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.

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.

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.

I'm happy to see some salary numbers that look promising. That said, $40k average on 23 roster spots is $920,000, which is higher than the cap allows for player salaries per club. At $750k per team, the average should be closer to $32k/player, which is still better than the $25k I was expecting.

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?

Is there any chance at all of MLS and CPL reaching an agreement where, for 2021 only, the MTL/TOR/VAN MLS clubs play in CPL for the season until the border COVID issues are settled?

I was thinking more in terms of advertising revenue from data analytics. OneSoccer won't be able to ask for as high fees if they aren't getting eyeballs from the 5million+ people in the GTA. One of the reasons why the league needs teams in big 3 markets so they can raise their fees based on market penetration.

Rather than cluttering up the Pro-Rel thread, I thought I'd create a new thread as I was thinking up this thought experiment: Let's say that prior to WC2026, CPL has improved to the point where the salary cap is now around $2million CAD. CONCACAF then rules that the Canadian MLS teams must join the CPL starting in 2027. However, the 3 MLS clubs are either exempt from the Salary Cap or the CPL salary cap is abolished. What would be the short-term (1-5 years) and long-term (10-20 years) effects of that decision? Things to consider: Effect on parity Effect on quality Possible lawsuits by various parties Canadian player/infrastructure development Club viability Supporter/Fan Culture Media contracts and Canadian Soccer Business (CSB) Public awareness FIFA/CONCACAF influence Let me know if anyone thinks there are other factors that I'm missing and I'll add them to this list. Honestly, I haven't given this as much thought as maybe I should considering how much I this "this can/can't happen because of <X>." Still, we probably have a fair bit of expertise in various fields in this forum that we might be able to put out something comparable to the Easton Report. 😉

This result is a bit of a disaster for York 9 and the media contract, since there is no team continuing to attract eyeballs in the GTA. Unfortunately Brennan probably isn't going anywhere since he's also a part owner. Hopefully they'll be able to convince their fan-base that they made concrete improvement in the off-season or they will be hemorrhaging money next season with sparsely attended games. Other than Paulus, I don't see the rest of the organizations sacking their coach since it was fairly even, with positions 2 through 7 separated only by 4 points.

Welp, I don't see Paulus being coach next season. Probably for the best as they need a re-think of what it takes to compete in this league.

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

This is my hope, too. Except that I hope they force the D3 clubs to travel to the different home cities of the clubs than have them in one place. Those clubs will need to show they have the financial backing to cope with the additional operational cost strain of being promoted to D2. We agree up to here. Maybe in Toronto they could get the Wolfpack Owners to start a team up out of Lamport Stadium to provide an additional revenue stream. And we always seem to disagree on this point. 😜 Teams can be forced into another league, but there has to be a comparable league to go into. The Fury had the CPL as an option, which was comparable to USLC. As much as we may not like it, CPL is never going to have the same level of operational and salary costs as MLS. They can also argue that there is precedent with Swansea and Cardiff in the EFL Championship instead of the Welsh 1st Division. There is also Wellington Phoenix in the A-League and Monaco in Ligue 1. TFC has the additional wrinkle that their owners use the club to generate additional media content for their business. They could argue that the request would create undo hardship on their company. I don't see the Whitecaps or Impact as having that much ownership ambition and I think they might consider moving to the CPL at some point. TFC would probably only ever consider it if they were under another company than MLSE and the Bell/Rogers consortium.

Yeah, I could see that. He could stay as General Manager or some sort of VP while they get a coach that can work with what FCE can give them.

I'd love to see AO get through. I'm listening over the radio right now. Sounds like the game is fairly even right now. Radio streaming link here