Levi Oakey Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 So I am hearing that along with the Ottawa Fury W-League team the Toronto Lady Lynx and the London Gryphons will also be pulling out of the W-League and disbanding. This is pretty shocking news for the W-League. This was going to be a tough year in Canada with the Women's World Cup and the Pan-Am games meaning some of the top talent would disappear, but from what I am hearing, both teams are gone forever, so this isn't a one year deal. The Lady Lynx have a huge history of developing talent as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shermanator Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Just throwing it out for discussion here, but would an all Canadian women's league make sense? I'm wondering with the popularity of the WNT right now if it could get launched? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Oakey Posted December 13, 2014 Author Share Posted December 13, 2014 Having been to a couple w-league team games, I would say that anyone running a w-league team right now is doing it out of the kindness of their heart. Attendance is very low. The USL requires you to have a w-league team if you are going to play PDL soccer, so there would have to be some organization there so that PDL teams don't have to run a w-league team but could run a Canadian women's league team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ClaytonA Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 Definitely benefactor model. It`s sad though that as with the Whitecaps they move up a level with the men`s team and the women`s team ends up being a casualty. It makes these teams closer to business and franchises than clubs with a mission of civic pride & etc. I just hope that in five years we`re all looking back at this and seeing all these new clubs in Canada still operating and women`s teams getting added back into the mix. Especialy with all the USL Pro announcements and their non-compete clauses (helping push NASL owners from NASL to USL in Oklahoma City due to a lawsuit) I`m suspicious this is just the 5-10 year cycle of enthusiam that craters in 3 years. What happens when people realize that MLS set up as profitable through entrance fees versus operating revenues is a pyramid scheme and Private Equity FC (I meant L.A.F.C.) bails out because they`re investment isn`t making 15% per year and the money would be better invested in farmland, cocoa, gold, or currency swaps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdude Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 I'm just wondering if those teams are jumping into League One Ontario. If that league is working, I wouldn't be that disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Oakey Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 Does L1O have a women's program? I didn't think it included that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsC Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Does L1O have a women's program? I didn't think it included that. From http://www.league1ontario.com/league1-ontario-2015-application-package "League1 Ontario has begun to accept applications from organizations interested in entering teams for the 2015 season. In addition to the already established League1 Ontario Men's division, we have announced our intent to add a Women's division for 2015. Interested organizations may apply for a license to enter either a men's team, a women's team, or both a men's and women's team" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ClaytonA Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 http://www.lfpress.com/2015/01/13/dalla-costa-passion-only-goes-so-far Ed Lauterbach didn’t let go of his passion easily and certainly not quickly. But after 10 years, he couldn’t ignore reality any longer. ... “Toronto pulled out. Kitchener pulled out. Ottawa pulled out,” Ed Lauterbach said. “All they’ve got left in the Canadian division is Laval and Quebec City and they can play into the U.S. because they have teams that are close. “For us, it would have been horrendous travel. Our closest team would have been Dayton, Ohio, then Tennessee. (The league) wanted us to play a game in Florida. “So not only is the travel bad but it would have been hard attracting players when you are playing far away all the time.” ... Lauterbach estimates that he’s spent about $750,000 to run the team since he established it. ... “We did promote young kids from within to play in the W-League,” Lauterbach said. “When we were inducted into the Hall of Fame they said, ‘they may not have won a trophy but they moved a lot of players into scholarship programs.’ That got us a standing ovation.” No matter what the circumstances, seeing something that you created from nothing, come to an end after 10 years, is not an easy thing to go through. “I love the sport but I have to be a realist,” Lauterbach said. “It’s extremely hard. It’s 10 years of your life and your passion. We didn’t do it for the glory . . . there’s not much glory. We did it because we had a passion.” Much gratitude to the Lauterbach family and all others investing their time and money into the game of soccer at these four teams. I cannot pretend to know the details of media coverage aimed towards those not directly involved, but the general public; I've found it's ironic that a knife twisting or feel good story like this one makes it over the sports editor's desk versus the day-to-day and week-to-week goings on at clubs like these that would do much more to thank people like the Lauterbach's and provide some recognition than an obituary. Even when the media is provided the copy to be dismembered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Oakey Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Looks like Kitchener is out as well. No more W-League in Canada outside of Quebec. Very sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto7 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Terrible, terrible news! I caught several Laval games over the years and really enjoyed the passion and enthousiasm the players had. The bottom line is that this is an amateur league and there is no money to be made.I have to make sure and catch as many Cometes games this summer while we still have them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Oakey Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 There it is... Very sad. http://wleague.uslsoccer.com/home/859125.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto7 Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I imagine that most MLS teams have too many other things to care of to take W-league teams under their wing. This is the only solution I can think of to help make women's soccer thrive in North America. It works in Europe. Does anyone know if the NWSL is bringing in good sized crowds? Maybe they can associate with the W-league and have teams act as a reserve team just like the Washington Spirit are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Oakey Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 The problem is actually in Canada more than anywhere else. They lost a few other teams and part of that is because of NWSL. In Ontario I think the expectation is that L1Ontario will take over the reigns. Someone mentioned that L1Ontario was working with the Ontario Women's Soccer League to come up with their division, it could be they are now targeting former W-League clubs. I think that the Lynx have moved in that direction. Will the standard be high enough to keep competitive. I don't know. Much of the L1Ontario women's league stuff is lacking details. Woodbridge mentions that they will have a women's team, but still shows that dates of play TBD. I would say with the women's game, NCAA is even more important than in the Men's game, so the league will need to structure itself around the NCAA seasons, which the USL has always done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toje Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 K-W takes a break from W-League soccer http://www.therecord.com/sports-story/5278562-k-w-franchise-takes-a-break-from-w-league-soccer/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trillium Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 ". I would say with the women's game, NCAA is even more important than in the Men's game, so the league will need to structure itself around the NCAA seasons, which the USL has always done." The league in my opinion should run May through to October as close to the men's schedule as possible if less teams, I think they predict six in the upcoming year, then play each team two times at home and two away = 20 games and you have a good schedule. Players who go to play NCAA can be replaced by others from within clubs and if you run a roster of 25, you should probably ( and most likely could not have ) more then seven NCAA players on the squad. I would think the player development goal is to have players in a club playing in high level league and skipping playing NCAA, instead going to Canadian universitys and just playing club ball in a semi-professional set up then continuing on after a player career for women can strectch well into the thirtys and start at the League One level .... from 16 and up. The occasional player making a choice to play pro in Europe... over the winter and returning in summers to the Ontario League. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Oakey Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Again, a May to October schedule eliminates NCAA players, which continues to the the route of choose for our top level females. Think of players like Danica Wu, Cristabal Oduro or Elysia Masters. Even CIS players like Emily Brown or Genevieve Richard. I think it is pretty crazy to think that these players should give up their NCAA careers to play L1O. http://www.rednationonline.ca/Articles2012/CanadianstowatchintheNCAAWomensChampionshi.aspx Maybe it depends on your view of what L1O is trying to do, but if they play May to October, they are not replacing the W-League. What I think is crazy about the decision to come up with their own semi-pro league is that again you are asking these players to take the risk of basically a part-time contract over an NCAA scholarship where, if things fail, they can fall back on a professional degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Oakey Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 No W-League teams have joined L1Ontario. Dino says they are still in discussions: http://t.co/4tz0dW4SiR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 The W League is a multi-weekend tournament not a league. NCAA/CIS/CCAA is a similar six-week season and the players are a 3-year span from 18-21. Women's leagues in Europe are players covering a 25 year span from 14-40. If Canadian women's club soccer is going to grow we need to do the same and focus on soccer, not students. And while I really admire L1O for it's platform, we need to go Quebec-Ontario. Montreal and QC are right there and they have an equal talent pool. If L1O requires regular travel from Windsor and Ottawa, then all the teams in the league should be willing to do similar. The Americans asked Bernd Stober the other day what the big problem was in the US. He didn't answer with anything related to soccer - he said you need to have one organization making decisions and running things. The reason the Germans are #1 ranked in both men's and women's right now is they would never, ever, in a million years dream of excluding half the talent potential of their highest end league because of politics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdude Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Again, a May to October schedule eliminates NCAA players, which continues to the the route of choose for our top level females. Why? PLSQ has CIS players and future NCAA players. They don't have current NCAA players because they would lose their eligibility because they would play with "pros". If it's from May to October, the player can sign and play in L1O from May to August no problem. L1O had many NCAA players last year on the men's side. Also Danica Wu, Cristabel Oduro aren't at the NCAA anymore. I'll be honest, I don't know the number of players on the Ontarian teams except for Ottawa, and Ottawa had few Ottawa natives on their team. The team had about 50% of Canadian players, I know that a team like Quebec who had most if not all players on the team with a Quebec City or Université de Laval connection. Laval had a couple of Americans, but that was it, the rest were from Quebec with maybe 3-4 other Canadians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trillium Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 The W League is a multi-weekend tournament not a league. NCAA/CIS/CCAA is a similar six-week season and the players are a 3-year span from 18-21. Women's leagues in Europe are players covering a 25 year span from 14-40. If Canadian women's club soccer is going to grow we need to do the same and focus on soccer, not students. And while I really admire L1O for it's platform, we need to go Quebec-Ontario. Montreal and QC are right there and they have an equal talent pool. If L1O requires regular travel from Windsor and Ottawa, then all the teams in the league should be willing to do similar. The Americans asked Bernd Stober the other day what the big problem was in the US. He didn't answer with anything related to soccer - he said you need to have one organization making decisions and running things. The reason the Germans are #1 ranked in both men's and women's right now is they would never, ever, in a million years dream of excluding half the talent potential of their highest end league because of politics. I am in total agreement Vic. The idea Canadian players cannot be developed here in Canada playing club soccer and not get a university education is frankly silly. Play club for full real season 20 games or more ( six team league = 20 games ), go the local university. If your in Southren Ontario it means you can sustain club teams in London, Hamilton, Toronto, Oshawa, Vaughan, Barrie .... and yes add in the Quebec teams with some Eastern Ontario teams in Kingston, Ottawa, Laval, Quebec City, and Montreal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi Oakey Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 I don't know, have you looked at the Athletic Scholarship numbers for NCAA and CIS? That might point you in the right direction. I am not saying that they CAN'T play in Canada as semi-pro's and go to a Canadian University, I am saying it is isn't ADVANTAGEOUS at this point. I think it won't be advantageous for a talented Canadian woman to go to a CIS University + play semi-pro soccer for awhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdude Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Most of the players will stay close to home/university during the summer. So, they'll find the best level available where they will spend their summer. I don't think that it would change that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll3uipTO-4A Classic. If you're old enough to remember Name That Tune you'll love the intro. I can name that tune in four notes. Ask Lindsey Horan which one is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdude Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Laval will host the W-League final. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ref Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Laval will host the W-League final. Is Laval the only Canadian club still playing in the W-League? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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