Globe: Soccer boosters say MLSE can make it work

[sstackho]

Can they bend it like Beckham? Soccer boosters say Maple Leaf Sports can make a pro team work in the city. But some wonder whether fans will unite behind a local franchise

PETER MALLETT

1063 words

12 November 2005

The Globe and Mail

M5

English

All material copyright Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved.

On a blustery Sunday afternoon on College Street, the fans at the Cervejaria Downtown soccer pub are living vicariously through their football heroes. Their eyes glued to a large-screen TV broadcasting the SuperLiga — Portugal's first-division league — via satellite, the mood shifts dramatically with each pass, foul and shot on goal. As Rio Ave scores first on the crowd favourite, Benfica Lisbon, an anxious hush falls over the bar.

“Soccer at this level is enthralling,” explains Cervejaria owner and lifelong soccer fan Lou Alves. “It is more than a game for us — it is a way of life.”

It is enclaves such as this in Little Portugal, Little Italy and other neighbourhoods across Toronto that have turned each World Cup into a citywide block party. Thousands of Greek fans poured onto the Danforth when the Greek national team won the European Cup last summer.

And, with the recent approval of a new $72-million, 22,000-seat soccer stadium to be built at Exhibition Place, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment hopes that this fervent fan base will support Canada's first Major League Soccer team. This week, the top soccer league in the United States is expected to award the owners of the Maple Leafs and the Raptors with a Toronto franchise that would begin playing in 2007.

“The way the Italians and Portuguese love their hockey in Toronto — these people love and adore soccer even more,” says Alex Franco, who hosts regular soccer broadcasts on the multicultural radio station CIRV-FM.

Scarborough-born Dwayne DeRosario, the star midfielder for the MLS's San Jose Earthquakes, not only thinks that a Toronto MLS team will succeed, but believes it will be a boon for Canada's national team, which hasn't qualified for the World Cup tournament since 1986. “I am sure that if we get a facility built and an MLS team, we are going to make the next World Cup,” he says.

But the history of professional soccer in Toronto is littered with the graves of teams — from the Toronto City of the sixties and the Toronto Metros of the seventies to the Toronto Blizzard of the eighties — that have failed to cash in on the city's enthusiasm for the sport.

In 1961, Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League president Harold Ballard told The Globe and Mail that he felt that “over the next five years, soccer will become the major summer sport in Canada.” After a brief heyday, the ECPSL folded in 1966.

Steve Stavro was the owner of the ECPSL's flagship team, Toronto City, which imported such English legends as Sir Stanley Matthews, Tommy Younger and Johnny Haynes. The team averaged just under 7,000 fans a game during its four years in the league. Mr. Stavro remembers it as a golden age for professional soccer in the city, and he remains a believer.

“[Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment] won't make money overnight, but there is interest in the game,” he says. “There are a lot of young people from many different countries in the city today, and they all have an appreciation for the game. If it is priced right, marketed properly — with all the fans in Toronto, I think a team deserves another shot.”

Clive Toye has heard all of the arguments about pro soccer in Toronto before. Now an adviser to FIFA, soccer's governing body, Mr. Toye rescued the North American Soccer League from total collapse in 1969, signed the legendary Pelé to a then-record $7-million contract with the New York Cosmos in 1975 and kept the Toronto Blizzard afloat as its club president from 1979 to 1984.

He thinks an MLS team can succeed in Toronto, but he says its owners will have their work cut out for them. “They will need to be everywhere — every youth tournament, awards dinner, prize giving and social club, Cup final and season opener — and be as much a part of the Ontario soccer scene as it is possible to be. And having done all that, do it again.”

Dale Barnes is more skeptical. As the first commissioner of the Canadian Soccer League in 1987, he remembers putting up his own money to keep the ill-fated league afloat in its early days. The league was so desperate for a television deal that it signed a lifetime contract with TSN before collapsing with debt in 1992. Like other fans of the game, Mr. Barnes is frustrated with pro soccer's miserable past in Toronto. “They are going to have to run it like a pro outfit,” he says. In particular, he's not convinced that fans from the various soccer-mad neighbourhoods will come out unless they see their communities represented on the field.

Toronto's current professional team, the Toronto Lynx of the United Soccer Leagues, hasn't been able to capitalize on the city's soccer fever. Owner Bruno Hartrell estimates he has lost more than $5-million since he took over full ownership of the team in 2000. Hoping to secure a lease at the new stadium, his team has played largely unnoticed by soccer fans and media at the 3,000-seat Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke, averaging around 2,000 spectators a game.

But during halftime of the SuperLiga game at Cervejaria Downtown, the Benfica fans — and prospective Toronto Major League Soccer fans — say they'll be swayed by only one thing: whether the team is any good.

“One thing is for sure: [MLS] is not a top international league,” Gabe Real says. “It is second division and you can't really compare it to top-flight soccer in Spain, Brazil or England.”

But given the success of the U.S. World Cup team (which draws many of its stars from the MLS) and the many notable players who have come from MLS teams, fellow soccer fan Albino Silva says he'll have a look.

“If there is a quality team and a well-presented product, I will go and buy tickets,” Mr. Silva says. Then he quickly glances back at the TV to make sure the second half hasn't begun.

[JayWay]

quote:But during halftime of the SuperLiga game at Cervejaria Downtown, the Benfica fans — and prospective Toronto Major League Soccer fans — say they'll be swayed by only one thing: whether the team is any good.

Sport franchises should cut this statement out and post it on their walls. Same with media.

In the past few decades spectator sports in North America has become less and less about athletic competition and more about the abstract notion of "entertainment". This means everythis surrounding the game - the music, the cheerleaders, the contests...

Sports execs have actually convinced themselves - and the media has fallen for this, to - that it's this kind of crap that matters.

It's not.

I remember when the Raptor were a hot ticket in Toronto, back when Carter was just breaking in. The media in this city were hung up on the notion of what a great "show" the Raptors organization put on every night. They stressed the smoke and lights aspect of the NBA, with all the music and big screen technology, and what not. They actually thought this accounted for the Raptor's strong attendance.

Same thing with the Rock. The media talked about the Rock's "entertainment value".

It was incredible that through all of this, the media, and everyone else, missed the one common denominator: a winning team.

The Raptors are still putting on the same "high quality show", but now they can't even sell out their home opener. Gee, I wonder why. Did fans just tire of the entertainment? Or maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the entertainment value in the first place that attracted them.

Of course, the worst offender in this regard are the Hartrells. Their team is on the verge of bankruptsy and they still haven't gotten the clue. Theme days, mascots, and half time shows means nothing if you lack a solid on-field product.

I really hope MLSE realizes this. The fact they are planning on marketing to kids suggests that they may be set to make the same mistakes. I really hope not. It'd be so dissapointing if the best, and last, opportunity for a thriving Toronto soccer club collapses on the back of the same mistakes that have been made for years prior.

[john tv]

It seems that we are living in two distinct worlds. The soccer world of pure skill,no stoppages and crowds that are participating in various fun ways.Here we are exposed to the Hollywood idea of being entertainent while the game is going on.These stoppages are stictly for marketing/sales/or adverising purposes.It is a different frame of mind and as I said two distinct different worlds.I watched the MLS final yesterday and I was very impressed by the level of play and certainly the speed of the game.There is simply no other game that offers this kind of continious intensity, coupled with a high degree of skill as well as numerous chances to score.I was really pleasantly surprised and during the game I kept wondering what team we must put together to equal this level.It was amazingly high and extremely entertaining.I also wonder what this is going to mean to the TV viewer,will they demand this same time of entertainment from the other games.

[G-Man]

quote:Originally posted by john tv

It seems that we are living in two distinct worlds. The soccer world of pure skill,no stoppages and crowds that are participating in various fun ways.Here we are exposed to the Hollywood idea of being entertainent while the game is going on.These stoppages are stictly for marketing/sales/or adverising purposes.It is a different frame of mind and as I said two distinct different worlds.I watched the MLS final yesterday and I was very impressed by the level of play and certainly the speed of the game.There is simply no other game that offers this kind of continious intensity, coupled with a high degree of skill as well as numerous chances to score.I was really pleasantly surprised and during the game I kept wondering what team we must put together to equal this level.It was amazingly high and extremely entertaining.I also wonder what this is going to mean to the TV viewer,will they demand this same time of entertainment from the other games.

But what about that crap band at half?

"Continious intensity" "Amzingly high"

Hold on Cobi "Cup of Coffe is a Euro Second Class league" Jones is one of it's star players. I want some of the happy pills you're on!

It's the MLS. Not the EPL or Barca.

I think if we bring back Branco Sagota, we should do okay.

[john tv]

G man you exposed yourself as a soccer terrorist.Next time you post I will respond to the terrorist at best!