What Once Was: Remembering the CSL

Call up our best players available. Period. Whether they're in Europe, North America, Africa... wherever.  I do understand this is only possible if the tournament happens during a FIFA date. Which we can only hope for considering its an 8 team qualification. 

Just saw the Thomas goal on the Sports hilight show, right after Whitecaps match hilights

As long as these kind of kids are found and not missed by a pro club we’re trending in the right direction.

It’s pretty disgusting like we talk about missing guys well let’s be real here we probably have 5-6 guys across the country at least who are being left out because they are at the academy. No way do those 3 teams carry our best 30 players.

And the MLS teams are now all in USSDA leagues, which means it will make it even harder (at least in Ontario, it's already been like this for years for Montreal and Vancouver) to compare players from outside the MLS academies to those that aren't in academy setups. Hopefully CPL can one day rectify this "3 team all-star team" problem by at the very least getting more academy systems out there and greatly increase the geographical footprint of pro academy set ups. Maybe the CSA would be comfortable with at least scouting those teams as well. Plus, with CPL teams actually playing Canadian players in large numbers, it might be more attractive to some players than MLS academies, so you might not get cases of players avoiding them when they already live in the area.

The weather explanation for low attendance is closely tied to the fact that the fan base for these teams is still relatively small and the importance of the games is not yet felt to the degree it is for other more established teams/leagues. It's not yet "can't miss" for most people. From reading these boards it sounds like if the game isn't being played in a temperature range of between 22 and 28 degrees with clear skies, and not at the same time as another sporting event, and not at the right time of day or the right day of the week, that makes it perfectly fine that attendance is small. I don't think, say, NFL teams or EPL teams have those same constraints. My thoughts have always been that the attendance is what it is in year 1. It sets the bar and we hope it improves (but it's very possible attendance will dip after year 1, like we saw with MLS, after the novelty factor wears off).

Friendly Arfield starts for Rangers against Blackburn, Leutwiler starts on the otherside  Scotland Wotherspoon starts for St. Johnstone against Ross County, Harry Paton is in the Ross County bench

I hadn't heard of him before this morning, but according to this he is a midfielder. https://www.ottawafuryfc.com/antoine-coupland

I voted York 9 for empty seats, and running track keeping fans away. I didn't really factor this in, but the fact it's a smaller field sort of plays into a negative experience too. I haven't watched a ton of Pacific home games, but the angle hasn't bothered me too much, and I like how close the crowd is to the field.

I don't know how this doesn't count as "fact", but it seems like either everyone here disregarded this or didn't see it. Maybe they had BBTB blocked a year ago when this article came out. This is the article he is referring to, and the relevant part is a quote from someone who says they have spoken with the CPL on this. https://lfpress.com/sports/soccer/will-london-build-a-downtown-sports-stadium-its-a-possibility “There was the franchise fee, which is in the millions. Then there was the expectation that there would be money lost in the first few years,” Campbell said.