The "BEST" Canadian location for MNT games?

[loyola]

quote:Originally posted by redhat

I am inclined to agree with you. When was the last time Montreal

had an MNT game? Like I mentioned before, if we were to play

USA again, I would love to have it in Montreal.

Better than Kingston ...

I think the MNT played Turkey or Iran in MTL in 1995 or 1996 (too lazy to check at this time). I also remeber our MNT playing Morocco in MTL in 1994 prior to the WC. Montreal would be a nice place to play a team like the US or an European country (except some coutries like Italy, Greece or Serbia). Canada-France in MTL would be awesome, but unlikely to happen....

[KAS]

It's nice to see this topic take off without too much bickering between regions. BTW, I was born in Toronto and live in the burbs (905 belt), so advocating KGV in St John's, and a new statium in high altitude Alberta - two places I've never been to - was based purely on what I felt to be in the MNT's best interests based on a few logical assumptions.

KGV dates back to 1925 and it is infact a national stadium - it was built to be Newfoundland's national stadium back when Newfoundland was an independent nation (well, Dominion). Originally capacity was 10,000 (at times exceeded), but 6,500 seats sounds fine to me for most games - it can always be stretched if needed and it's still bigger than Swanguard at half the distance to Europe. Bringing in Field Turf sucks, but a stadium has to serve the local population if it is to remain in operation for the occasional national game.

I agree that the fact that St John's is whiter than Wonder Bread will ensure a pro-Canada crowd. Anyone who has seen international games in Toronto knows the problem (remember the world basketball championships? Canada vs Greece? It was absolutely humiliating!). Someone suggested that Vancouver is just as diverse, that's not true. Vancouver has alot of immigrants, but it's mostly Asians. Toronto has tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of residents from every country. If the CNT played Antartica's national team in Toronto, you could bet that Pogey Stadium (I like the name) would see atleast 10,000 Penguins show up from the nearby "Little Iceberg Town" neighbourhood.

The fact that few countries have scheduled flights to St John's will also help as there will only be so many using charter flights. In an ideal world, the CSA would charter small private jets (not as expensive as you think) to bring in the European stars with the greatest of comfort - so going through Halifax is unnecessary. If this sounds too expensive, remember that JDG2 was bitching about the long flights (I think he was specifically refering to Vancouver) from Europe, and current players like Radz have bitched about long flights in cheap seats. I think using KGV Field and small/fast private jets could play a major part in attracting and holding on to our best European based talent.

As for the high altitude stadium, it will confer a great advantage (Equador or Peru anyone?), provided that our players can acclimatize to it and the opposition can't. When the CNT has training camps ahead of games (like the two weeks they just did in California), this works perfectly. European players who can't arrive early can be given altitude beds to use prior to leaving Europe to get a similar advantage. The team could then maintain a fast pace at high altitude that would leave the opposition gasping for air. Then, in the second half, you substitute in Hume and Peters!

So, hometown bias aside, have I missed a great location in Canada that would give our guys an advantage?

[loyola]

Air Canada has Heathrow-St John's flight, so you can do it directly, no transit by Halifax needed.

[G-Man]

I personally think games should be on a rotating basis. If Halifax can get a decent 10K stadium built then include it.

Halifax/Montreal/Toronto/Edmonton/Vancouver.

And just to piss off the Pogey Park people, grass is a must all men's and women's games. Until the big nations start playing internationals on plastic, we shouldn't. And give smaller markets the youth games.

[Guest Domi Rulezz]

quote:Originally posted by aussoccerfan

National Team games should be played in the maritimes too.

It's time for TORONTO to learn what it feels like to be ignored.

Why are you so insecure?

Did anyone on this thread even suggest that TORONTO should get all of the matches?

Another question, when was the last match played in TORONTO?

[loyola]

Last match in Toronto: WCQ Mexico vs. Canada in November 2000. 5 years.

So I don't see the point of aussoccerfan....maybe it's because of the U-20 tournament?

[Gian-Luca]

The last men's national team match of any group to be played in Toronto was on November 15th, 2000. There are no further plans to play any matches here until, it would seem, June 2007, a gap of nearly 7 years.

There have been matches (Olympic qualifiers) played in the Maritimes more recently than that. Hopefully more matches will continue to be spread around the country.

[redhat]

geebus... so much for no bickering

I honestly CAN understand this anti-Toronto sentiment, but it shouldn't be included in this thread. The question was, which are

the bestlocation for MNT games? I'm sure if St.John's had a 10,000

seat stadium it would be perfect, as would Montreal, Ottawa, and

Toronto.

If it's for friendlies, revenue would be a concern. But for WCQs,

it's the un-friendly atmosphere you want (cold weather, pro-Canada

crowds, poor access for the opposing side). I'm sure we could get

that anywhere, including Winnipeg in October (ask Cuba or Panama).

As for whether or not Toronto deserves it, it deserves it as much as

Vancouver or Montreal, IMO.

As for bickering, I find it a useless exercise considering our

MNT hasn't had a FRIENDLY in Canada since 2000! If you want to

complain, complain about that. (Note: Friendlies against

Hearts and Millwall DON'T COUNT. They count as much as a friendly

against San Jose as a WCQ preparation game.)[}]

[redhat]

sorry for the rant. I just want the game to be played

in our country at some point...

[loyola]

redhat: We played a friendly on july 1 against Honduras in Vancouver prior to the 2005 GC.

[redhat]

quote:Originally posted by loyola

redhat: We played a friendly on july 1 against Honduras in Vancouver prior to the 2005 GC.

Oh yeah, another one that wasn't televised. My bad.[:I]

[loyola]

quote:Originally posted by redhat

Oh yeah, another one that wasn't televised. My bad.[:I]

Well, Sportsnet was going to show all our group games for the 2005 GC and the following games if we qualify for the 1/4. I don't think we should be asking for that friendly to be televised.

BTW, our U-20 will have played more home friendly than our MNT with the Brazil games......which 2 of the 3 will be televised. I'm pretty sure that if we were playing more home friendlies Sportsnet would be televised more games.

[KAS]

quote:Originally posted by G-Man

I personally think games should be on a rotating basis. If Halifax can get a decent 10K stadium built then include it.

Have you seen the plans for the proposed Halifax (really Dartmouth) 40,000 seater to be built if Halifax gets the Commonwealth Games? I believe the current plan is for 15,000 seats to be temporary, leaving a 25,000 seater after the games. This might be abit too small for the CFL since that is really just the break-even point for a CFL team, so a 30,000 seater seems likely. As long as it is "soccer friendly", this would give the CSA a large, revenue-generating option that is fairly close to Europe.