Responsibilities of Canadian Pro Teams

[tmcmurph]

Here is a thread where everyone can voice their opinion of what the the various clubs should be doing. What do you think is important? First team minutes for 18-22 year olds, academies, winning team on the pitch, repatriating Canadians playing overseas, naturalizing talented foreigners?

Please state why you think it is important and feel free to rate the various teams' as harshly or as lavishly as you wish.

I would only ask that you use this thread not a pile of random other threads to complain about our various teams. Enough discussions have been threadjacked already.

Cheers

[Macksam]

The Whitecaps are a disgrace to Canadian soccer....I kid

[Lord Bob]

The Toronto men's national team is not Canadian soccer. More fans will buy tickets to FC Edmonton games in Canada this year than for the Toronto MNT. They owe the TorMNT only the prompt release in good faith of players requested for international duty.

[Macksam]

The Toronto men's national team is not Canadian soccer. More fans will buy tickets to FC Edmonton games in Canada this year than for the Toronto MNT. They owe the TorMNT only the prompt release in good faith of players requested for international duty.

I don't follow.

[TFCfan4life]

The Toronto men's national team is not Canadian soccer. More fans will buy tickets to FC Edmonton games in Canada this year than for the Toronto MNT. They owe the TorMNT only the prompt release in good faith of players requested for international duty.

Waaah, waaah, waaah! That's all I read

[The Ref]

The responsibility to develop players rest with Clubs (read professional), not national or provincial associations. The absence of a national league across the country with more pro clubs will continue to be a thorn in our player development or lack thereof.

[TFC07]

The responsibility to develop players rest with Clubs (read professional), not national or provincial associations. The absence of a national league across the country with more pro clubs will continue to be a thorn in our player development or lack thereof.

Bingo.

This is why having our own professional league will solve a lot of issues we currently have in this country. If we can't form a league, then have many Canadian cities with D2/D3 teams because MLS isn't going to grant another Canadian city with MLS club for very long time.

[tmcmurph]

#1 ) Put a winning team on the field. Nothing else happens without that. There will be no fans following outside the core 5k-9k, no buzz about soccer, no investment in academies, no investors saying "that looks like something we could make money at in the long term", no media covering the sport on a regular basis. It trumps all else IMHO. Most fans are still casual and will go back to hockey and CFL if the on field product doesn't play an attractive and winning style at home.

#2) Run a first rate academy. Getting kids from 12-18 involved in serious training at the skills they need to master is absolutely huge. Without that they end up with great athletic ability but no touch and we will make no progress.

#3) Get them an education or equivalent. For the vast majority of even first rate academy players doing the NCAA (or CIS) bit makes more sense. MLS limits the number of GenA each team can grant from their academy so use those to keep the very best. The clubs need to be honest with the players and the players (and parents) need to be honest with themselves and that means soccer helps get them a higher education. The clubs still retain their rights in MLS for their regular bloomers (22-23). I'm not sure how that works in NASL.

#4) Get them playing time against competition better than they are but not way over their heads. The vast majority of players aren't ready for MLS at 18 and need some 30+ serious games a year to improve. Loan outs to NASL/USL sides are required. Keeping the NCAA/CIS players active for more games works to the advantage of the players, schools and clubs. Help expand PDL.

#5) If a player wants to try Europe then let them. There is nothing to be gained from standing between a player and their dreams. Just make sure you get them for 2 years(1?) in your academy to keep their rights in MLS.

#6) Get MLS+ quality Canadians. I know this seems weird putting this one last on my list but I think it is less important to the longer term development for us as a soccer nation. The real game changers, the ones you really want for the most part want to play in Europe. Money, prestige etc are all against MLS. Yes it is good to have Canadians playing on Canadian teams especially at the MLS level where the most media coverage takes place. Having kids see Canadians excelling at the MLS level is important. The reason this one is so far down is that it is up to the players as much as it is the clubs and a lot make other choices. The clubs can only control so much.

[tmcmurph]

Moved from the TFC off season thread to try and prevent derailing of yet another thread. It appears some are not happy with a signing by TFC of a player for their USL Pro team. That raises several questions as to what should be required and expected of the 3 MLS-II teams as far as Canadian content goes.

 

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

 

Is TFC now getting flack for signing talented prospect to their USL Pro side? How is a club supposed to be evaluating players? By youtube videos like most people on here and other message boards? I can see the point of focussing the academies on local players but these are 18+ year old players. Sampson was 18 when he joined the Caps and this new player for TFC is how old? 

 

I would love it if all the spots on the USL Pro side could be filled with local players but do you really think that is possible now? If you can then you have one damned great program better than the Barcelonas of this world. Kudos but I doubt that's the case.

 

In fact it works in our MNT favour in several ways. First the Canadian players coming up from the academy will still make up the majority of the team but they will get a taste of the competition they will face for the rest of their careers. Some will double down on the practising to get better and those will be the ones that will make a difference at the club and country level.

 

Second if we can get some at 18 by time they are 23 we might be able to poach a few for our MNT. Either way we win. 

 

So what is the problem with TFC signing some non-Canadian to their USL Pro team? Were people really expecting otherwise? 6 out of 11 on the field for all games means at least 75% players on the team will be CMNT eligible. You are bound to have about 25% foreign content on your feeder team. For example Barcelona II currently has 8 out of 30. And that is on a club legendary for their development program with decades of building their academy. 

 

We should be better than that after less than a decade? I wish, boy do I wish that were the case. We'd be a shoe-in for WC 2018, 2022 etc forever if that were so. 

[-Hammer-]

I think first and foremost, they need to produce winners. How they do so isn't relevant, save that they should have to abide by a certain level of Canadian content.

 

Second, I think they need to expand interest of the sport beyond their regions (which is very difficult, but see point 4). You aren't going to see more TV money until you do, and you aren't going to see anything but a core hardcore fan-base frequenting your games. If this means you keep more tickets in reserve for game day instead of season ticket holders so be it. If this means giving up pre-season games to Quebec City or Calgary to galvanize interest, or more friendlies with Ottawa and Edmonton, so be it.

 

Third, I think they need to get completely on the same page with the national program and international play. Fundamentally, if you are a pro team, the ultimate goal should be to win the Club World Cup. Any other accolades should be secondary. If you aren't playing to be the best in the world, then what are you playing for?

 

Fourth, there needs to be an acceptance and realization that MLS, for all of it's promises of one day tapping into the lucrative US TV revenue stream and rising in status in the US, is not the league the Canadian teams should remain in indefinitely. Without relegation and promotion (which none of the MLS owners will humor) the league is reaching near the limits of how much further it can expand. It's still fundamentally a US league and we are visitors in it. It's not like Welsh teams playing in the Premier league, where performance and revenue is dictating presence. There are also too many big fish competing for the US TV market, that are well beyond MLS's means for at least the next few decades

 

The NFL and MLB are juggernauts with decades of history, the NBA is no slouch, and NCAA Football and Basketball is nearly as big. Even the NHL, a league of much better means, has been trying to break into this market (especially in the deep south) with little success. Even the CFL is getting on TV down there, and starting to get some traction down there after years of being regarded as bush. You've seen the NHL throw dump trucks of money to try to expand Hockey to the deep south without success. Apart from being a summer game, having a world presence (but limited one in North America) and far less financial means, what separates what MLS is trying to do, from what the NHL has tried, and failed to do, for years?

 

Canadian teams are not served by pursuing this goal, or propping up financially weaker US teams through revenue sharing, when there are far fewer fish competing for the Canadian TV market, and you have ample room to bring in more money through better revenue sharing and higher gates across this country. Even better that you have a Canadian cup tournament that's easily expandable and potentially have smaller franchises in NASL that could step into a new league. You also cannot grow your existing fanbases, unless you grow interest in the game in Canada, and you can't do that with only three pro teams. It hasn't worked for the Raptors and basketball (whose interest outside Southern Ontario is low to non-exsistent), it didn't work for the Expos, it only works for the Jays when they are doing well (Rogers having tanked huge losses on the team for years).

 

Now that being said, I'm not advocating the 3 teams getting up and leaving MLS tomorrow, or even in this decade, but I think MLS has always been the ship that can only carry the game so far both financially and for this country's soccer development. I'd like to see the 3 teams start to build their own ship and slowly start building a war chest and drawing up blueprints toward that goal. I firmly believe Soccer in Canada will not be realized until every market that can support a CFL team in the most ideal circumstances, has a pro soccer franchise.

 

Last but not least

 

Fifth, stop bringing other club teams across the pond to play your team. When you bring over a big name European club (or rather, it's backups) to trounce your team, you aren't helping grow your game. You are instead reminding your fans what you can't offer them (as far as player quality and competitiveness), encouraging them to watch that league instead of MLS, and paying a lot of money for what may or may not be a single pay day.

 

One of the biggest problems Canadian soccer faces is that people don't take up their Canadian soccer team, but stick to the team of the team of their ancestry, and these matches just reinforce that. It's a problem the national team faces as well, but they can pick teams that are around their talent level and still win and build confidence in Canadian soccer, whereas no one is lining up to see an MLS team have a friendly with a lower end Liga MX team, and can expect a trouncing from any division 1 European team. The money is better spent on building a rivalry in Canada or a nearby US team (Seattle) and playing teams that your team can win then getting trounced by a premier league team's backup/preseason squad.