Canadian Premier League

[Keegan]

12 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

I may be wrong but I think it would be a super long shot for Canada to get the world cup on its own. It hard to imagine the political will is there to put the billions of dollars that would be needed into the facilities. Besides that we have a fairly small population spread out over a large land which would be logistically challenging. 

Finally I may be wrong but I think that the world cup similar to the Olympic games is now heavily about money. Are 60,000 Canadians going to shell out 100$+ a ticket to watch Nigeria Vs. Australia (nothing against those countries) and dozens of other matches like that over the entire tournament?

Im not pooping on Canada but I think with our current population, stadiums and soccer fan base it would make much more sense to be part of an American bid and host some games. I just dont think it is feasible in any way shape or form to have the whole tournament here at this time in history.

I think you're forgetting something... it's the WORLD CUP.  You don't need to depend on locals for tickets, but regardless even if you did those tickets are going to sell out immediately.  The World Cup is massive in Canada, just think of how many Canadians travel to each one and $100+ for a ticket to say you've seen a World Cup match?  Pretty easy sell.  Not to mention Canada was the country out of the last World Cup that sold the most tickets for Brazil 2014.  

[Gopherbashi]

Expecting the government to shill out hundreds of millions of dollars for 60k+ stadiums across the country for a World Cup bid isn't only silly, but it also won't help the CPL in the slightest.

CPL teams aren't going to get near that mark.  Hell, if they average one-tenth of that mark, most people here will be pleasantly surprised.  There's no sense building massive stadiums that are going to be bigger echo chambers than these forums and won't be complete until year five (minimum) after launch.

The stadiums that the CPL needs aren't World Cup size, and building anything for the CPL with that size in mind is a gigantic waste of money.

There's tons of great reasons why we should want the World Cup, and great reasons why it would help the CPL, but stadium construction isn't one of them - the scales are just too far off.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

You are forgetting that in the 2014 NASL division scenario the other investors were going to be CFL teams. The World Cup stadia were going to be for the CFL first and foremost and CPL teams would have been a minor expense to provide a "soccer legacy".

[matty]

11 hours ago, Macksam said:

 

This guy's a dick. Antoine Dodson, not you Macksam

[dyslexic nam]

Would I love to see us deliver a successful solo bid.  Hells yeah.  I firmly support every tax dollar it would take.

Do I think we will even try to make a solo bid?  Not a chance.  Right now the federal government is taking flak for underfunding health care and spending billions on foreign aid.  There is no way they are going to try to fund a bid like this - especially since it will still very much be an issue (with cheques being written everyday) when the next election rolls around.  Seriously, I would put the odds as <2%, and that is just on the financial side.  Throw in the over capacity issue once the WC ends, and it is a non-starter.

While I am not a fan of settling for 2nd best, I think it is better to be advocating for something in the realm of possibility that blue-skying about something fantastic but fantastical.  IMO, a co-host arrangement is the only way we get to be a part of it all, so better to focus on what we should push for in that context.  Do we go with all 3 partners or just try to co-host with the US? (a dual bid would give us more games and a better shot at the final).  Do we push for an equal share of matches or accept a smaller portion because, well, we're 'just Canada'...?  Do we push for the final, or be content with a semi or two?  Etc.

[Ansem]

"The centrepiece of last March's budget was a $120-billion infrastructure plan, rolling out over 10 years. With today's economic update, the government is now planning for $186 billion worth of programs, unfolding over the next 11 years."

They are on a spending spree actually. The World Cup being the biggest event on the planet where the whole planet looks at Canada, talks Canada and spend in Canada for over a month is why you usually won't find a government say no for spending on this. The biggest worry is the "legacy" of the stadiums. What will they be used for after? That's why some of Brazil stadiums were built with reducing the seats in mind for their league

[dyslexic nam]

I don't want to open yet another line of bickering, but I don't think you are right in claiming that the reasons you cite are "why you usually won't find a government say no for spending on this."  The vast majority of governments kill these kinds of bids before they are made public precisely because they are uninterested in this kind of spending.  Most countries don't seek to host the WC or the Olympics because they can turn into fiscal nightmares for governments.   If hosting these events were cash cows, everyone would be scrambling to host them.  But they are not.  So they are not. 

 

[Ansem]

18 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I don't want to open yet another line of bickering, but I don't think you are right in claiming that the reasons you cite are "why you usually won't find a government say no for spending on this."  The vast majority of governments kill these kinds of bids before they are made public precisely because they are uninterested in this kind of spending.  Most countries don't seek to host the WC or the Olympics because they can turn into fiscal nightmares for governments.   If hosting these events were cash cows, everyone would be scrambling to host them.  But they are not.  So they are not. 

 

The CSA would not be bidding or remotely talking about it if they didn't have the backing of the Federal government. It's a principle that applies to Olympic game bids. The Conservatives were already interested, safe to say it's unlikely the Liberals would change the government's stance on it.

[Ansem]

2 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

There was very little chance that Stephen Harper would have committed to paying for sports stadia upgrades and new builds that potentially would have run over $1 billion,

Even the Harper Government had showed interest in the bid

[Ansem]

14 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

Finally I may be wrong but I think that the world cup similar to the Olympic games is now heavily about money. Are 60,000 Canadians going to shell out 100$+ a ticket to watch Nigeria Vs. Australia (nothing against those countries) and dozens of other matches like that over the entire tournament?

Better ratio than the US, Germany, Australia, France and Mexico

[ted]

2 hours ago, Keegan said:

I think you're forgetting something... it's the WORLD CUP.  You don't need to depend on locals for tickets, but regardless even if you did those tickets are going to sell out immediately.  The World Cup is massive in Canada, just think of how many Canadians travel to each one and $100+ for a ticket to say you've seen a World Cup match?  Pretty easy sell.  Not to mention Canada was the country out of the last World Cup that sold the most tickets for Brazil 2014.  

Also forgetting that large numbers of US residents will come up to Canada for WC games.

[dyslexic nam]

So we bought 28k of the available 1.5M tickets?  You may want to pick that mic back up.

[Rheo]

15 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

So we bought 28k of the available 1.5M tickets?  You may want to pick that mic back up.

At least got to make use of some clip art lol

Seriously though the lack of context for the graph provided doesn't make it mean much alone.  Is that just for the last one I take it?

[Ansem]

5 thousands less tickets than the French who's a world powerhouse in soccer and a recurring participant.

Read again 5000 difference...a nation who hasn't had a decent team since 1986 and haven't been in the world cup since then.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

And where are you going with this, Ansem? The CSA appear to have settled their differences with MLS and there are plenty of media stories circulating about Victor Montagliani negotiating with the USSF and Mexican association about a three-way bid. That scenario was being talked about on here well before Christmas as Nick Bontis of the CSA was reported as mentioning it is the option that was being explored at the fan group meeting in Hamilton. What does this all mean for a domestic pro league? Look for something that revolves around PDL franchises rather than the CFL.

[Ansem]

5 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

And where are you going with this, Ansem? The CSA appear to have settled their differences with MLS and there are plenty of media stories circulating about Victor Montagliani negotiating with the USSF and Mexican association about a three-way bid. That scenario was being talked about on here well before Christmas as Nick Bontis of the CSA was reported as mentioning it is the option that was being explored at the fan group meeting in Hamilton. What does this all mean for a domestic pro league? Look for something that revolves around PDL franchises rather than the CFL.

Not even know what you're talking about. I was responding to a post doubting that Canadians would buy World Cup expensive tickets.

Your posts wanting Canadian soccer being Division 5 and that we all celebrate USSF leagues are the least of my worries or concerns

[Levi Oakey]

In a chip shack in Waterloo and saw this movie poster. Figured it was pretty repostable.

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

love it /\

[Macksam]

PDL franchises? Whoa 

BBTB is taking his game to the next level. The CPL is not even going to involve USL Pro franchises anymore lol

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

I've said this before but I think its relevant again.  

I don't think it really matters the initial level of quality as long as its branded correctly and is about growing it into a good product through supporting local.

Like whether the initial franchises are PDL or USL or whatever I don't think really matters all that much as long as they're in the Canadian premier league that is supposed to eventually compete with (1A to) MLS.  Even if it doesn't right now.  

While pro rel isn'tlikely at first, I think that should be the LONG TERM goal.  I just think its good to have goals to work towards in terms of motivating people and getting then excited about being involved.

Imagine this.  CPL has 10-15 teams.  We have L1O, PLSQ, L1E(east) and L1W(west).  The top team from each team in the lower leagues(all considered D2 in Canada) will compete in a round robin tournament.  The champion of this will play the lowest team in CPL in a home and away to be promoted(or not).

If the team achieves promotion and can't afford travel, those costs will be subsidized by CPL.  No other funds will be shared with the club.  The club can sell their promotion to the defeated (former) CPL club if they wish.

This is an authentic system that still gives the premier league teams every opportunity to remain in CPL.  They should win the playoff most times.  

I get that this is a ways away but its fun to think about and let's be honest sometimes this thread needs a turn in the positive direction lol.

 

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

Basically, as much as I think that the initial owners should be granted a considerable amount of protection, I do think offering small clubs a narrow window to the big leagues will go a long way to making this authentic and winning over ALL the possible fans in this country.  Especially in terms of penetrating small markets, which I think people may underestimate the importance of.  

Inspirational speech over.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

4 minutes ago, GuillermoDelQuarto said:

...they're in the Canadian premier league that is supposed to eventually compete with (1A to) MLS...

Think that was what might have happened if they could have used a strong standalone 2026 World Cup bid as rocket fuel, although it was always a bit of a Pipe dream (pun intended) given the amount of government money that was going to be needed to make it fly. Now it probably is intended to be like the League of Wales or New Zealand Championship with no expectation of that ever changing, but hopefully a bit stronger as both those leagues are semi-pro.

[matty]

14 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Think that was what might have happened if they could have used a strong standalone 2026 World Cup bid as rocket fuel, although it was always a bit of a Pipe dream (pun intended) given the amount of government money that was going to be needed to make it fly. Now it probably is intended to be like the League of Wales or New Zealand Championship with no expectation of that ever changing, but hopefully a bit stronger as both those leagues are semi-pro.

God shut up about this. With the exception of maybe calgary, toronto and Montreal, none of the cfl cities were going to get awesome new toys due to 2026 as they had already updated or built new stadiums and facilities in the prior 5 years that met the requirements to host with the expection of grass. Vic was clear that we had the goddamn stadiums and facilities already in place so the cup would be cheap.

We were also the favorites to host the fucking thing and combined with the reduced costs we were dealing with Canada could very well possibly of hosted alone. This joint bid seems to be more of an effort to prevent canada, the us and mexico of cancelling out each other's bids and allowing columbia to get it instead.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

World Cup stadiums need to be roughly 40,000+ with 60,000 to 80,000 preferred for the later stages. Major upgrades would have been required to existing CFL stadia. Grey Cup style temporary seats wouldn't cut it. The preferred number of venues is 12 and there is a strong preference for venues to be in separate cities, so there almost certainly would have been a need for new builds.

[matty]

13 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

World Cup stadiums need to be roughly 40,000+ with 60,000 to 80,000 preferred for the later stages. Major upgrades would have been required to existing CFL stadia. Grey Cup style temporary seats wouldn't cut it. The preferred number of venues is 12 and there is a strong preference for venues to be in separate cities, so there almost certainly would have been a need for new builds.

Please look up stadiums in canada see that we have about 9 or 10 right now in 9 cities that would work with most only need minor upgrades because they had them done in the last 2 years and are up to date. Note that there are 2 that are over 55k that are mostly fine and that the 2 new ones would likely be placed in the two largest cities.