Jump to content

PDL Coming to Hamilton


Hammer

Recommended Posts

Rumour has it the Hamilton Avalanche have been bought and the new owners, from Oakville and all former Oakville Soccer Club members, the former president, CEO and Technical Director will have a W- League, PDL and Super Y teams and they have been sanctioned by the OSA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 71
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I think Hamilton Croatia have the exclusive territorial rights to Hamilton in a CSL context, for what it's worth so there's no scope for a second team there. The Brantford Galaxy were started by a rival Hamilton group (also from an ex-Yugoslav background but they wanted a team with no overt ethnic connection) that wanted to play in Hamilton as well but were eventually persuaded to move to Brantford instead when Croatia were selected as the team to represent the immediate Hamilton area. Don't think this ties directly into Dominic DiGironimo's departure as it was probably (if legit maybe worth remembering it is just still a rumour) something that would have been under negotiation for a few months. Don't think OSA sanctioning is something that happens quickly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it's legit, keep in mind it is an Oakville group and their only way into the PDL was to purchase the Hamilton Avalanche and work out of the hammer........the Lynx own the Oakville territory for W- League and PDL hence this is why this group did not operate out of Oakville, which was their first location of choice

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wow

Someone told me that Oakville group was looking to buy Lynx ?anybody knows anything about it ?

must be too much money in Oakville

A lot of people wanted to put CSL in Oakville but new managment at Oakville Soccer Club is not interested .Other rumer in Oakville is that ex-OSC people want to start academy in Oakville .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Before jumping to conclusions on that it might be because the Lynx have been moved to the Ottawa Fury's division. Worth noting that their website doesn't appear to be active these days, however:

http://www.lynxsoccer.com/

while that of a group called Toronto Lynx Premier Soccer Academy that appears to be run by Duncan Wilde rather than the Hatrells is very much up and running:

http://www.torontolynxpremiersoccer.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure how relevant this is but the W league reports an expansion to the Avalanche's ownership group rather than an outright sale:

http://wleague.uslsoccer.com/home/491196.html

Friday, January 7, 2011 HAMILTON, Ontario - The Hamilton Avalanche is pleased to announce the expansion of the current ownership and management team. Joining the ownership group will be Neil Brown and Brett Mosen. Brown is a chartered accountant and is a partner in a major global professional services firm. He has extensive background in both soccer administration and coaching. Mosen has a background of more than 30 years in all levels of soccer operations in North America, from grassroots to professional. Mosen holds a USSF National A coaching license, a Canadian National A license and a UEFA B license.

Also joining the team, in a management advisory capacity, is Jack Brand. Brand is a successful entrepreneur who also has an extensive soccer background. A former professional player and Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame inductee, Brand will bring his knowledge, network and experience to bear in helping move the Hamilton Avalanche SC forward.

"I am very excited about the expansion of our ownership group and management team. The additional investment will help us raise the profile of the Hamilton Avalanche franchise and improve our on-field performance," Avalanche founding owner Valdi Greco said. "We have a great opportunity to build on our initial five years of operation with these guys on board; it’s a great day for our franchise.

"We have worked very quickly to make this happen and will have some further important announcements to make over the coming weeks."

"I am excited to be working with a group of people who are committed to the ongoing development of players, and the game in general, in this country," Brand said.

About Hamilton Avalanche SC:

Hamilton Avalanche SC operates a women’s team in the W-League of the United Soccer Leagues (USL). The W-League is the highest level amateur league for female soccer in North America. The Avalanche will be entering their sixth season of W-League competition in 2011.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

The announcement of the entry of the Hamilton Avalanche into PDL is next week on Feb 17th apparently:

http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?1174-Hamilton-Avalanche-joins-USL

Appears to be a separate entity from the Lynx (this would appear to be Ontario's fifth PDL entry in addition to Toronto, Ottawa, Thunder Bay and London). Not sure if this means that the Victor Montagliani's moratorium on new teams in USSF sanctioned leagues has been quietly lifted because presumably the delay since the first post in the thread has been related to getting sanctioned at the CSA and USSF levels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The owners are from Oakville and partnered with the W League team as they could not get approved to play out of Oakville. The past President of OSC, NB is the owner, and the coach will be the former TD of Oakville Soccer Club. They had a good young successful U21 team while at OSC (coached by NB) so look for most of this team to be the majority of their PDL team, most of the players are playing in the US on scholarships. The sanctioning was "quietly" approved "prior" to the moratorium being put in place.....ummmm.

It will be a struggle for them to get a fan base from Hamilton, very ethnic based City and especially if the majority of their players are from Oakville, hopefully the owners have deep pockets and don't rely on the Lady Avalanche to support the team, they virtually had a handful of fans watch their games. Good luck to them they should have a good young team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of players on old Oakville U21 team were from Mississauga and Brampton and even Toronto .From what I was told by someone from Lynx ,Hamilton team can not scout players from GTA and can not practice and play games in GTA so I dont see all this players going to Hamilton 4-5 times a week for free.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have no doubt this was already discussed, but uh....does Hamilton even have a hill over 500 metres? Let alone a mountain?

Never been there I take it? The Niagara Escarpment wouldn't be a mountain in a BC context but is significant enough to be referred to as a mountain in southern Ontario.

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A quick google-ing shows that the Niagra Escarpment reaches a max height of 335m, so I suppose Hamilton doesn't "have a hill over 500 metres". A lot of pretty waterfalls, though.

Truth be told, it'd be more prone to rockslides then avalanches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest GoGreen
Most of players on old Oakville U21 team were from Mississauga and Brampton and even Toronto .From what I was told by someone from Lynx ,Hamilton team can not scout players from GTA and can not practice and play games in GTA so I dont see all this players going to Hamilton 4-5 times a week for free.

Wouldnt be unheard of Thunder Bay & Ottawa regularly have players from out of town/country and the club looks after housing for these players. Not sure on the scouting thing, but I'm pretty sure they can grab players from anywhere they choose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest GoGreen
At this rate, they should just make an Ontario division in the PDL.

This would make a lot of sense, with the number of NCAA, NAIA, & University/College players in Ontario(CIS/OUA/OCAA) Ontario could do with a few more teams in my opinion. The only alternative is these players signing with OSL or rec level teams and having to leave when training camp comes around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This would make a lot of sense, with the number of NCAA, NAIA, & University/College players in Ontario(CIS/OUA/OCAA) Ontario could do with a few more teams in my opinion. The only alternative is these players signing with OSL or rec level teams and having to leave when training camp comes around.

Well, Milltown are looking for a home, and I imagine Windsor and Kitchener wouldn't make for terrible PDL-size crowds, either. The only issue I guess would be pulling Thunder Bay from a division where they're going to be matched with WSA, which could kill a really great potential derby.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Worth bearing in mind there were a group of teams in Quebec that were seeking sanctioning for PDL entry from the provincial association there but were denied that could be factored in as well if the politics could be resolved. PDL has its downsides (e.g. short season, need to be officially "amateur" if NCAA scholarship players are going to be used, poor playing standards of some of the weaker franchises) but it's an economic model that very much appears to work and although it's less than ideal in player development terms (hence the move to academy teams and the homegrown player category) it has still managed to play a key role where launching careers in MLS has been concerned that is always likely to be there to some extent. With nine Canadian teams (including seven in cities that had teams in the original coast to coast 1987-1992 CSL) already on board all it would take is to get teams into a few more provinces and a separate Canadian branding similar to the CMISL in indoor soccer would start to be very much viable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's an interview with Neil Brown of the new PDL team on the latest ICF clip:

http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?1193-It-s-Called-Football-New-signings-New-Clubs

{from about 16:30 onwards}

Their explanation of how they got around the moratorium appears to be that they joined forces with an existing organization that already had a W League team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

LYNX RELEASE 2011 SCHEDULES AND NEW WEB SITE.

The Toronto Lynx Soccer Club today released the schedule for the 2011 PDL and W League season. As in previous years, the Lynx will make Centennial Park Stadium their home game venue and training facility, with exception of the Season opening double header feature with FC London (PDL) and Rochester Ravens of the W League, which will be held at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan on May 22nd.

The United Soccer Leagues (USL) have introduced several new clubs into the Great Lakes Division for 2011, with the inclusion of Hamilton FC Rage, Akron Summit Assault and Louisville River City Rovers. The result being the creation of a more Ontario balanced PDL schedule for the Toronto Lynx, who will face both Hamilton Rage and FC London on three occasions and for the first time ever, an exciting home and away schedule with the Ottawa Fury.....

Read more.... http://www.torontolynxsoccerclub.com/WebBlasts%202.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...