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What's your hope for Canadian player development in 5 years?


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Where do people see Canadian player development in 5 years? Realistically, what kind of club environment do you hope/expect to see in the Country? How much better off, if any, will our program be than it is today?

I feel that 3 MLS teams are good news, of course. And while 3 MLS teams are better than none, it certianly isn't enough to comfortably prop us up into that 3rd Concacaf slot behind the USA/Mexico. In an ideal/ and somewhat realistic world my hope is that in 5 years time, the MLS squads are successfully developing and integrating some Canadian talent into the 1st team and there are two USL-1 teams in Canada that have been able to become financial viable and support themselves with a proper business structure that allows Canadians soccer players more professional opportunity. I could see this happening with the solid ownership group of the Ottawa Fury and perhaps another city. As much as FC Edmonton excites me, I dont have much optimism for their long term survival after looking at factors like lack of stadium and massive travel costs which I believe will consume them.

My ideal set up for Canadian soccer would be somewhat similar to the Rugby Canada Super league. I would love for one day there be league with 6-8 teams that play a league home and away schedule along with combining with the 3 MLS clubs in a knockout NCC which would really give the non MLS teams a huge boost. Travel budgets would be low with just a few flights and some bus rides. I think over time, this league would slowly develop and get stronger and stronger. Starting closer to a PDL level and then slowly building. People who suggest leagues of 15 teams or several divisions are crazy, the unsustainability of some proposals out there is mind blowing.I love the idea of the USL, but it's tough to find owners with deep pockets to step up in a league which, lets face it, usually has teams losing money at an obscene rate.

I'm hoping world cup 2018 is when Canada can take a sustained step up into legitimate contender and even favorite for the 3rd world cup concacaf spot and just keep building and not have to rely on a golden generation or worry about regressing.

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I feel that 3 MLS teams are good news, of course. And while 3 MLS teams are better than none, it certianly isn't enough to comfortably prop us up into that 3rd Concacaf slot behind the USA/Mexico. In an ideal/ and somewhat realistic world my hope is that in 5 years time, the MLS squads are successfully developing and integrating some Canadian talent into the 1st team and there are two USL-1 teams in Canada that have been able to become financial viable and support themselves with a proper business structure that allows Canadians soccer players more professional opportunity.

All three MLS should be fielding at least 6 Canadian players in five years time. If they aren't developing enough players, questions should be asked considering there is more than enough raw talent in Canada that can be harnessed into MLS calibre players. As for the USL thing, it's all speculation in my opinion. We're just going to have to see how well Edmonton FC turns out.

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I've been hoping that between the problems in the USSF thing and the possible expansion of the CSL that we could get a national league that's as good as whatever usa D2 league is at (I know, that's a long way away) Im not necessarily opposed to teams joining usl but in five years, if the csl spreads countrywide and has a good level of play, then it'll look pretty appealing travel wise compared to going all over the states and caribbean. And if our teams did switch boat, their quality, being lost in the usa and being gained here could finalize catching up.

this is pure silly speculation but I made a map of what the CSL could look like: sorry it's really confusing, I had to cut and pasted it from a txt document where I had it all nicely spaced out and more organized.

AmaR = Amateur Regional Leagues

MLS Level: Pro

CSL Level: Pro

Level of Play: Pro/Semi Pro..Semi Pro..Semi Pro/Ama = SOnt,PCSL,Que,Alb/Sas,Man/NOnt,Mar (ordered to match)

PCSL----------ALB/SAS--------------Man/NOnt------------------OntS-----------------Que-----------------Mar

Level Of Play: Semi Pro/Amateur

PCSL2--------ALB---SAS----------Man-----NOnt----------------OntS2--------QueS-QueE-QueN---Nfld-NB-PEI-NS

Level Of Play: Generally amateur

BCN/E/SW---ALN/S---SAN/S---MaN/S-----NOntE/W---OntSW-GTA-OntSE--MonR-AmaR-AmaR---AmaR...

AmaR-AmaR-AmaR-AmaR-AmaR-AmaRl-AmaR-AmaR--------GTA2----AmaR----Amar

Ottawa would be fielding at least 3 teams in this, one in SOnt, one in the Man/NOnt division and one in Gatineau, hopefully one will be top flight and odds are one will be very regional

maybe the mainland maritimes can organize themselves better into a regional league

The PCSL should get rewarded with extra CSL entries for maintaining a high level of play till merger.

Notes:

I'm ignoring the northern regions and I had an idea for them though, If a city like yellowknife or whitehorse could be convinced

to finance a team nearest their region it would cost a bit but it would bring in revenue from opposing teams and fans(hopefully).

I have next to no understanding of northern quebec and labrador, Iqualit's probably out

I don't expect Ottawa to field 3 top flight teams, but at least 1 team per region anywhere in the pyramid

It should be a priority to convince all the PDL to join when the csl rolls into town

If USSF D2 or fc edmonton are going down, then the csl can present itself as a viable option

I think it's likely that BCN,BCE,SASN,MANN,ONTN,QUEE,QUEN may all wind up breaking down into amateur regional leagues

All cases of parrallel leagues competing to move up are settled by promotion tournament

The hope is that the csl teams are in the best market (big or niche) that can bring in a couple 1000 people to finance travel

I think those types of numbers are possible by being the best game in town or by being good enough quality in major markets

Maybe a CSL-2 can be squeezed in

The regional leagues can probably be sustained by a few hundred attendees or decent local business or committed players

Amateur regionals means the broad CSL brand is gone, I don't know whether this should be dealt with through tournament or expansion

I think a few of the regional CSL leagues would have Pro teams that were relegated or committed local business owners

The teams in these leagues would have value even if they were pretty much amateur because their route to top flight is clear

A promotion and relegation system helps because it lets broke teams slip into obscurity and new owners/markets to come up

Pro/rel give bad teams something to sell at the end of the season and bring some money and relevance to regional leagues

The best idea I have to secure good finances is to make it literally Air Canada CSL and the Greyhound CSL yourregionhere

The main selling point would be if ncc slots were available once the csl met certain conditions.

The point of all this is to maximize the quality and financial potential of all teams.

This is done by creating a scoutable system to move quality up, creating value in teams just for existing within the pyramid

and concentrating our efforts, resources and talent on a national scale, instead of diluting it regionally.

Its my hope that the a csl with a well supported top flight could outperform USL D-2, and compete with NASLUSSFUSL below MLS

A big reason why it should all be structured is because let's take the east coast, what if fredricton, saint john, moncton,

Halifax, charlottetown and st john's all got franchises, then you find out one of the NB teams won't work and halifax or

st johns could support two, promotion and relegation would fix that without forcing one team to disappear for a historyless expansion.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this is where I stop cutting and pasting and start talking again, alot could be done with this, slash a league here or there if it doesn't work but if we were able to do something like this where say 20 low level pro teams, lik 60 semi pro teams and like 100 amateur teams were all apart of the same pyramid then scouting wouldn't be such a grope in the dark nightmere like is now. The guys from the big regional leagues will scout the smaller regionals, the smaller regionals will do today's CSL and PCSL work and scout the out of pyramid local amatuers and hold try outs, that sort of thing, and then the CSL can feast on it all. Also at that point, if a young guy had gone through 3 leagues to get to csl and was noticed by a bigger league, the csl might actually be in a position to sell someone for a legitimate (more then next to nothing) transfer fee.

The main problem is that for any top flight team, they need to bring in 1000-2000 fans, which can be done because I guarentee the on field product will have improved and interest in soccer will be on the rise for a long time but that still may be asking too much, realistically I think most top flight teams will achieve this (and a few below) and their will be a few franchises buoyed by a passionate owner.

The next problem is that the regional leagues have to get like 500 plus fans or else their regional league could fail. I think the best way for this to get done is to have the top flight impressing and giving the whole pyramid legitimacy so that when teams are set up in smaller cities with the idea that this is highest level of sport in town, the people in the town need to be aware of this and hopefully excited by the possibility of promotion. If it is the best ticket in town, and the people know it, then I think 500 people is far more likely in 100 000 people market then in toronto where it's clearly not the best ticket in town despite the 5 million people crammed in, I suspect toronto will do well though but it will be franchise by franchise, if/when, a bunch of people latch on, and of course if you want to make alot of money, a successful toronto team could do that whereas a small city team is more about sustainability and pride.

And finally, I know I wrote them into the pyramid but I'm not expecting to much from the amatuer levels, they could be fine with no fans in alot of instances (committed players in the GTA could get it done) or a owner willing to lose 5 figures a year because he's in it for the game. Also these franchises have a route to the top so alot of people who wanted to get in on the csl would start there and really develope a franchise rather then pay what would hopefully be alot more for a club with an identity.

Sorry for all the reading, I just really thought I had a good map to a sustainable nationwide system, don't let me hijack the thread though, it just seems like the perfect place to put this.

edit: friggin spaces don't work out right, it looks even worse now but if you concentrate you'll be able to see it.

edit: I uploaded the original .txt file so if you wanna look at a much neater more organized chart it's there.

canadiansoccerpyramid.txt

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All three MLS should be fielding at least 6 Canadian players in five years time. If they aren't developing enough players, questions should be asked considering there is more than enough raw talent in Canada that can be harnessed into MLS calibre players. As for the USL thing, it's all speculation in my opinion. We're just going to have to see how well Edmonton FC turns out.

Agreed. Three successfully run clubs is plenty enough in the near term. Provided that they continue to to provide an avenue an for aspiring talent and successfully develop talent through their youth setup. People keep talking about national leagues around the world with 10 to twenty clubs. But do all of those 10-20 clubs provide talent for the national team? The answer is: if you look closely, its anywhere from 1-3 clubs. The rest don't have the resources and ultimately serve only as fixtures for those 1-3 to stay warm and compete.

Again if you talking about player development only, three good clubs with a least 6-8 professionals playing for them is plenty. And, IMHO is preferable to having 10 clubs providing jobs for mostly mediocre talent. mediocre talent tends to drag down and hinder the elite level talent because (in life) you improve according to the challenges and struggles you face . When there is depth in the system to produce 50 professional calibre players, then we can talk 10-20 clubs. But that is a long long ways off. The question we should ask right now is if three teams by 2012 is too much too soon.

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Agreed. Three successfully run clubs is plenty enough in the near term. Provided that they continue to to provide an avenue an for aspiring talent and successfully develop talent through their youth setup. People keep talking about national leagues around the world with 10 to twenty clubs. But do all of those 10-20 clubs provide talent for the national team? The answer is: if you look closely, its anywhere from 1-3 clubs. The rest don't have the resources and ultimately serve only as fixtures for those 1-3 to stay warm and compete.

Again if you talking about player development only, three good clubs with a least 6-8 professionals playing for them is plenty. And, IMHO is preferable to having 10 clubs providing jobs for mostly mediocre talent. mediocre talent tends to drag down and hinder the elite level talent because (in life) you improve according to the challenges and struggles you face . When there is depth in the system to produce 50 professional calibre players, then we can talk 10-20 clubs. But that is a long long ways off. The question we should ask right now is if three teams by 2012 is too much too soon.

Do a few other teams (mainly a few usl teams) not help give a chance to those who get overlooked by the MLS clubs to help develop and eventually make the jump? I see your point about improving skill level by playing against higher competition and it's well taken, however, who is to say there wouldnt be other, undeveloped or overlooked talent that can be nutured and moved along the chain? ie a youngster making a great impression in some friendlies for FC Edmonton against an over seas club who then decide to take a chance on him...I'm of the opinion that in certain respects, the more exposure the better.

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edit: yeah, what he said

the problem with only a few pro teams is that in a giant country with 32 million your probably not going to dig up all the talent. And I also think your being hard on the midtable down teams, the big teams in most nations reap the rewards of the scouting and ingeniuty of the low level professional teams, without them alot of players would fall between the cracks, they make room for late bloomers too. When I think of alot of the players on the top teams in almost every country, most of them did not come up through the top teams system, most got there by showing their stuff against the top teams.

That said I'll admit what I was saying opposite about getting the game everywhere is completely unrealistic for the near future. Just creating a nationwide league won't work, there needs some regional infrastructure in place and it would have to have a pro/rel setup to get rid of the fat and get new investors in. I do think 'mediocre' clubs are very important in the scheme of thing

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Forget talking about mulitiple CSL teams etc.... when your talking player development your talking about players from age 12... the proper start to 11 aside football, up to the age of 17 the average high school leaving age.

So those players both female and male need a fully competitive team/club structure this means ending the restrictions on who plays on a particular team week to week, let the club name the best 16 players they have registered who are age eligible for the team.

The big problem with youth competitive teams .. at least in Ontario... is once named to a team the coach has no hammer to make players work... and that is the reason we are not competitive.

Our players in youth competitive programs are not forced to be competitive ... because they dont have to be.

That plus reducing the number of competitive teams to only represent 5% of registered players will do wonders for player development.

Oh and get the provinces out of any contact with players.

Once you get the CSA to mandate such changes... the flow of talented players will incease.

If you want to blood younger players mandate that Senior competitive teams must carry a certian number of players under a age bracket... as is done in Brasils Cupo Feminino...

Then the CSL can develop on its own.... where owners are willing to put out the money and run a semi-pro club.

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Forget talking about mulitiple CSL teams etc.... when your talking player development your talking about players from age 12... the proper start to 11 aside football, up to the age of 17 the average high school leaving age.

So those players both female and male need a fully competitive team/club structure this means ending the restrictions on who plays on a particular team week to week, let the club name the best 16 players they have registered who are age eligible for the team.

The big problem with youth competitive teams .. at least in Ontario... is once named to a team the coach has no hammer to make players work... and that is the reason we are not competitive.

Our players in youth competitive programs are not forced to be competitive ... because they dont have to be.

That plus reducing the number of competitive teams to only represent 5% of registered players will do wonders for player development.

Oh and get the provinces out of any contact with players.

Once you get the CSA to mandate such changes... the flow of talented players will incease.

If you want to blood younger players mandate that Senior competitive teams must carry a certian number of players under a age bracket... as is done in Brasils Cupo Feminino...

Then the CSL can develop on its own.... where owners are willing to put out the money and run a semi-pro club.

you don't see the connection? a pyramid creates competition with a purpose, gobs of amateur teams within the pyramid create a place to start

edit: a 14 year old kids gets signed to crappy mens team in montreal, the next year he's one of the better players in the 'crappy' regional league and catches the eye of a higher up team...If there's no connectivity, any decent team will scoff at the amateur league, if it's the amateur league below then it's their job not to miss any young stars. Kid in a small city actually has a team to play for even if it's crappy, should we have unconnected amateur leagues develope our players and hope someone takes an extra second at the right time or hold tryouts and crap like that. It just seems to me 32 million people, 10 million square km, your completely groping in the dark everywhere

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Agreed. Three successfully run clubs is plenty enough in the near term. Provided that they continue to to provide an avenue an for aspiring talent and successfully develop talent through their youth setup. People keep talking about national leagues around the world with 10 to twenty clubs. But do all of those 10-20 clubs provide talent for the national team? The answer is: if you look closely, its anywhere from 1-3 clubs. The rest don't have the resources and ultimately serve only as fixtures for those 1-3 to stay warm and compete.

Again if you talking about player development only, three good clubs with a least 6-8 professionals playing for them is plenty. And, IMHO is preferable to having 10 clubs providing jobs for mostly mediocre talent. mediocre talent tends to drag down and hinder the elite level talent because (in life) you improve according to the challenges and struggles you face . When there is depth in the system to produce 50 professional calibre players, then we can talk 10-20 clubs. But that is a long long ways off. The question we should ask right now is if three teams by 2012 is too much too soon.

That is a great point. If you look at Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, Austria and what not, the whole thing about the players coming from three or four clubs is very well evident.

Do a few other teams (mainly a few usl teams) not help give a chance to those who get overlooked by the MLS clubs to help develop and eventually make the jump? I see your point about improving skill level by playing against higher competition and it's well taken, however, who is to say there wouldnt be other, undeveloped or overlooked talent that can be nutured and moved along the chain? ie a youngster making a great impression in some friendlies for FC Edmonton against an over seas club who then decide to take a chance on him...I'm of the opinion that in certain respects, the more exposure the better.

Another great point. We could use more teams like NASL/USL sides for this very reason. If we can get more than 3 MLS teams in the future, that would be even better.

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My hope for CANADA in 5 years time will be good now we have 3 MLs TEAMS F.C Edmonton hopefully this will lead to more clubs on the Horizon, I am going to go on very HUGE angle and say in 10 years time we will be better than the U.S. is now. Yes I know the Yanks have the financial backing etc, but I do not think that they have the same enthuisiam for the sport that Canadians do. Every were I go I am seeing more Footy fields being made than Baseball diamonds, I am seeing more kids wearing team Soccer jerseys than ever before, aand of course enrollment in Soccer is huge in Canada. If we bring the game to the rural areas I think this game will explode.

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My hope for 2015 to 2020 would revolve around having a few NASL and/or USL teams effectively functioning as the reserve teams of the three MLS teams to fill the gap between the MLS academy teams and PDL on the one hand and MLS on the other where it is always going to be very difficult for young Canadian players to get the regular playing time they need e.g. Gabe Gala at TFC. In development terms the old CSL in the late 80s and early 90s was ideal from that sort of standpoint and its role in fostering future CMNT players is what needs to be replicated in the years ahead. Although some people always like to see the present day as the pinnacle things genuinely were better 20 years ago from that narrow standpoint, which I suspect is why the Whitecaps and Impact have been working so hard on getting the NASL off the ground despite their imminent moves to MLS.

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1. MLS Reserve division needs to come back

2. CSL needs to continue it's growth

3. CSL needs to add U16, U14, and someday women's divisions

4. CSL needs to work a transfer deal with MLS where MLS could buy players for a low set price, but the CSL club would get a percentage of any sell on fee.

In 5 years time, I'd like to see Canada's U20 and Olympic teams become de-facto CSL all-star teams. If we can get kids into a proper structure at 12-13 years old there is no reason they cannot reach their potential at home.

In 10 years time i would like to see 50 Canadians in MLS. There would be a large portion of mediocre players who would never have a shot at the national team, but the top 15-20 would add competition for spots that isn't currently there.

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My hope for CANADA in 5 years time will be good now we have 3 MLs TEAMS F.C Edmonton hopefully this will lead to more clubs on the Horizon, I am going to go on very HUGE angle and say in 10 years time we will be better than the U.S. is now. Yes I know the Yanks have the financial backing etc, but I do not think that they have the same enthuisiam for the sport that Canadians do. Every were I go I am seeing more Footy fields being made than Baseball diamonds, I am seeing more kids wearing team Soccer jerseys than ever before, aand of course enrollment in Soccer is huge in Canada. If we bring the game to the rural areas I think this game will explode.

It's not as far fetched as it seems. One thing the USA will always have working against them is the fact their best athletes will always gravitate towards other sports. While a lot of our great athletes play hockey, we have a huge demographic of great athletes, the ones who can't afford the former, that can aspire to be soccer players. This will work greatly in our favour for the future.

My hope for 2015 to 2020 would revolve around having a few NASL and/or USL teams effectively functioning as the reserve teams of the three MLS teams to fill the gap between the MLS academy teams and PDL on the one hand and MLS on the other where it is always going to be very difficult for young Canadian players to get the regular playing time they need e.g. Gabe Gala at TFC. In development terms the old CSL in the late 80s and early 90s was ideal from that sort of standpoint and its role in fostering future CMNT players is what needs to be replicated in the years ahead. Although some people always like to see the present day as the pinnacle things genuinely were better 20 years ago from that narrow standpoint, which I suspect is why the Whitecaps and Impact have been working so hard on getting the NASL off the ground despite their imminent moves to MLS.

There have been talks of the MLS reserve division coming back so hopefully that happens. However, I don't think it's going to "very" difficult for young Canadians from the academy to get regular playing time. A lot of players from the NCAA slot into their MLS sides with ease when drafted. Academy prospects should have an easier time in all honesty, but I agree with the need for reserve sides.

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Three MLS teams (already in the bag),

Four to Six USL teams (With loan deals with Canadian MLS clubs, not reserve teams)

The CSL expanding and other semi pro leagues being created in other regions, the leagues would all be linked in some sort of “National Championship”. The hope would be the top clubs from this level would go professional and create a national league with the top clubs.

I hope our pyramid looks like this in 15 years

1. MLS, 3 Clubs

2. USL, 6 Clubs

3. CSL -1 16 Clubs Nation wide

4. CSL-BC CSL-Prairies CSL-Central CSL-Atlantic

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I'll try to be realistic.

3 teams in MLS. The clubs will be running atelast U16 and U18 squads perhaps even younger. These academies will be the main development avenue for the Youth national teams. The senior MLS sides will also feed off the players developed by D2 and CSL clubs and will likewise themselves lose their top players to larger European clubs.

3 or 4 teams in D2 (Ottawa, Edmonton, ??). Not sure if the USL or NASL will survive, but US Soccer will make sure they'll have a 2nd division. These clubs will fill a niche and provide much needed jobs for those that take the long way to the MNT. Ottawa will be the standard bearer at this level with their PDL/Reserves and full stable of youth teams.

A system of regional semi-pro leagues. Whether it's called the CSL or something else, i think the various regional leagues will finally organize themselves to form a national championship. All clubs will be mandated by the CSA to field a "reserve" team. Alot of the youth players looked over by the MLS academies and Ottawa will gravitate to this level or go the NCAA and PDL route.

And i'll repeat again, i hope the NTC's get reformed to develop players 2 years earlier. Scrap the U17/18 senior/travelling team that the NTC's house, make the U15/16 the senior/travelling team and start bringing the kids in at 13 years of age like the French do. Double the amount of kids that currently enter the system for the first two years only (ie. the U13/14 will have double the amount the current U15/16 has, and keep the new U15/16 the same number as current U17/18). Also, add a bunch more NTC's (SWO, Ottawa, another in GTA, AB, Quebec City and BC - if not more than that). This means 12 year olds start getting scouted, 13 year olds enter the system and by the time they're 16 they're getting ready to assess their career options (Europe, MLS, CSL etc.). It may sound like a waste to bring in so many young kids who won't pan out, but it will keep a lot of kids in the system that would have dropped out because of a lack of interest or Hockey. When a kid and his parents realize at that crossroads age bracket that he might have a shot at something with Soccer the interests will be more likely to have been piqued or re-invigorated. The kids who finally develop into pros will be way better off for having gone through a rigorous training structure at an early age to ready them for MLS or European acadmies and the final transition to first team.

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However, I don't think it's going to "very" difficult for young Canadians from the academy to get regular playing time. A lot of players from the NCAA slot into their MLS sides with ease when drafted. Academy prospects should have an easier time in all honesty, but I agree with the need for reserve sides.

Fewer young Canadians enter NCAA programs than Americans for obvious reasons. For those who do not go down that route there needs to be another stepping stone between U-18 youth academy and being on the MLS roster where promising young players can get regular first team action. For every Nana Attakora who is able to play regularly as part of an MLS senior roster there are probably half a dozen or so others who might get there as well eventually if they could be loaned out to play at a second division level.

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My ambitions are more local and more personal but would contribute to Canadian player development.

In 5 years, I would like my local club team to have a decent pitch, clubhouse and a team in the AMSL (or equivalent).

In 10 years, I would like my local club team to have a senior team in the NASL / CSL level and a junior team in the AMJSL.

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3 stable MLS teams with academies

2+ stable D2 teams with strong regional player pools

futsal played in schools across the land

regional D3 & amateur leagues co-operating to playoff for D3 champ status

expanded Voyageurs' Cup

Last but not least mainstream TV coverage!

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Fewer young Canadians enter NCAA programs than Americans for obvious reasons. For those who do not go down that route there needs to be another stepping stone between U-18 youth academy and being on the MLS roster where promising young players can get regular first team action. For every Nana Attakora who is able to play regularly as part of an MLS senior roster there are probably half a dozen or so others who might get there as well eventually if they could be loaned out to play at a second division level.

What I'm saying is that if NCAA players can quickly slot into a MLS side, youth academy players should be able to do so as well. I mean, the NCAA isn't a whole lot better than the CSL, if at all when it comes to quality. If TFC develops theirs players right, they should be able to promote them on the first team.

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NCAA players are typically four years older than youth academy players. There needs to be something similar to the NCAA/PDL in the intervening four years but at a fully pro level unlike the present day CSL. With upwards of 15 non-Canadian players and a several CMNT players on an MLS roster only the most exceptional Canadian players are going to be seeing first team action at 19 or 20 years old.

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That is a great point. If you look at Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, Austria and what not, the whole thing about the players coming from three or four clubs is very well evident.

That point has been refuted 2 or 3 times on this board. While the big 2-3 clubs in most leagues do often provide a large portion of the domestically based players on most national teams, that is usually achieved by their economic dominance and buying players developed at other clubs. The larger clubs are generally - there are exceptions for periods of time Ajax for example, often developed as many as half of the players they contributed to Dutch national teams - not a whole lot better at developing players than the smaller clubs and success in player development is more about larger numbers at an acceptable level as opposed to fewer numbers at better level. Therefore, the next five years should be spent by 1 - focussing on a national vertically integrated strategy to improve skill development; 2) intensive development of coachs based on (1), including greater support and resources available to community level coachs 3) expanded practice & play time. (4) The construction of more indoor facilities for the winter months and more field turf (or equivalent) outdoor playing surfaces to support (3).

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