Key problems and potential solutions in semi-pro soccer

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

A personal perspective on what I see as being the key flaws in the semi-pro level of the game in Canada (effectively southern Ontario) right now along with what I see as being the possible solutions:

http://canadiansocceropinion.blogspot.com/2010/11/key-problems-and-potential-solutions-in.html

[argh1]

You said a mouthfull in how do we get Community passion into the game.

I'm a 1st generation Canadian born. But with my folks being White Anglo Saxon Protestants from Belfast I fit into the Canadian way of llife easily and maybe became more ardent Canadian because of it.

My love of soccer came from my dad (he wouldn't go to a hockey game but if the Habs were on Sat nite TV don't talk to him)..............but I also love hockey, football, baseball...........basketball not so much.........

It's not the NHL that shows passion in communities for hockey. But rather the local Sr, Major Jr, Jr A/B/C and on down the line.

You just don't feel the emotion at a local soccer game that you do at local hockey games or HS Football or local baseball.

Somehow even though soccer has the highest registration of any sport in Canada there seems to be little emotional community attachment to the local teams.

Just thoughts, dunno how to correct it. Call it views from the Boonies

[Razcle]

Good insight. Another key point is that many of us do not even have a local semi-pro team to support even if we wanted to. I know the CSL is expanding it reach and our hopeful team in KW should fill that void for a small fraction of us, however the majority of my generation has no clue what the soccer culture is like or how to embrace it (unless we use carry our love for junior hockey over to the pitch).

[argh1]

Just to add...............

There were over 4,000 screaming fans at the NB HS Football Championships over the weekend.

What did the CIS Soccer Championships draw?

44 Midget hockey teams from Atlantic Canada are set to hit the Ice with a CHL Prospects game in the 30th Monctonian Midget tourney in what is billed as the biggest Midget tourney in Canada. More than 100 scouts from Jr and NCAA teams.

When will we something similar for soccer?

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

I'm a 1st generation Canadian born. But with my folks being White Anglo Saxon Protestants from Belfast I fit into the Canadian way of llife easily and maybe became more ardent Canadian because of it.

A significant portion of my grandfather's family were Linfield supporters from the Shankill (the rest were from the formerly Ulster Scots speaking portion of eastern Donegal) so have some of the same ancestral heritage. At one point a team called Ulster United was the dominant team in the NSL and they even had their own large SSS called Ulster Stadium:

Can get a bit depressing when you study the history of the sport in southern Ontario and find out that in some ways things have actually taken a step back from where they used to be.

[argh1]

All well and good. A great history long forgotten.

I'm a Maritimer.............how do we get Yarmouth, Truro, Glace Bay, Summerside, Montague, Bathurst, Caraquet, Edmundston, Blacks Harbour as excited about thier soccer teams as they are about thier hockey teams?

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Think I addressed that in the blog entry when I talked about ending the disconnect between youth and senior level soccer. You are the Maritimer though so what are your thoughts on that?

[LSM]

Hey Bliz, that video you posted prompted me to look up Ulster United. Couldn't find much, but I did find this document which is the league tables of the National Soccer League from 1927 to 1997. You seem like the kind of guy who would already know about it, but if not I think you'll like having a look.

It's kind of fun seeing the kind of teams back then. 1928: Hamilton Thistles take the league over Toronto Scottish and Toronto Ulster.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Have definitely seen that page before while researching this sort of stuff. Sadly I think Hamilton Thistle folded a couple of years ago after a long history in the HDSL district league after their NSL days. Think they would have a solid claim to be Canada's oldest soccer club if they were still around.

[AvroArrow]

You mentioned London City. I was playing in the recreational men's league at the Optomist soccer dome in London and played against a team that had one guy that was playing as an ineffective one man show. Later, I turned on my tv and saw that a London City game was on. That same guy was in their starting lineup. I would not have included this guy in the top 25 players in the men's rec league, so why on earth is he good enough for London City?

That team has issues.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

^^That sort of thing happens a lot and completely undermines their credibility in the local soccer community. Think the reason players like that get to play for City revolves primarily around their willingness to do all the traveling required (sometimes at awkward times of the week) while not being paid.

[Redcoatsforever]

Just read your web log...where do you get all of your facts? I didn't see any metadata linking or citations.

[reel2real]

^^That sort of thing happens a lot and completely undermines their credibility in the local soccer community. Think the reason players like that get to play for City revolves primarily around their willingness to do all the traveling required (sometimes at awkward times of the week) while not being paid.

I've seen it happen on both sides. One guy I know scored goals for fun in the Nova Scotia High School Soccer League (30+), but when he played for CBU..he scored only 2...this was when they were terrible mind you. There was also another guy too who played in the Everton academy that was on my team...he may have been only 18/19, but he was at best an average striker in a New Brunswick B League.

Speaking of which, argh, does Blacks Harbour even have a soccer pitch? Haha.

Having played soccer in New Brunswick before, it really is a wierd thing, it has to do I find with community involvement. When we went to St. Andrews to play Charlotte County Schooners in the A league, there was a decent amount of support there (from what I know, they also play games in St. George). Part of it is trying to stick to one venue and constantly advertise themselves in the paper (results and what not). It's really funny in New Brunswick how bad soccer is supported there, moved to NL and was very fortunate to play a level of soccer most people I know would kill to even try out for this team in Ireland. Yet, no one heard of it!

I am not trying to brag, play myself up or anything like that, but there were constant soccer stories that just didnt get into the paper or barely even got a mention. I know UNBSJ went to ACAA nationals and their coach played themselves up big time..but when they came back, they only scored one goal and lost all three games. At least report the darn thing...unless the coach couldnt come up with an excuse (he is bad for those). That's for another day.

In short, start with getting the right people in and push to have reports in the newspaper. Thatll get people to take notice

[argh1]

I've seen it happen on both sides. One guy I know scored goals for fun in the Nova Scotia High School Soccer League (30+), but when he played for CBU..he scored only 2...this was when they were terrible mind you. There was also another guy too who played in the Everton academy that was on my team...he may have been only 18/19, but he was at best an average striker in a New Brunswick B League.

Speaking of which, argh, does Blacks Harbour even have a soccer pitch? Haha.

Having played soccer in New Brunswick before, it really is a wierd thing, it has to do I find with community involvement. When we went to St. Andrews to play Charlotte County Schooners in the A league, there was a decent amount of support there (from what I know, they also play games in St. George). Part of it is trying to stick to one venue and constantly advertise themselves in the paper (results and what not). It's really funny in New Brunswick how bad soccer is supported there, moved to NL and was very fortunate to play a level of soccer most people I know would kill to even try out for this team in Ireland. Yet, no one heard of it!

I am not trying to brag, play myself up or anything like that, but there were constant soccer stories that just didnt get into the paper or barely even got a mention. I know UNBSJ went to ACAA nationals and their coach played themselves up big time..but when they came back, they only scored one goal and lost all three games. At least report the darn thing...unless the coach couldnt come up with an excuse (he is bad for those). That's for another day.

In short, start with getting the right people in and push to have reports in the newspaper. Thatll get people to take notice

Hey soccer in NB is 50 years behind.

UNBSJ won the ACAA so they were the best of the league.

Blacks Harbour may not have a soccer field but there's a curling rink and a hockey rink. Nearby St Stephen has a soccer/football field though that's where the St Stephen HS soccer and football teams play.

Hell the small villages of Hillsborough and Riverside-Albert just outside Moncton have hockey rinks and curlings rinks for Albert County but where are the soccer fields besides Caledonia HS?

[reel2real]

Hey soccer in NB is 50 years behind.

UNBSJ won the ACAA so they were the best of the league.

Blacks Harbour may not have a soccer field but there's a curling rink and a hockey rink. Nearby St Stephen has a soccer/football field though that's where the St Stephen HS soccer and football teams play.

Hell the small villages of Hillsborough and Riverside-Albert just outside Moncton have hockey rinks and curlings rinks for Albert County but where are the soccer fields besides Caledonia HS?

I know, it's an absolute shame what is going on having lived in NB for a period of time...I don't think soccer even really existed in Charlotte County more than 5 years ago (I remember playing Fundy High and St. Stephen High and they were AWFUL in every sense of the word until things picked up there).

Like I said:

- The right people need to get in at the right positions (no BS politics...even though thats a dream)

- Money needs to be allocated for infrastructure and development

- Watch em grow.

NS and PEI did the above and look what's going on with them. I hope NB will catch up but I highly doubt it's happening.

r2r

PS. No offense, ACAA is a joke league. Sorry

[coppercanuck]

I agree with reel2real, allow the right people to get to the right positions. Get teams to become established in smallish pockets, ie Moncton, SJ, Halifax; then spread out from there. Promotion / relegation will help keep the poor teams out of the top flights.

[vpsoccer]

After reading the Blog and this thread, I have to say that for semi-pro (or high-level amateur adult) teams to have some fan loyalty, there needs to be some basis of loyalty. As it is now, youth players learn at an early age that they can jump from club to club. This is much worse with boys than girls, BTW. When they get past U18, many of them have little loyalty to play with a club, let alone care about or have any affinity for the players of any club. If they have friends, former teammates, or others on the team of their club, then just maybe you will start to build a nucleus of loyalists. Otherwise, you are trying to build an adult team in the wilderness and rely only on the quality of the game. That is tough.

Our club was able to build up several top-level (Ottawa area) women's teams, using mostly players who developed in our system, or at least joined the club and stuck with it. On the men's side, that proved impossible. When one particularly strong team moved up from youth soccer they exploded to multiple other clubs after a couple of years. I was directly involved in club operations for several years, and I know the efforts that were made. Trying to get our top U17 and U18 players to associate with and train with the top adults was almost easy with women and girls, almost impossible with men and boys.

I think we need to start with club loyalty in general before we look at building loyalty for club or local semi-pro teams.

JMHO

vpsoccer