Maritime Soccer Scene

[coppercanuck]

The leagues involved in the Maritimes continue to adjust and evolve. Now that the Canada Games teams have all pulled out; PEI is left with 2 in their Premier league (Avondale Islanders and PEI Selects) NS is left with 8 teams and NB has started up a 9 team split league. NB will have some crossover games in the playoffs. I understand the travel argument. Universities seem to handle it well. The media coverage is good, it could be better, sponsors seems to be good, it could be better. No Moncton First Touch? Here is the team list:

Northern NB

Restigouche United (Campbellton)

Chaleur (Bathurst)

Edmundston

Grand Falls FC

Southern NB

Fredericton Picaroons Reds

Fredericton Wanderers

Dieppe FC

Saint John

Charlotte County Schooners (St. Andrews)

PEI

Avondale Islanders

PEI Selects

NS

Cape Breton

Dartmouth United

Halifax City

Suburban (Upper Sackville)

Halifax Dunbrack

Valley (Wolfville)

Highland (Antigonish)

Halifax County

(side note - Valley and Highland will play in Truro; kind of a halfway point)

So 19 teams without the Moncton FT club, this could be a real nice 20 team circuit. Unfortunately, this is a Senior Amateur level so time and costs are major issues. It would make a great single-game Cup tournament.

[Juby]

I'm curious because I know nothing about east coast soccer but I'm wondering, are their any teams positioned to become semi-pro or lower level pro (I'm thinking close to 500 fans now/near future so hopefully near 1000 if they moved up or a decent pocketed owner who wants more would be the requirement) cause if you have or put in place 5 or 6 (includeing newfoundland) that's a division right there ready for the csl if quebec manages a division too(or even join quebec's if their only 2 or 3)

[ibrox]

Juby:

There was rumblings of an Atlantic league 2 years ago, but it was shot down pretty hard. The NL teams (especially St. Lawrence) would be paying a shedload to travel to and from NL.

[Juby]

hopefully things will look better if quebec gets completely on board with a few teams. that is a decent reason though, the only thing I can think of would be province = division, home and away for everyone, 5 or 6 in division, like hockey minus confrences.

Long term though it makes things harder, hypothetically, the first team to be a csl expansion will have significantly higher travel costs until a few others joined (i'm kinda hoping the csl expands to like 150 teams and puts the vast majority in regional leagues(with pro/rel to get rid of the fat and get the pidgeons in), also you'll be in the position we all are to MLS USSF, they honour us with teams but the lack of connectivity to one anothers infrastructure encourages a gap especially to the csl. Its better to have semi pro teams playing amateurs in hopes of becoming pro's then no semi pro's but you have to give someone a reason to want to pay to improve the quality (promotion).

Basically what i'm thinking is if the atlantic provinces get together and approach the csl, they'll be able to develope a federation of sorts (addressing regional needs) that encourages people to invest or the csl will eventually come to you and few individual businesses and their will be a layer of a few csl teams and then a big gap to amatuers. I can't help but thinking if we can beat the cfl into the atlantic provinces they might find 5 or 6 good loyal markets (not great or anything but like 1000 fans because this is one of the best games in town)

[coppercanuck]

From my little knowledge, The Maritimes are a long way from the Maritime Division of the CSL. Agree, the Atlantic league is a dream. The CSL needs to grow out of Ontario. Specifically Montreal needs a similar landscape as Toronto; 7 clubs in the GTA (Brampton?). Then Trois-Rivieres comes back. Quebec City area gains 3 clubs. Sherebrooke, etc. Even then, there needs to be some deep pockets for a few Maritime teams to join up.

A city like Halifax could handle a D2 team in my mind. Cities like Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton and Charlottetown maybe able to draw bigger crowds for special matches. I'm not sure what the marketing needs are for some of these markets. Moncton is so fragmented, Saint John historically is blue collar and Fredericton is white collar. Charlottetown is so laid back ... better build the stadium with one stand on the beach, one on the golf course, one at the marina and one with a church basement lobster supper.

Maybe a CSA Cup? I still think that some well designed cup competitions would build some interest in the product on the field and some scarves in the stands.