. Can't wait to check it out.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

On 6/10/2024 at 5:07 PM, SoccMan said:

What stadium will the Toronto team play in ?

Thought Lamport was the plan? Didn't the city council recently vote to look into preparing for it?

[red card]

3 hours ago, shermanator said:

Great for the league to get exposure on TSN and CBC, which hopefully leads to more butts in seats at the end of the day. I would be surprised if any TV money comes into the league but maybe NSL is more valuable to these networks than CPL.

Also maybe this means that games won't just be called and covered out of a broom closet in Toronto...

Feels like NSL is building this league the right way. Can't wait to check it out.

PWHL didn't receive any rights money and paid for production. So, it's the same for NSL as Matheson has said she was going to follow PWHL model.

CBC is also too underfunded to pay for sports after doling out for the Olympics. It's low viewership base skewing over 65 means ad revenues have also fallen. With the significant drop in subs, TSN doesn't pay for tier 2 or lower Canadian sports properties. At best, TSN offers an ad revenue share deal. But if the league doesn't bring new advertiser spend, TSN will kill the deal as they did with CHL.

NSL is handling production. So, other than Montreal, it will depend on their budget if they'll have commentators on location. They could go the CEBL route by using locally-based commentators but it does lead to uneven quality. The majority of football that is available to watch today is done remotely. 

Edited June 11 by red card

[Mihairokov]

44 minutes ago, red card said:

But if the league doesn't bring new advertiser spend, TSN will kill the deal as they did with CHL.

Is this in reference to their current deal or their previous deal?

Agreed on the rest, though. It's a great expense to self-produce all of these matches, especially as stadiums are less suited for it than hockey arenas typically are. Fascinated to see how this works out but it's coming at a significant investment/loss...