FC Edmonton 2016 Season

[jedinathan]

6 hours ago, shamrock said:

Straight red. The second challenge wasn't even a foul IMO. FCE did it again, they are really annoying to play against;-)

 

Ya that's what we thought in the stands as well. IMO the ref saw the replay and probably wanted to catch up. In fairness to him, Diakite was pretty accepting of some of the fan's ire on twitter... thanked one for the feedback, and was pretty respectful.

 

And ya. Right now, this is a club that knows they can wait it out, then strike when they have a chance. Not the most enjoyable games, but they're super tight in the back. I've heard that this team is VERY close knit.

Also: How tough is Albert Watson? Had several stitches put in on the sidelines early in the game, then played the remaining 90. Since he's also had some teeth knocked out during play, some of the FCEd fans are starting to think he's the second coming of Ryan Smyth...

[shermanator]

Yesterday's game was the first Eddies game I've watched in a while. It was not a pretty affair. I also agree that the first Diakite foul was a straight red. He's arguably been their MVP this year, but those fouls were terrible. Good thing they picked up a CB for cover, because Miller doesn't seem to rate Aleksic.

Tissot was far and away the best play in a Fury shirt. I enjoy the amount of Canadian talent on the Fury, but they just aren't a good club.

[shermanator]

Also, this article makes it seem like the Eddies aren't long for Edmonton. Including a plea for the city to build a soccer specific stadium, despite the fact that they haven't shown they can get butts in seats. When they met with city council a few years back they had to show that they could sell out Clarke for the city to move forward, and they haven't done that.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2016/07/17/fc-edmonton-competitive-on-the-pitch-but-dont-have-the-pitch-to-compete-in-the-nasl

[jedinathan]

3 hours ago, shermanator said:

Yesterday's game was the first Eddies game I've watched in a while. It was not a pretty affair. I also agree that the first Diakite foul was a straight red. He's arguably been their MVP this year, but those fouls were terrible. Good thing they picked up a CB for cover, because Miller doesn't seem to rate Aleksic.

Tissot was far and away the best play in a Fury shirt. I enjoy the amount of Canadian talent on the Fury, but they just aren't a good club.

You think? I thought Edward was their most positive player... poor news for Ottawa as well, as Porter is out with an injury now, so Eddie just might be their strongest player on that wing.

Aleksic has seen a lot of time on the bench this year. Not sure why the new player Smith was there yesterday to be honest. I know there were issues with Aleksic in 2015 (and that's not just with Miller), so I wonder if some part of it isn't coming up again. Hopefully not, he seems to have done well this year. Believe he was even in some of the training pictures the club posted over the last week.

 

EDIT: Just was doing some digging. Seems Aleksic was unavailable due to injury (Sandor posted that in the comments in his article about Smith)

[masster]

On 7/18/2016 at 8:07 AM, shermanator said:

Also, this article makes it seem like the Eddies aren't long for Edmonton. Including a plea for the city to build a soccer specific stadium, despite the fact that they haven't shown they can get butts in seats. When they met with city council a few years back they had to show that they could sell out Clarke for the city to move forward, and they haven't done that.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2016/07/17/fc-edmonton-competitive-on-the-pitch-but-dont-have-the-pitch-to-compete-in-the-nasl

Yes another article in today's paper that makes it sound like it is now or never for the Eddies.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2016/07/18/fc-edmonton-gm-jay-ball-is-working-to-make-the-team-a-happening-and-consultant-pat-laforge-is-on-board

[jedinathan]

I actually read a lot of positives there. There's finally a business team in place, rather than people who don't understand the Edmonton market. Laforge is VERY well known and connected around Edmonton. He's been a good addition for Fath IMO.

For On-field items: Ben Fisk is reportedly training with FCEd right now (via Steven Sandor). Would be a fantastic addition for FCEd, and would add back into the Canadian mentality of the team.  

[shermanator]

Looks like Ben Fisk is training with FC Edmonton right now. The club had made contract offers to two other Canadians, but they were not accepted.

http://the11.ca/2016/07/19/ben-fisk-on-his-training-stint-with-fc-edmonton-well-see-how-the-club-likes-me-and-well-go-from-there/

[Steedman]

Wonder who the other contracts were offered too. How ambitious are the Eddies?

[jedinathan]

Here's some more info: one more player to arrive tomorrow, Argentine/Italian.

 

http://the11.ca/2016/07/26/fisk-and-galvao-need-patience-fc-edmonton-waiting-on-spanish-portuguese-federations-to-sign-off-on-deals/

 

Fisk has an offer in, waiting on approval, Galvao is one of the other players, also waiting on approval.

[Kurt-MTL]

Anyone watch the game yesterday? Saw Fisk came on as a sub. How did the new guys look? Was the attendance really just 1904? Kinda disappointing given the team's recent run and that it was a weekend..

[Bison44]

I caught the last half, the stands did look pretty empty.  Sad to see them on such a hot streak and still getting poor crowds.  Fisk looked lively, made some good runs etc, but came on very late.  He must have had friends/family at the game as it showed him chatting up a bunch of happy people after the game.  

[masster]

I missed the game on the weekend but watched the midweek match against New York which was very enjoyable. That was the fullest I had ever seen the stands for a league match in Edmonton.

[jedinathan]

Its rather strange that the Wednesday night game attracted more people than Sunday, but there's a few standard excuses. Take it for what its worth, and I'm not excusing FCEd or Edmonton in this, as a disclaimer. Just a FYI for what this weekend looks like in Edmonton.

The August long is pretty much the busiest weekend in Edmonton... You have K Days, Taste of Edmonton, Heritage Days, and then of course the fact that Edmonton seems to empty out on long weekends during the summer so people can go camping/traveling. If FCEd can get away from this weekend in particular next year, it would make a big difference. The other issue of note here is that the later game (despite being in the middle of the week) got a decently good turnout. So its another argument for the club to push for the later start times (which the club is doing by the way).

 

This year, the club has been doing a very good job at selling the big blue stands first, then opening up the remainder of the stadium (namely the old concrete grandstand). I like this for a couple reasons... First, it looks much MUCH better on TV, but also that it makes better sense for selling tickets. The grandstand doesn't have any assigned seating, but has bench seating. I'd love to see the city upgrade that with some nice blue seats to mirror the East side of the stadium.

[hamiltonfan]

I've really enjoyed followed th eddies this year. 

Encourage everyone to buy some merch or donate a game ticket to a local charity. 

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

On 6/24/2016 at 0:15 AM, CDNFootballer said:

Big Blue, the grandstand that Tom Fath paid $750K for to add to Clarke's Capacity :

The cost included the two smaller corner grandstands that were added as well.

Everybody needs a big blue in their life.

[shamrock]

I really think they could have done better to make for a cosy atmosphere at Clarke's. Those corner bleachers are ridiculous, why not put lower stands behind each goal like a normal soccer stadium? I strongly believe the stadium experience is part of the event. Ottawa Fury would draw less if they had Clarke's instead of that shiny TD place. 

[shermanator]

43 minutes ago, shamrock said:

I really think they could have done better to make for a cosy atmosphere at Clarke's. Those corner bleachers are ridiculous, why not put lower stands behind each goal like a normal soccer stadium? I strongly believe the stadium experience is part of the event. Ottawa Fury would draw less if they had Clarke's instead of that shiny TD place. 

Remember that Clarke is shared with Edmonton minor football. The city will not allow the club to put bleachers in what would be the endzones. The club did get an exception for the supporters section that has to be wheeled back immediately after games, and from what I understand that was a pretty big fight.

[jedinathan]

+1 to what @shermanator said. I would LOVE to see those stands used as a cheaper alternative on either side of the current concrete grandstand as an alternative option, but I think theres restrictions due to the fencing.

Minor pointy-ball has been just brutal with FCEd in terms of improving the stadium. They've honestly complained about almost every improvement that FCEd has done. New stands? "Why did you do that!? Now we can't have our benches on that side of the field!" (Seriously, this was a complaint). New turf with soccer markings? "How will you make sure that the gridiron markings are on there for our games?"

Granted there is a LONG history of pointy-ball at Clarke, but this city is in pretty desperate need for a better mid-sized stadium. There's Commonwealth, then almost nothing under that size, just Clarke and Foote.

IMO Edmonton needs to let FCEd brand the stadium the way they will. Its already half done with the blue stands, I don't see what the issue would be with using more of the City Blue colour around there (Yes I know, pointy-ball fans will complain, as it was originally intended for the Esks...). That and allowing/providing for more ad space in and around Clarke for FCEd. I JUST talked on the Loyal Co Podcast last night with two CanWNT fans who love the sport, would have come out, but had no idea where FCEd played. They just found out that they live 5 min from the stadium. Both FCEd and the city need to get on this, so that the club can survive.

[shermanator]

Fath has been a very good owner for the club, but I really think he has bungled his opportunity here. When your business model dictates that you need 8-9k coming to games to break even, and you play in a stadium with half the capacity to break even, it's a bad business model. 

That Fath has expected that they would be playing in a new stadium by now, without him building said stadium, sheer naiveté on his party. The city isn't going to build a 10k seat stadium for a club that draws anywhere from 2-3k a night, nor should they. He is on his own if he wants a soccer specific stadium.

 

[jedinathan]

19 minutes ago, shermanator said:

Fath has been a very good owner for the club, but I really think he has bungled his opportunity here. When your business model dictates that you need 8-9k coming to games to break even, and you play in a stadium with half the capacity to break even, it's a bad business model. 

That Fath has expected that they would be playing in a new stadium by now, without him building said stadium, sheer naiveté on his party. The city isn't going to build a 10k seat stadium for a club that draws anywhere from 2-3k a night, nor should they. He is on his own if he wants a soccer specific stadium.

 

Fath is VERY naïve. Like scary amounts. To the point where he's trusted the wrong people (and invested a LOT in those people) in regards to FCEd in my opinion. He's also quite stubborn. For example, its no secret that he flat out refuses to spend any more than minimal cash on ads, due to it not paying off 5 years ago. I think the club is in a place now where the quality of the play has increased, and Clarke has been made nice enough that most people would enjoy it where the advertising would pay off. I've talked with people who literally didn't think the club existed anymore because they hadn't heard anything about it.

I don't think that Fath NEEDS 8-9K next season or he folds up shop. I do think he needs to see some improvement, and increase in the stands to keep on investing. But he also needs to realize what it is to properly promote a sports club.

With a limited budget, I would like to see him use his community connections. Get M31 (his son's video company) to make a supporter/hype video like Ottawa has done, and then talk with the Esks to get it up during halftime at Eskimos games. I'm sure they can exchange the use of the titan a few times for 30 sec of airtime. Get the city to approve some banners, then use the in house printing shop he has to make some nice, plain FCEd banners around commonwealth and Clarke.

[Kurt-MTL]

5 hours ago, shermanator said:

The city isn't going to build a 10k seat stadium for a club that draws anywhere from 2-3k a night, nor should they. He is on his own if he wants a soccer specific stadium.

 

 But does Fath have the capital to go it alone and build his own SSS if he were so inclined and if city council approved? 

 

4 hours ago, jedinathan said:

Fath is VERY naïve. Like scary amounts. To the point where he's trusted the wrong people (and invested a LOT in those people) in regards to FCEd in my opinion. He's also quite stubborn. For example, its no secret that he flat out refuses to spend any more than minimal cash on ads, due to it not paying off 5 years ago. I think the club is in a place now where the quality of the play has increased, and Clarke has been made nice enough that most people would enjoy it where the advertising would pay off. I've talked with people who literally didn't think the club existed anymore because they hadn't heard anything about it.

I don't think that Fath NEEDS 8-9K next season or he folds up shop. I do think he needs to see some improvement, and increase in the stands to keep on investing. But he also needs to realize what it is to properly promote a sports club.

With a limited budget, I would like to see him use his community connections. Get M31 (his son's video company) to make a supporter/hype video like Ottawa has done, and then talk with the Esks to get it up during halftime at Eskimos games. I'm sure they can exchange the use of the titan a few times for 30 sec of airtime. Get the city to approve some banners, then use the in house printing shop he has to make some nice, plain FCEd banners around commonwealth and Clarke.

Are FCEd connected to any of the local clubs? You would think that community outreach and smart advertising would be no-brainers... 

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

6 hours ago, jedinathan said:

I JUST talked on the Loyal Co Podcast last night with two CanWNT fans who love the sport, would have come out, but had no idea where FCEd played. They just found out that they live 5 min from the stadium. Both FCEd and the city need to get on this, so that the club can survive.

There's a lot more of this than people realize.  I think to some extent winning will help things, and to some extent I think it just needs time.  

That being said, I do think there are things that we can do to help push it in the right direction.

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

And as much as I agree that the stadium is a little meh, it's tough to justify expanding it when the stands aren't yet full.  I know it's a little bit of a chicken and the egg thing, but realistically, we should focus on grassroots ways of helping, because waiting for a massive stadium upgrade is generally going to be a disappointment.  

Like serious question.  What can we actually do?  

There must be ways of getting the word out.

[yothat]

pablo cruz left the club

 

http://www.fcedmonton.com/news/2016/07/29/fc-edmonton-midfielder-pablo-cruz-part-ways

[jedinathan]

Ok... Lets see what I can say about the last few posts here....

@Kurt-MTL: Re: Fath's capital... Yes he probably does, but he's most likely uncertain if it would be worth it for him to invest that much money (in addition to what he's already losing in FCEd) on something so far unproven. I know that the luxury stadium that FCEd went to the city for a few years ago topped out at around 40 mil... and that was with brand new everything, indoor training, the whole works. The realistic situation is more like 10-20 mil, but the land and location is probably the bigger issue. If this whole Northlands thing falls through (deadline is around beginning of Sept), I could see the city being more willing to sell some land to Fath on the cheap.

As for partnering with local clubs... There's some history there. When FCEd first started, Joe P went and poached a lot of the talent from the local clubs. There was a lot (and I mean A LOT) of resentment for FCEd in the start, as well as the potential crowd treated it as "well I just played against these guys last year, why would I pay to watch them this year". FCEd didn't approach the minor soccer teams seriously until this spring (late May/June). It was one of Jay's priorities, as he recognized that there were literally tens of thousands of kids (and their families) who might be interested in coming to games. Its been met with some success, but I still have hope that things will continue to improve, particularly when Jay has the ability to set up families or clubs with season ticket packages, or market it a bit better. Playing during the afternoon is a big deterrent there as well (I know minor games are going on as well during those times), so I think Jay's push for the city to have Saturday evening games next year will be a good as well.

@GuillermoDelQuarto: Yep. There's a ton. While its been drifting for a bit, the Edmonton Supporters Group has (very) recently refocused its efforts, and will be making a more concentrated effort to promote the ESG, as well as the club in the coming weeks. Its seen a significant increase in attendance the last few games, and I think that's really energizing some within that group. Good stuff. I also think that pushing local radio stations for more coverage, pushing the Edmonton Journal/Sun for better coverage, as well as pushing the City of Edmonton to help "brand" Clarke as FCEd's home territory will help that as well. If you're passing by on any day other than gameday, there's literally nothing saying that Clarke is FCEd's home stadium. Quite the opposite to Commonwealth. Getting some banners on the main road, or even an ad on the Commonwealth video screen outside the stadium would go a long way in my opinion.