Rocket Robin Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 CPSL HAS A NEW LOOK Laval Dynamites out VAUGHAN--Friday, March 12--It’s a new-look CPSL. Eleven teams without Laval Dynamites will launch the seventh season of the Canadian Professional Soccer League with the first league game between Vaughan Shooters and Durham Region on FieldTurf at The Soccer Centre on Monday, May 24. That’s the Victoria Day holiday weekend when the league will also kickoff its popular Open Canada Cup competition with the Preliminary Round, the first of four holiday weekend rounds leading to the Open Canada Cup Final on Labour Day, September 6. These and other details are being released by the CPSL this week, to be followed by the complete 2004 schedule of 110 regular season league games during the week of March 15. Vaughan Shooters is new—it’s the same team with a new name, a blend of the Vaughan Sun Devils of last year and the umbrella organization York Region Shooters. Durham has a new team and will soon have a new name—that’s new. A new group headed by former Durham Region District president John O’Neill replaces last year’s Durham Flames. O’Neill purchased the Mississauga Olympians franchise from owner David Gee and relocated the team to the vast region east of Toronto. Gee has been a prominent and successful owner since the league launched in 1998. The Soccer Centre as a CPSL venue is new—both Vaughan Shooters and North York Astros will be using a ground on the site of the popular $10.6 million facility located in Woodbridge just north of Toronto. It opened in 1998 as the most expensive single soccer project in Canada’s history. That’s also the year the CPSL launched. FieldTurf in the CPSL is new—for the first time Canada’s only complete professional soccer league will by playing on the FIFA-approved synthetic. This will be the first full season on the new surface, laid at a cost of $600,000 last August, a joint venture between the Ontario and Canadian governing soccer bodies. Laval Dynamites are out—that’s new. The Quebec-based team ran out of time in bringing things together for the new season. Faced with ground renovations and other problems, the team just ran out of time and was eliminated from the schedule. Vincent Ursini, president of the CPSL, explained the league’s position recently: “We regret losing any team, and especially from Quebec, but as I indicated late last year we intend to keep to our deadlines and could not make an exception with Laval Dynamites. We just had to move on,” he said. The Quebec team is expected to take part in the Open Canada Cup. Border Stars is new—an entry from Windsor and surrounding area will be playing games at Windsor Stadium and one or two just over the border in neighboring Michigan. The CPSL season will be almost five months long, ending with the playoffs for the Rogers Cup League Championship final game on Thanksgiving Day, October 11. EASTERN CONFERENCE: Durham, Metro Lions, North York Astros, Toronto Supra, Vaughan Shooters. WESTERN CONFERENCE: Brampton Hitmen, Hamilton Thunder, London City, St. Catharines Wolves, Toronto Croatia, Border Stars (Windsor). For more information, please contact Stan Adamson at (905) 856-5439 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 Two conferences? - that's stupid North York playing at the Soccer Centre? What??? Why??? - that's stupid The Windsor team known simply as "Border Stars"? - that's stupid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Sigma How far is the Soccer Centre from North York? About 15 km from Esther Shiner Stadium. It's in Vaughan so now we'll have North York playing in Vaughan, Toronto Croatia playing in Mississauga, Windsor playing some games in another country... I guess the idea behind this move is so that North York and Vaughan don't have to play at city-owned facilities. [?] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.T. Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 Didn't I read somewhere that Esther Shiner is converting to Fieldturf? Maybe it's not ready yet and that's why the Astros are playing at the Soccer Centre. And it's about a 10 second drive outside of North York. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonfan Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 does anyone have any pictures and can tell me how many people Soccer Centre can hold? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 quote:Originally posted by L.T. Didn't I read somewhere that Esther Shiner is converting to Fieldturf? Maybe it's not ready yet and that's why the Astros are playing at the Soccer Centre. I have no idea, but you're probably more aware of these things than I am. quote:And it's about a 10 second drive outside of North York.Okay, I see what you're getting at, but the border is actually about 2.5 km away so how fast do you drive? [] For the sake of Sigma, the point is that North York spans a large area (well, it used to when it was an actual city) and the Soccer Centre is not far from the northwest corner but Esther Shiner is near the middle. quote:Originally posted by hamiltonfan does anyone have any pictures and can tell me how many people Soccer Centre can hold? Thanks Go here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.T. Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 Okay, now I'm confused, I never did fully grasp the 'official' borders of North York (maybe that's why so many of their youth teams have residency violation issues) Whatever the reason, I'm near Kipling & Langstaff, so 20 or so CPSL games will be just down the street!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket Robin Posted March 13, 2004 Author Share Posted March 13, 2004 Border Stars not having the name Windsor/Detroit? Smart? Since the team will play some of their games in each city they'd want to build up their market without limiting their options. If people on this board think it's stupid that Toronto Croatia play in Mississauga and North York Astros play in Vaughan, they'll also think Windsor BorderStars playing in Detroit is stupid too. (oh I see they already do). I just think there may not be a lot of cross border crossing of fans if the line up at the bridge between the two cities is an hour long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted March 14, 2004 Share Posted March 14, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack Actually, if you went south on Martin Grove, from the Soccer Centre, once you pass Steeles, you'd be in Etobicoke. Yes, that was my point. Once you reach Steeles you turn left until you reach the Humber River, which is (well, was) the border between Etobicoke and North York. The total distance down Martin Grove and across Steeles is about 2.5 km. quote:Originally posted by Rocket Robin Border Stars not having the name Windsor/Detroit? Smart? Since the team will play some of their games in each city they'd want to build up their market without limiting their options. The article above says they will play only one or two games in Michigan, so that's not really representing Michigan (it's more like the Montreal Impact playing a couple of games in Quebec City and Sherbrooke). I doubt this team will attract any attention from Detroit. Not using "Windsor" in their name isn't going to make a difference. This is just another case of the CPSL thinking they are bigger than they really are. quote:If people on this board think it's stupid that Toronto Croatia play in Mississauga and North York Astros play in Vaughan, they'll also think Windsor BorderStars playing in Detroit is stupid too. (oh I see they already do).It's not "people on this board" who said that, it was only me. You know that I have supported the league over the last few years (I was even patient through the CPSL Open Cup scandal last year). This isn't the usual CPSL bashing. It's coming from someone who has cared about the league for a while now. The CPSL took several steps forward (eg. expansion, television show, Open Cup) in 2001, 2002 and the start of 2003 that I thought were impressive for a league at this level. But, in my opinion, almost everything has been a backwards step since then. Last season was particularly horrible, yet I maintained hope that things would improve. But I don't like the way 2004 is starting off. Besides, my team is leaving its home stadium, which was already difficult enough for me to get to, and is moving to one that is no longer within the geographical region it represents and is even more difficult for me to get to --- even if there is a good reason for this, who wouldn't be upset? But let me get back to the two-conference thing again. I just noticed that there are to be a total of 110 regular season games. With 11 teams that works out to 20 games each, so I assume that each team will play each other team twice. In other words, a balanced schedule. So what is the purpose of two conferences??? What are they going to do, give playoff spots to the top three teams in each conference? That would be completely stupid. With a balanced schedule it should be a single table with the top 6 qualifying for the playoffs (well, really there shouldn't be playoffs at all, but fat chance that's going to change). I just don't get why they wouldn't go back to the single table they had prior to 2001 when they were last able to have a balanced schedule. (Thinking while I was writing all of that: why do I expect more, this is the CPSL I'm talking about!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket Robin Posted March 14, 2004 Author Share Posted March 14, 2004 I hadn't counted the games in the schedule so I wasn't thinking the schedule would be balanced. If it is then I'd agree with one big division. Splitting them up could result in an NBA problem where there'll be a good three sub .500 teams make the playoffs in the East whereas the West will have one over .500 miss out. One division of five and one division of six looks awkward. The alignments probably won't last for more than a year if some East of Toronto teams come back in the league and there will always be some GTA team bounced back or forth to make up the numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pony Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Sigma I wonder if an Ottawa club will enter the Open Cup? I like how they used the word "popular" to describe the CPSL Open Cup.... Completely 'unrelated' to the death of Kanata Soccer Post, One or two new teams are likely to enter the Open Cup from the NCR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argh1 Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 What does the "C" stand for in CPSL. Central ?[] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonfan Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 no, i'm pretty sure, well almost 100% the "C" in CPSL stands for Canadian!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 quote:Originally posted by hamiltonfan no, i'm pretty sure, well almost 100% the "C" in CPSL stands for Canadian!! It was sarcastic: almost all the teams are located in Central Ontario and none in other provinces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonfan Posted March 15, 2004 Share Posted March 15, 2004 haha yes i no..i was just joking around...I guess it kinda hard to tell over th computer.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket Robin Posted March 21, 2004 Author Share Posted March 21, 2004 STORM IN CPSL SCHEDULE New-team Durham announces name VAUGHAN—Saturday, March 20--The Canadian Professional Soccer League has released its 2004 season schedule together with the announcement of Durham Storm as the name of the new team in Durham Region. The name adds a finishing touch to a new league formation with five teams in the Eastern Conference and six in the west. Teams are identified by the community in which they are based, with three exceptions. Metro Lions play in the territory of Scarborough and Border Stars have a structure and support that spreads from Windsor over the border beyond the city of Detroit into Michigan. Toronto Croatia, which draws support from that city, has its headquarters and home ground in Mississauga. Each team will play a 20-game schedule consisting of home and away games within the conference and cross over games against opposition in the other conference. The 110-regular league game schedule is augmented by the Open Canada Cup competition with teams from outside joining the CPSL pros during the four holiday weekends leading to the Open Canada Cup Final on Monday, September 6. The season will close with the playoffs late September into October and the CPSL championship game for the Rogers Cup Final on Thanksgiving Day, Monday, October 11. With Hamilton in the league, there is a guarantee of two Thunder-Storms, the first on Monday, July 19 and the second on Friday, August 27. For more information, please contact Stan Adamson at 905 856-5439 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonfan Posted March 21, 2004 Share Posted March 21, 2004 haha a Thunder-Storm game..thats great! I really hope the CPSL will decide where the Rogers Cup and Canada Cup will be hosted soon so the same thing as last year doesnt happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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