Initial B

Bought my Season Tickets last Friday, so they're available. Made use of the OneSoccer subscription that came with the package to catch the Canada-Haiti game as well.

Bought my Season Tickets last Friday, so they're available. Made use of the OneSoccer subscription that came with the package to catch the Canada-Haiti game as well.

After listening to both podcasts, it sounds like the Canadian Pyramid will be siloed for the foreseeable future. CanPL will be the National Level of play, with the 2nd Div playing out of the prairies, and the regional 3rd divisions comprising of BCRT3, L1O, and PLSQ. I don't see pro-rel happening any time soon, but I could see lower division teams that are ambitious playing whatever fees to join the league above whenever they feel ready, and hopefully they'll be welcomed.  

After listening to both podcasts, it sounds like the Canadian Pyramid will be siloed for the foreseeable future. CanPL will be the National Level of play, with the 2nd Div playing out of the prairies, and the regional 3rd divisions comprising of BCRT3, L1O, and PLSQ. I don't see pro-rel happening any time soon, but I could see lower division teams that are ambitious playing whatever fees to join the league above whenever they feel ready, and hopefully they'll be welcomed.  

I'm hoping that things will be more normalized by the time late summer rolls around so we can go see these games at Lansdowne. I really want to be able to purchase season tickets when they become available.

After listening to both podcasts, it sounds like the Canadian Pyramid will be siloed for the foreseeable future. CanPL will be the National Level of play, with the 2nd Div playing out of the prairies, and the regional 3rd divisions comprising of BCRT3, L1O, and PLSQ. I don't see pro-rel happening any time soon, but I could see lower division teams that are ambitious playing whatever fees to join the league above whenever they feel ready, and hopefully they'll be welcomed.  

After listening to both podcasts, it sounds like the Canadian Pyramid will be siloed for the foreseeable future. CanPL will be the National Level of play, with the 2nd Div playing out of the prairies, and the regional 3rd divisions comprising of BCRT3, L1O, and PLSQ. I don't see pro-rel happening any time soon, but I could see lower division teams that are ambitious playing whatever fees to join the league above whenever they feel ready, and hopefully they'll be welcomed.  

After listening to both podcasts, it sounds like the Canadian Pyramid will be siloed for the foreseeable future. CanPL will be the National Level of play, with the 2nd Div playing out of the prairies, and the regional 3rd divisions comprising of BCRT3, L1O, and PLSQ. I don't see pro-rel happening any time soon, but I could see lower division teams that are ambitious playing whatever fees to join the league above whenever they feel ready, and hopefully they'll be welcomed.  

They shouldn't worry about the "next" Coupland when they haven't made use of the "current" Coupland.  CPL has nothing going for it for senior players, its these younger kids that should be getting major minutes so that they can be sold to Europe.  He's 18 in December and has played 46 minutes in CPL..  

So just spit-balling here, but I'm wondering if this is a possible breakdown of a squad based on what we know:
Assuming an average club player salary total of $750,000 for 23 roster spots. A team might have 4 young players on U-sports contracts ($10-12k) for a total of about $44,000. The team might also have another 4 players on the league minimum ($22-26k) for another $96,000. That would leave $610,000 to distribute among 15 player contracts, which would average out to about $40,000 per player. That sounds respectable, but I'd expect the salary range of Gameday List players to be be broken down further, with 3 bench players earning $30k each, 4 fringe starters earning $35k each, 4 regular starters earning $40k each, 2 veteran starters earning $50k each, and 2 star players earning $60k each. In my mind, that's a team respectable quality in their starters, which drops off the further down the depth chart you go.

If CPL fails we are done imo. Certainly in my lifetime.
I don't think some of the accusations being thrown at the CPL are likely unjust and the probably have merit. However I think there is a thin line with trying to force change now before systems get more deeply imbedded and also not bringing the entire house down around us. 
Hot take; There are some people advocating for just change while other are happy to just make noise, highlight themselves for their own agendas without a damn about the consequence. The CPL needs to succeed imo and if it doesn't it will be hard for any investors, fans or the soccer/footballing world to take any future attempts seriously.
From the outside it seems that it will take the CPL to come down off their high horse and both listen then work with the D2 Stakeholders/CSA and Players Union if we want to truly keep the game moving forward as they have dragged it to now.
It is a fragile glass house due to the pandemic and the leagues infancy but we are still at a good point to build strong foundations not cheap rotting ones that are festering out of sight that make it the same problematic system as so many of the other tired leagues and institutions around the world.
 

I've been away for a while, but still giving thought about how a CPL2 would run. Maybe we're looking at it the wrong way - what is the purpose of Pro-Rel? In my mind, it's to give a chance for ambitious lower-tier clubs a vehicle to realize their ambitions while providing a safe landing space for struggling top-tier clubs to regroup and stabilize themselves before making another run to the top.
Financially, some of the biggest expenses in Canada compared to other leagues is the travel costs and accommodations required due to the long distances between clubs. In my mind, there are three levels of travel that each have a significant jump in costs.
The lowest level of travel is local (example - Ottawa Carleton Soccer League): Away game locations are no more than 2 hours away and no accommodations are required. Clubs should get used to travelling by bus as a team to build that expense into their operating budget. This is the level where clubs get their feet wet and can decide if they want to take the next step up. Pro-Rel is not formally codified at this level, you pay fees to move up or down the next level. Clubs should look at means of revenue such as sponsorships and gate receipts. The problem is, there is hardly any recognition at the local level that the talent is worth paying to watch or sponsor except as a tax write-off, so it's a struggle to make the next step until you've built up enough local awareness that you actually have paying fans attending games.
The next level of travel is regional (example - League1 Ontario): Away game locations may be up to 8-12 hours away (meaning more expensive bus travel) and require overnight accommodations. This will require another jump in the operational budget of clubs and they should get used to the costs at this level of play before aspiring to move further up the ladder. At this level, you *must* have sponsorship and stadium gate receipts in order to pay players and other operational costs.
The highest level of travel is National (example - Canadian Premiere League): Away game locations will require air travel, which is another magnitude of cost above that of bus travel. Accommodation standards will also be higher due to the expectations of the higher calibre of player at this level. At this level TV contracts need to be added to the revenue stream to offset the plane tickets. Where a National level club is geographically located also has an impact on the travel costs (York9 has cheaper costs than Pacific) so this has to be taken into account by investors as well.
So how to create a level financial playing field? I would suggest that the league will need to pay for the travel of all clubs (leaving clubs the accommodations portion), with any leftover money split between the clubs for their own use. A team relegated to a regional league can offset the financial blow by choosing cheaper hotels for their players in order to use the saved funds to charter buses. 
Are there any other means to soften the blow for relegated clubs so it doesn't mean their immediate destruction?

2-0 HFX as the keeper gets chipped on an AO mistake. I guess that's going to be it.

If this Australian model is being considered for Canada, then I think what might be best is to have separated regional leagues, say: BC, Prairies, Ontario, and Quebec/Maritimes. Have the regions play out their seasons and be finished by mid-August. Then have the top 2 teams from each region play a single-game round robin against each other (7 games total and finishing mid-October) to simulate the financial realities of what an entire season of CPL play would be like. The top two teams from that competition would meet in a championship home-and-away set of matches with the winner being considered the Canadian Regional Champion with a trophy and all. This competition could later be used to provide a candidate for promotion if they ever institute pro-rel with the CPL.
If that is too onerous for some clubs, then just have 4 regional champions play 6 home-and-away matches to determine the Canadian Regional champion. Regardless of the method used, the entire season would have to be done before Halloween if they don't want games to be snowed out.

I just wanted to bump this because I'm so happy that we beat Cavalry for our first win. I was getting frustrated by the red cards and late collapses, but I think AO has a good chance to take 4th place.

I just wanted to bump this because I'm so happy that we beat Cavalry for our first win. I was getting frustrated by the red cards and late collapses, but I think AO has a good chance to take 4th place.

I just wanted to bump this because I'm so happy that we beat Cavalry for our first win. I was getting frustrated by the red cards and late collapses, but I think AO has a good chance to take 4th place.

TFC vs Impact happens at 8pm Friday. that's probably why there's nothing scheduled. But then again, with the unrest in the States right now games might not happen anyways.

Just another reason as to why CanPL salaries would be in Canadian dollars: It insulates the clubs from the exchange rate fluctuations that bedevil most Canadian teams playing in mostly american leagues. Remember when the USD was at par with the CAD? I heard MLSE bought up $1billion USD to provide a cushion for future price fluctuations for the Leafs and Raptors.

Just another reason as to why CanPL salaries would be in Canadian dollars: It insulates the clubs from the exchange rate fluctuations that bedevil most Canadian teams playing in mostly american leagues. Remember when the USD was at par with the CAD? I heard MLSE bought up $1billion USD to provide a cushion for future price fluctuations for the Leafs and Raptors.

But remember that $750K CDN is about $573K USD, so CanPL is not *that* much better paid than USL-C. I guess one of the attractions would be the possibility of playing international games in CL, which isn't possible for a second division.

But remember that $750K CDN is about $573K USD, so CanPL is not *that* much better paid than USL-C. I guess one of the attractions would be the possibility of playing international games in CL, which isn't possible for a second division.

I think the worst part of the deleted tweet was where they said something along the lines of "Football without Ultras is nothing."
I desk-palmed (or is that face-desked?) when I read the tweet. Like we need even more CanPL fans to disdain us. Luckily it looks like the mainstream media didn't pick up on this, or we'd probably be at Onion-levels of embarrassing by this point.

I think the worst part of the deleted tweet was where they said something along the lines of "Football without Ultras is nothing."
I desk-palmed (or is that face-desked?) when I read the tweet. Like we need even more CanPL fans to disdain us. Luckily it looks like the mainstream media didn't pick up on this, or we'd probably be at Onion-levels of embarrassing by this point.

I think the worst part of the deleted tweet was where they said something along the lines of "Football without Ultras is nothing."
I desk-palmed (or is that face-desked?) when I read the tweet. Like we need even more CanPL fans to disdain us. Luckily it looks like the mainstream media didn't pick up on this, or we'd probably be at Onion-levels of embarrassing by this point.