So now that we have Edmonton, any word from Ottawa or Hamilton?

[Obinna]

With the news about FC Edmonton today, I am beginning to wonder if Ottawa or Hamilton are still possibilites? I remember back a few months ago that Edmonton and Ottawa were both going to be new USL-1 franchises (this was pre TOA i believe) starting 2011. Anyone else recall this? I know that the Ottawa franchise was going to share the refurbished Landsdowne park site or something. And then there was a rumor about them playing at a triple a baseball stadium. Just want to know if anyone has heard anything about Ottawa, or even Hamilton for that matter, who was rumoured to play out of the new stadium going up in Hamilton?

Also, with Vancouver selling their USL/NASL franchise to Edmonton, any speculation on wether Saputo will do the same with Montreal when/if they get into MLS? Quebec City would be the logical choice I would think....

So if anyone has information regarding Ottawa, Hamilton, or even Saputos plans for the Impact franchise, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Macksam]

Hamilton is definately coming in the next few years. Apparently, the owner of the Ti-Cats has already set up a NASL web site for the team. Too lazy to find it though.

[hamiltonfan]

a quote from one of my older post "Hamilton city council has mark Feb. 18th as decision day in regards to location of the stadium, either bay front or by the airport. There was PR on Bob Young (owner of the Ticats) in the Spec a while back, http://thespec.com/article/519974 , on his application for a DII team for the new stadium. Bob is a minortiy owner or the RailHawks, and owns MRX Co., whom just singed a deal with the NASL to provide the leagues websites. All signs point to Hamilton having a team as soon as the stadium is up."

Young has not set up a website for a Hamilton NASL team, rather his company will provide website services to the league, which so far are pretty weak. A team will come once a new stadium is in place..2013 is my guess

[SthMelbRed]

Like everybody else, I'd love to see more fully professional clubs in Canada. The question is, how many viable clubs can be sustained at the various levels? We know that the Big 3 will be in MLS. Beyond that, it seems feasible that NASL clubs can survive in Edmonton, Ottawa, and Hamilton (Winnipeg and Calgary?). Other candidates could be Victoria, Quebec City, and perhaps somewhere in the Maritimes. In order to be beneficial for football in Canada, all of these clubs would need to be active in player development and feature a core of domestic talent in their first-team rosters. If we are going to have 8-10 fully professional clubs going forward, what timeline are we looking at in terms of adding new clubs and being able to stock them with the required level of Canadian talent? If three new clubs joined next year, where would they find the players to stock their team? Can the available Canadian talent pool sustain the addition of a new club every year over the next 4-6 years? Every 2 years?

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

The major stumbling blocks are having a suitable stadium deal (i.e. reasonably central location with good public transport links, no running track or permanent Canadian football markings and ideally with access to game day revenue streams) and access to a lot of players living locally who are good enough to compete at the NASL level (i.e. the reason why the Lynx could still hold their own in a USL-D1 context despite being operated on a shoestring budget). Hamilton probably ticks most of the boxes on that if this new Ticats stadium happens due to proximity to the GTA as would an Ottawa team if they could play out of the old Lynx basebll stadium if they could draw from Montreal to a certain extent as well as Ottawa for players. Based on what happened historically with the old CSL and with the Aviators I suspect things may prove to be more problematic in Edmonton, however, although I can understand why a city of that size with top tier league teams in other sports would aspire to having more than a PDL team.

[Its Called Football]

Hamilton-Croatia joined the CSL yesterday

http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/719173

[TFCRegina]

Great, and if you read the CSL website, they're reviewing more options for the 2010 season. Good news.

At minimum, that's 16 more players playing the game at a higher (paid anyway) level.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Not sure the difference between the OSL and the CSL is big enough to claim that last bit. Getting all the top clubs into the same league structure would be a very good move, however. Hopefully Hamilton Croatia will be joined in the CSL by several other top Ontario Cup teams in the not too distant future.

[Juby]

Quebec city doesn't have any professional sports teams right? a medium sized NASL club might do all right if for no reason then a complete lack of competition (unless I'm missing something, like nobody cares about anything but the remparts.)

[TFCRegina]

Quebec city doesn't have any professional sports teams right? a medium sized NASL club might do all right if for no reason then a complete lack of competition (unless I'm missing something, like nobody cares about anything but the remparts.)

I've often thought that if Montreal makes the jump to MLS, the Saputo's might sell their franchise rights to another Quebecker and we'd see a 2nd team in Quebec...but who knows?

[JamboAl]

Agreed, Juby. I think Quebec City is an untapped market for any sport right now. I think the CFL would work great but in its absence, soccer could get a foothold there. Obviously, the stadium issue is still a huge one. You could probably get away with using the stadium at Université de Laval for USL-1/NASL without significant additional investment whereas you'd have to put in some good amount of money to get it up to a minimum CFL capacity.

As for Ottawa, there was something in the local rag about still trying to use the baseball stadium for...baseball in 2010. God knows what that site or Lansdowne will look like in 2 years.

[Macksam]

Quebec city doesn't have any professional sports teams right? a medium sized NASL club might do all right if for no reason then a complete lack of competition (unless I'm missing something, like nobody cares about anything but the remparts.)

R&O football is the best thing they have right now. If you can find a way to convert those students into soccer fans, I supposee it could work.

[Lennie]

R&O football is the best thing they have right now. If you can find a way to convert those students into soccer fans, I supposee it could work.

Quebec city is still a hockey mad city and there is constant talk of bringing back the NHL. Football is making huge in-roads into the sporting culture there and for the matter through out the Province of Quebec. I have my doubts that any efforts of converting the citizens of QC to soccer will create much of a buzz above the PDL level. IMHO

Wow, I made Senior Member with this post