Covering Edmonton next year, story ideas

[Jeremy Loome]

Hehehe. It's been pretty heavily debated, actually. I think the consensus is that it's a combination of three things: Luck, Alberta and Winning. They were lucky that the Women's U-19s came at a time of summer when everybody wants to go out and enjoy the fantastic weather and, with tickets being cheap enough, they had a massive stadium to play in.

They staged it in Alberta, which is (having spent extensive time in all but Newfoundland) by far the most nationalistic province. You could stage the world tiddlywings championship in Edmonton and draw 20,000, as long as people were wearing Maple Leaves and you had heroes and villains.

And they won. Canada loves winners, hates losers -- or even also rans. It's a point of national pride. We're second only to the Americans, I think, in gaining strength from asserting our sense of national identity, and sports is one of the few areas in which Canada isn't confused by that identity. That's largely thanks to hockey and running, both of which have convinced us over the last 20 years that we CAN win at anything.

Look at some other examples; the Expos were contenders for 20 or so years. Now, a club that drew reasonably well for that 20 years (remember, the club is nearly 40 now), can't draw flies.

Why? Nearly 40 years, no National League Pennant, No World Series berth. Nobody in Canada will support a loser forever, particularly when they think the sport conspired to kill off their two best shots, both due to player strikes.

And look how we cheer a winner: after the Gold Cup in 2000, Canada's WC qualifier in Edmonton drew a walkup crowd of 25,000 here. Why? Canada's national team + WInning = Fanbase. It's that simple. The Edmonton Minor Soccer Association was so overwhelmed by the turnout for that game that they'd only opened two ticket windows and had to issue credit card receipts by hand. Half the crowd missed half the game. But we still stood in the rain for 45 minutes to get in for the second half. Why? We figured Canada might actually win.('Course, the fact that Dwight Yorke was playing at his peak with Man Utd. didn't hurt, either.)

If they'd staged the Women's World Cup here this year, the stadium would sell out for every Canadian game and probably a good chunk of the other games as well.

Of course, all of this only really applies at the national level. But the downside is that as a result, events that aren't on the national stage suffer from a sense of social disproportion, an unrealistic sense of entitlement from the fans: we assume that because we can win a gold in hockey or sprinting that everything we watch should be world-class. So, the Expos suffer, soccer suffers, small market hockey suffers.

The tradeoff there is success and community size. If your team wins, or is realistically the best quality of franchise you could get, they'll back you. Otherwise, forget it. Though it sounds cynical, this formula applies to all of Canada's biggest successes and most notable flops.

Look at examples on the positive side: Edmonton and Regina are considerably more separated from the American media influence than Toronto, which is just a hop away from Buffalo, NY. As a result, the Eskies and Riders are the best games in town. Torontonians won't care about football again until they get the NFL or are sold on the idea that the CFL is a world-class league.

Ditto with the Expos in Montreal. Build them a world-class "throwback" style stadium like Jacob's Field and put it in downtown Montreal, and spend some serious money on players, and you'll get 35,000 fans again. These two cities, in particular, consider themselves World Class. Vancouver pretty much falls into that category as well. So they simply won't support small-market style clubs of any sort.

Soccer, however, has one thing going for it that gives me optimism for the future and allows it to thrive in places like Montreal and Vancouver: a huge ethnic base that knows the game and can teach it to others. We're all from somewhere else in this country, if you go back two or three generations. My Dad was born in Chelsea and lived about three blocks from where Stamford Bridge is now. I spent my first dozen years living an hour from London. My sports editor's name is Mario Annichiarrico. Who do you think he rooted for in the last World Cup? In other words, to some extent soccer can work anywhere.

So, it has a lot going for it. Combine that with cheap products, winning records and nationalism and you have an unbeatable combination.

It will be interesting, I think, to see how the two new pro teams do in Edmonton next year. The tie to the local youth market is essential. But I do tend to think they'll do extremely well in Edmonton. If they can find somewhere decent to play in Calgary, maybe we can get a proper rivarly going and they'll be rejuvenated there as well. I'm actually really optimistic about all of this.

The one thing that could upend things would be the creation of an all-Canadian division. It's far too early to be talking about that, as some commentators have. Club owners who are looking at a potentially rocky few years of establishment don't need 3 million miles worth of travel bills in the early going, and it makes much more sense to build rivalries between Montreal/Rochester and Vancouver/Seattle.

That isn't to say we couldn't have more Canadian teams. It just makes sense early on to keep them regional. Eventually, I'd like to see North American soccer accept the European modal, add the top eight USL teams to MLS and change all the names to First Division, Second Division etc. etc.

Anyway, I've started rambling. This is what happens when you catch me on a day off.

[strobe_z]

You make some interesting points, and your comment about us asserting our sense of national identity through sports is particularly profound. It's somewhat refreshing to just strap on the white and red and know who and what to cheer for. I'm not sure I agree with you that we think we can win anything... in fact personally I wonder if it's not the opposite. I often feel the pain and frustration of wondering if we can in fact ever win anything. You'd think being a Canadian National Team Soccer Fan would de-sensitize you to that, but no. A good example is the Canadian Men's Basketball team's loss to Puerto Rico... we can't even GET to the Olympics.

I'll stay away from comments about Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver's lack of support for "second class" teams, or I'll start choking again at Gerry Dobson's SoccerCentral comments about how an MLS team would be good for Canadian soccer... I simply can't believe that putting an MLS teams would do anything except a)benefit the people of Toronto and b)kill and and all chance of having a true Canadian league. It'll be a LONG time before MLS expansion would hit Edmonton, Calgary or Winnipeg I'd imagine.

I will say though that on paper you'd think that soccer would benefit from our National Mosaic of cultures... but I've rarely seen that in practice. Mario Annichiarrico may like soccer and have been supporting Italy at the World Cup... but does he care at all at how the Canadian team is doing? (not a specific comment.. just a generalization). MLS is still struggling in the USA, but they can pack in 70,000 people in Seattle to watch ManU v. Celtic? Euro elitism is still prevalent. I know many many "soccer fans" who couldn't care less about the Canadian national team. If Beckham gets a haircut they know all about it, but couldn't name one player on the Canadian Nat's. Personally I find that EXTREMELY frustrating.

I'm holding my breath and hoping that the Edmonton team starts with a strong fan-base, and I'm all set to go buy my season's tickets. I didn't support indoor soccer here as I didn't enjoy it and thought we'd never get an outdoor team if we still had an indoor one, but I'm all set to go now. A strong Edmonton team would go a long way towards the formation of a Canadian division/league.

Cheers.

[DarnCherry]

quote:Originally posted by Jeremy Loome

Vancouver pretty much falls into that category as well. So they simply won't support small-market style clubs of any sort.

What the hell is this piece of claptrap? Vancouver doesn't support our small-market style clubs? Evidence?

[Andrew W]

Wouldn't the Whitecaps be considered that "small market type of club"? What about the Vancouver Giants major junior hockey franchise? From all reports it's a raging success.

Vancouver does just fine in that respect. Because the minor league ball team was yanked by the parent club and put in Sacramento doesn't mean the team was unsupported. The laid-back, recreation-oriented lifestyle is too often mistaken for indifference.

[DarnCherry]

quote:Originally posted by Andrew W

Wouldn't the Whitecaps be considered that "small market type of club"? What about the Vancouver Giants major junior hockey franchise? From all reports it's a raging success.

Vancouver does just fine in that respect. Because the minor league ball team was yanked by the parent club and put in Sacramento doesn't mean the team was unsupported. The laid-back, recreation-oriented lifestyle is too often mistaken for indifference.

I'll add, that once our AAA baseball team was yanked (not for lack of support but because there was a nice new modern baseball stadium waiting for them in Sacramento) it was replaced by a single A short season baseball team, also named the Canadians. They just finished the season the second best average in the NWBL with 3606 fans per game (with a crummy record to boot).

The Giants must have averaged close to or just over 5000 per game last season, and if you want to add CFL to the mix the Lions are averaging 21522 this season. Thats not bad for a team playing all of their games indoors during this heatwave, and has played a couple of games head to head against the Whitecaps, who averaged 4292 fans this season. Not Montreal like A-League numbers but not bad for a team with one of the larger average individual ticket prices in the league with no discounts for kids.

[Andrew W]

And not to mention the fact that both the Whitecaps and Canadians play in Burnaby, not Vancouver. Let us also add that the area supported the Churchill Cup rugby tournament (where Canada sucked an egg) and the LPGA tournament in strong numbers.

I think, in legal terms, one would say "the defence rests."