CSL Commissioner Cary Kaplan resigns

[Eric]

TORONTO – Thursday, September 3 - After four and a half years at the helm of the Canadian Soccer League, the CSL’s first commissioner, Cary Kaplan, has elected to resign at the conclusion of the 2009 season.

The commissioner’s sports marketing company, Cosmos Sports, has grown in recent years and Kaplan has decided he is unable to devote the time necessary to assist the CSL achieve its bold aspirations during the next year or two.

Cary Kaplan was appointed by the CSL following an illustrious period as president of Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL during which he was given a number of honours, including Executive of the Year in the American Hockey League.

Among the most significant accomplishments achieved during his tenure with the CSL have been the re-branding of the league, the creation of the International Division; the establishment of affiliations with both Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact, the signing of a landmark “Memorandum of Understanding” with the OSA; the creation of a CSL Reserve Division; the signing a two year television agreement with Rogers for a regular CSL weekly telecast; and bringing the strong franchises, Trois-Rivieres Attak, Serbian White Eagles and TFC Academy to the CSL family.

Most recently, in a push for national recognition, Kaplan in May of this year led the CSL in achieving conditional membership in the CSA as Canada’s national league, while at the same time holding talks towards expansion to western Canada.

Kaplan said this week: “Being commissioner of the CSL has been a great honour. While the league has had a long history of survival, I believe that some of the strides made in the past few years have put the CSL in un-chartered waters and on the cusp of assuming its rightful place as Canada’s second tier professional soccer. The CSL will play a vital role in the future of soccer in Canada and I am both optimistic and excited for the league’s future.”

CSL Inc. chairman Domenic Di Gironimo acknowledged Cary Kaplan’s tremendous contribution to the CSL. “There’s no doubt that Cary has moved the CSL ahead dramatically during the past few years, such that it is well positioned to occupy the second level professional soccer in Canada. And that’s essential for Canadian soccer. We thank him for his excellent leadership and his generous and very considerable contribution to the Canadian Soccer League.”

Kaplan will remain as Commissioner through the next 60 days and the completion of the CSL Championship on October 24.

[Elias]

I guess there were basically only positives with Kaplan. He did what he could with the league ownership that exists.

Although he seems like a good fit to lead the CSL to "achieve its bold aspirations during the next year or two." Yet he decided to resign...

CSL Inc? Chairman? Is this something new? Are new investors/partners coming on board, or is this same old fantasy fiefdoms.

[L.T.]

I wondered the same thing and asked Stan Adamson - basically CSL Inc are the owners of the league itself, which is a subset of the league Board of Governors. Early franchises are part owners of the league, whereas some of the newer franchises do not own a stake in the league...

[ted]

So, am I to understand that our so-called "national" league doesn't even have the money to pay a full-time commissioner?

A lot of spin in this little PR piece but is the league really any further ahead now than when he took the "job"? A name change, and some hyperbole doesn't really seem to me to make it any closer to being a real national league than it was five years ago.

To be fair he was always polite and reasonable when he posted here - even if we never really saw eye-to-eye. The lack of progress to which I refer I would blame on the league as an organization. I'll wish him well in his future endeavours.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

My guess would be that a lot of the money he earned was based on commissions from expansion franchise fees. I wonder if he was a lot more gung ho about westward expansion than CSL Inc on that basis. Eventually the CSA might start to question the level of influence of the Gauss family and Bruno Ierullo if the league actually did become truly national in scope after all.

[Eric]

Cary Kaplan, is/was or will never be a soccer person, he was in it for the expansion franchise commissions IMO. If that's what they offered him, then he realized that asking for 100+k for any new franchises, it was just a waist of time and that no body in their right mind would ever pay that kind of money for an expansion franchise in a league like the CSL.

Also the way the league is managed, gives no guarantees that it will never get better or at least improve the acceptance of a second tier level in Canadian soccer as a way of moving forward towards total federal professionalism.

[Trillium]

quote:Originally posted by Eric

Cary Kaplan, is/was or will never be a soccer person, he was in it for the expansion franchise commissions IMO. If that's what they offered him, then he realized that asking for 100+k for any new franchises, it was just a waist of time and that no body in their right mind would ever pay that kind of money for an expansion franchise in a league like the CSL.

Also the way the league is managed, gives no guarantees that it will never get better or at least improve the acceptance of a second tier level in Canadian soccer as a way of moving forward towards total federal professionalism.

So can we expect some franchise fee logic from the CSL heading into the new regime ?

Or do the guys who own the league, want to collect the 100k fees and split them up to fund their teams ?

[Richard]

Any franchise organisation that relies on franchise fees from the sale of new franchises as its primary revenue source over the long term is working with a very flawed business model.

[ted]

Slightly off-topic: I was looking at the CSL website and clicked on the tab/button labeled "CSL Final". Imagine my surprise when I discovered the CSL Final will be played October 26, 2008.

What a bunch of [)]'s!

[Eric]

^ That's exactly what I'm talking about.... LOL and take a look at the Weekly Discipline TAB LOL, any betting site has more accurate stats on the players and goal scored then the actual league website.... as you said, they are just [)]s

[canadianfoot]

quote:Originally posted by Trillium

So can we expect some franchise fee logic from the CSL heading into the new regime ?

Or do the guys who own the league, want to collect the 100k fees and split them up to fund their teams ?

When were the last 2 expansions(and who where they...TFC & TR-Attack? which years)? I mean if you expand at the rate of 1team per 2yrs let say that money ain't enough to fund anything. That's what 6k per yr/per team? The CSL need League Sponsors, corporate ones 5 for 5yrs at least. Bring at least 1 more team to Quebec 2 would be amazing, that way you could balance out a bit of the travel for everyone. The question remains if the Quebec soccer federation(or Saputo) will let anyone into Quebec.

[VPjr]

^ TFC-A did not pay a franchise fee to enter the league.

[canadianfoot]

quote:Originally posted by VPjr

^ TFC-A did not pay a franchise fee to enter the league.

TFC didn't pay.......why is that? Did the league believe that it will elevate the level of play or provide them with free advertising? What about Trois-Rivieres Attack? Did they have to pay...I mean The Impact is big in Quebec so that's free advertising too in a way for the league in Quebec.

So which were the last 2clubs that joined(and years)? ....and actually paid(100k or whatever was the amount)....come to think of it there were no real expansions. Didn't the Trois-Rivier Attack simply takeover the Laval Dynamites, thus not paying the expansion fee either?

Thus really the extra 100k won't be that much of help to the league if and when a team joins in. The Province of Quebec or Ottawa should be pursued agressively by the league. Quebec is close by and can easily accomodate 2 more teams(Quebec City,Sherbrooke, etc). While the proximity would still not be too cumbersome for the budgets teams.

Honestly fight your way into the province of Quebec & then think about expanding more either West or anywhere else, while the GTA is already crowded(or overcrowded).....

Now to those that were saying that 100k is too much, how much should one pay? 25,50,75 or maybe for free? The league need to finance itslef somehow, maybe look at a "monthly"fee instead of a franchise fee in the long run it will bring in a steady stream of money from all teams.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Last two before TFC Academy would have been Caribbean Selects and the Serbian White Eagles in 2006.

[canadianfoot]

Caribbean Selects paid some deposit, didn't they? What about SWE? So the Selects never materialised but did their deposit get "eaten up" or is it actually sitting in a bank accumulating a couple of % on the deposit?

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

The Selects played one season but quickly folded. Think you are thinking of the African Icons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Icons

There was also rumoured to be a Quebec City team joining as well that never actually materialized.

Judging by this old story on that subject Cary Caplan's contract was up this year:-

http://www.gotorontofc.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=130

Feb 19, 2007

Kaplan, the former Hamilton Bulldogs President, recently signed a contract extension for a further two years at the helm of the CSL. Kaplan has revealed his intention to grow and strengthen the CSL program for international teams, emphasizing there is a place in Canadian soccer for such a concept which exceeded all expectations in its inaugural 2006. $B!H(BAnd with our community teams, the Canadian Soccer League has a great future and we are committed to moving east and west with controlled expansion with time,$B!I(B he said.

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by ted

So, am I to understand that our so-called "national" league doesn't even have the money to pay a full-time commissioner?

A lot of spin in this little PR piece but is the league really any further ahead now than when he took the "job"? A name change, and some hyperbole doesn't really seem to me to make it any closer to being a real national league than it was five years ago.

To be fair he was always polite and reasonable when he posted here - even if we never really saw eye-to-eye. The lack of progress to which I refer I would blame on the league as an organization. I'll wish him well in his future endeavours.

He was polite but his posts were never very realistic or convincing. His posts certainly never gave me the impression he was the right guy to be running a league like this. Possibly he was just keeping the company line but I would rather have someone in charge who had some connection to reality than keep pushing the pipe dreams and utopic plans that were being bandied about by the CSL.

[ray]

I'm not sure if Caplan was behind the International division but it has not paid off so far in terms of fans or new ethnic franchises. It could well end up as a dead end.

The league has to have an idea where it is headed. The western expansion is not convincing even if it does come to pass. This is an Ontario (and maybe Quebec) league and its future success will depend on what it does in this market.

I would say forget about national league aspirations for now, drop the International division, establish a 2nd division with relegation and promotion and <s>drop</s> reduce the franchise fee. Maybe they could approach to the top amateur side in each prospective city and try to get them into the new 2nd division.

[canadianfoot]

Force your way into Quebec. Add another 2teams then with 12 teams drop the Inernational/National Division into 1 united. Then as Ray mentioned drop the franchise fee alltogheter(or reduce to 25k) in order to create a Div.2 with maybe 8teams. Pro/Rel would be for 1team while the 2nd from the bottom would play the 2nd from the Top in Div.2 in a 2game playoff spot.

[DoyleG]

The only way to get the CSL to move forward is to remove those who've backed useless schemes like the International Division.

Kaplan leaving is a good start.

[futsal]

I am proud to say I attend more CSL games than anyone on earth, just barely nudging our beloved Rocket Robin , and I will tell you one thing: I haven't seen Cary show up to a single game this year. Stan Adamson was at 2 matches for the 1st time in months this past weekend. Let the job saving attempts continue!

I love the league and unfortunately there is no vision for where it should be going. There are some great owners/operators out there that really understand both the business and soccer elements but because only a select group of guys own the system makes this plan flawed in so many ways.

Invest some money to hire a real marketing professional, you know the ones with well established portfolios, and experience. Let's eliminate the interns from Cosmos who are selling a broken product and not exactly sure what to do. Nice people but this is business folks.

And yes Quebec, not the damn west, should be priority number 1. Then work on offering membership to the west coast, not asking for 6 figure franchise fees.

[Richard]

I still don't see the benefit to west coast investors paying money to a Toronto outfit for the right to use the name Canadian Soccer League, very few other benefits accrue frankly unless there are some radical changes made to the organisation.

[SoccMan]

The CSL to be taken seriously needs to get rid of two owners. The Astros owner and the jokers at London City. Only then can this league have a chance of moving forward. The CSL is your classic BUSH LEAGUE. I'm not talking about the talent level because there are some decent players in the league, I mean bush league in the organization of the way the league is run.

[futsal]

I have to ask why do you feel that way specifically towards the North York and London owners? I know London had that huge dispute and battle with North London etc but are there other items you can share?

[SoccMan]

Just let's say I use to attend many CSL meetings and basicaly had an inside look on how and who realy runs this league and was able to figure out why this league never seems to be going anywhere or advancing. This league needs an infusion of new and capable people that are given real power to incorporate change and power needs to be taken away from certain people who are holding this league back. I'm surprised that the OSA and CSA still sanction this league. All you have to look at is the expansion fee to enter this league to figure out what the real motive behind this league is.