League1 Ontario general news thread

[shermanator]

Figured I would start a thread to capture general news on League1 Ontario. Since these "regional D3 leagues" are critical to our emerging pyramid, I think we all have an interest in watching this league grow in the next few years, and produce local talent that can move on to the professional ranks.

Anywho, FC London has announced they will have 12 games broadcast on Rogers TV London. I think that is a big development for a regional league. FC Londonalso had a sold out crowd at The Cove for their home opener, which means they've kept interest with the casual crowd during their move from PDL to L1O. 

[shermanator]

TFC and Windsor Stars have announced a partnership:

Toronto Football Club and the Windsor Stars announced a partnership today that will see the two organizations work closely together to build a model professional and amateur sport partnership. Toronto FC will support Windsor as a regional satellite club, providing professional technical player and coaching development at the youth level. The club will be called Windsor TFC.

The partnership between Toronto FC and Windsor Stars will include development programs for players, with TFC coaches making trips to Windsor to provide coaching instruction and technical training. Windsor coaches will also make a number of trips per year to Toronto FC’s Kia Training Ground to observe and learn best practices from TFC’s staff.

http://www.torontofc.ca/post/2016/06/16/toronto-fc-and-windsor-stars-announce-partnership

[Rintaran]

I read the Windsor/TFC partnership article and am left to wonder, is this actually a good thing? I mean, TFC Academy already have a L1O team, and its near the bottom of the league with Windsor Stars only slightly better. Will this mean Windsor TFC & TFC Academy will both exist in L1O or will TFC be shrinking one team out at years' end? Will L1O end up being a TFC USL/PDL feeder league? Not sure I feel good about that.

Ok, it's a little positive that there will be some coaching help & the occasional chance to train on some proper grounds, but considering that only TFC's MLS team is above average for their league this year, I dunno how good that actually will be.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

It's a sensible thing. Windsor is about four hours drive from Toronto. You can't sensibly cover all of southern Ontario from the GTA in youth development terms, because it takes over eight hours to drive from one end to the other, which is about the same as going from Paris to Hamburg in a European context. There's no danger of TFCA pulling out because of this. This is something they already should have been doing, if they are serious about identifying all of the best players in Ontario. TFC were asleep at the switch when they allowed the Whitecaps to move into London.

http://london.ctvnews.ca/whitecaps-choose-london-as-first-site-of-youth-academy-in-eastern-canada-1.2472381

 

 

[Gopherbashi]

Looks like that TFC money is going towards supporting youth development with Windsor, so I don't know how badly it will screw over the Stars, but I imagine they'll be left with TFC's leftovers for their senior team.

[to70]

From the story on TFC's website it only talks about technical and coaching development help for the Windsor  Stars.

.

 

Toronto Football Club and the Windsor Stars announced a partnership today that will see the two organizations work closely together to build a model professional and amateur sport partnership. Toronto FC will support Windsor as a regional satellite club, providing professional technical player and coaching development at the youth level. The club will be called Windsor TFC.

“Toronto FC is proud to partner with Windsor Stars in a long term relationship that will be beneficial to both clubs,” said Kia Toronto FC Academy Director Laurent Guyot. “Providing a clear player pathway for the young athletes in Windsor and Ontario is imperative to the success of our club.  This is an exciting time for our club and we are looking forward to the great accomplishments Windsor Stars and Toronto FC will achieve.”

Windsor Stars has a long history of representing the Essex County soccer community at the highest levels of amateur soccer in Ontario and are active in League 1 Ontario. With this partnership with TFC, Windsor Stars will receive technical and tactical direction, fitness guidance and other relevant assistance from members of the Toronto FC Academy staff. In addition, it provides a direct pathway for our high potential athletes who aspire to become professional players. 
“Toronto FC is Ontario’s team, not only the GTA’s,” stated Vancho Cirovski, Windsor Stars President. “We in Windsor and Essex County are delighted to help stretch TFC’s support for developing soccer at the outskirts of Ontario as its first satellite program. The Windsor Stars have a proud history and with the technical direction of the TFC staff, we can reach new heights through a clear player development pathway for our region. TFC and the Stars have a long term perspective that will deliver development opportunity for players, coaches and excitement for our fans.” 

The partnership between Toronto FC and Windsor Stars will include development programs for players, with TFC coaches making trips to Windsor to provide coaching instruction and technical training. Windsor coaches will also make a number of trips per year to Toronto FC’s Kia Training Ground to observe and learn best practices from TFC’s staff.

[coppercanuck]

I wasn't sure were to post this question ... I noticed that Toronto had some overlap in the East/West divisions.  Curious if there were reasons for doing it the way they did? Will that be adjusted every year?

[Gopherbashi]

2 hours ago, coppercanuck said:

I wasn't sure were to post this question ... I noticed that Toronto had some overlap in the East/West divisions.  Curious if there were reasons for doing it the way they did? Will that be adjusted every year?

It's bloody confusing is what it is. I kind of feel that they picked teams out of a hat to make it happen.

I assume it will be adjusted every year since it doesn't exactly rely on political borders or anything like that.  I kind of expect at some point that L1O might experiment with pro/rel - Dino's alluded to it in the past since it's not as if there's any infrastructure considerations between different divisions and ticket revenues probably won't be affected one bit.  That alone might make conferences obsolete at some point.

[Rocket Robin]

I have nothing official on it but Yonge Street north/south street bisecting Toronto seems to be the

dividing line between East and West except Vaughan and Woodbridge are geographically west of that street.  I'd expect that since three (Aurora Unite, North Toronto Nitros, Toronto Skillz) of the four expansion franchises are in the East (geographically) the league wanted to balance this by moving those two 'good' teams to the East.  FC London is the other new team and they were an established PDL team and one of the two furthest West teams by geography. 

Sanjaxx moved all their games to Monarch Park in Toronto's east end but they stay in the West (good balance as they are not a strong team by results) . 

I can see the Toronto teams shuffling East-West as new teams are added until one day the dream is that they split between Divisions with promotion/relegation (that I did hear from Dino Rossi) when they do get enough teams. 

[-Hammer-]

Hopefully if and when the CPL gets around, Hamilton will also add another team to League 1 Ontario.

[msilverstein47]

http://www.mlive.com/sports/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/05/grand_rapids_fc_to_play_friend.html

soccer game Oct. 8.

Grand Rapids FC, the second-year club of the National Premier Soccer League, will host Toronto-based Aurora United FC, of the Ontario Soccer League, in a friendly match between the two teams.

 

[Gopherbashi]

1 hour ago, msilverstein47 said:

http://www.mlive.com/sports/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/05/grand_rapids_fc_to_play_friend.html

soccer game Oct. 8.

Grand Rapids FC, the second-year club of the National Premier Soccer League, will host Toronto-based Aurora United FC, of the Ontario Soccer League, in a friendly match between the two teams.

 

I'm not sure this is the L1O team; seems like it's the lower-level Ontario Soccer League team.

[Rocket Robin]

Windsor TFC ‏@WindsorStars 2h2 hours ago

Major announcement from Windsor TFC. Check the news on the brand new website. http://windsortfc.com/?p=173 

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

Looks like tryouts are scheduled.  

Hey how about the Windsor TFC logo?  Looks like a W instead of a T on the badge. 

[shermanator]

Looks like FC London are launching an academy. Details are spare, but here it says it starts at U4 through their L1O squad. Good stuff.

http://londonontariosports.com/major/fc-london/fc-london-launches-youth-academy/

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Worth bearing in mind that the Vancouver Whitecaps have teams up and running in London in cooperation with the local district association, and that group is trying to get into OPDL:

http://www.whitecapsfc.com/youth/post/2016/08/21/london-youth-whitecaps-applying-join-opdl

FC London tried but failed to do that a few years ago, because of opposition from top youth clubs in the city, so may have missed their chance to be the top youth academy setup in London.

http://www.lfpress.com/2014/04/23/first-fc-london-games-still-to-be-in-london

Will be interesting to watch what unfolds.

 

Edited September 3, 2016 by BringBackTheBlizzard

[shermanator]

I'm sure this info is in another thread, but TFC and FC London have now formed a partnership similar to the one just formed with Windsor Stars. Here are some details on this via the London Free Press. It looks like TFC will be setting up a few more partnerships through southern Ontario. Not sure if these arrangements are similar or different from the Whitecaps ones across the country?

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/10/05/dalla-costa-partners-pitch-hope

In terms of player opportunity, it’s always good news to see some of the heavy hitters in Canadian professional soccer come into your community. It’s an obvious attempt to make sure everyone understands what they want to do and their willingness to work with community partners to do it.

“This is the third year of our strategic plan and we feel we’ve sorted our things out internally and that we have one of the best academies in MLS in terms of producing professionals,” Bezbatchenko said. “We need to provide an outlet for players who want to be professional beyond the GTA. We would be silly not to reach out to the hotbeds in Ontario. London is sort of the capital of this region.

“We’re not going to be doing this in every market. I’d say three-to-five strategic markets . . . I think that are enough.”

The League1 Ontario team and Toronto FC will work closely to scout, develop and advance players they hope will eventually land at a Toronto FC Academy and their professional team.

The organizations have formed the London TFC Regional Development and Identification Centre. Toronto FC will provide professional technical player and coaching development help. FC London will retain its name. Toronto FC also has a development centre in Windsor.

There is no direct financial contribution to FC London but any players or coaching clinics will be shared with other members within the FC London family.

Toronto FC will make scouting trips to London, of course, but FC London will provide the parent organization with quarterly updates on the development of players of interest.

The goal is to move players into the TFC Academy and eventually on to the professional club.

[Gopherbashi]

I eagerly await the entry of KWCTFC.

[Pqhbv]

Seems like TFC is trying to get an early jump on Canadian talent across S. Ontario. Could bee benevolent or it could be to avoid paying transfer fees down the line and subvert the CPL... who knows?

[Gopherbashi]

7 hours ago, Pqhbv said:

Seems like TFC is trying to get an early jump on Canadian talent across S. Ontario. Could bee benevolent or it could be to avoid paying transfer fees down the line and subvert the CPL... who knows?

My worry is definitely the last part of that.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Perhaps worth bearing in mind that there has yet to be a formal announcement where the CPL is concerned.

[ironcub14]

Just a random little tidbit, I asked Dino Rossi over the weekend if he'd ever consider pro/rel in the distant future between L1O and the top district leagues, such as OCSL for Ottawa (I don't know if TSSL is the top one for Toronto, I'm still fairly new here).

He said we never know what the future might hold in this regard. Which I thought was a pretty cool answer still. I'm pretty sure he'd be for it in the future, as long as it works out in some pragmatic way.

The thing is, when he replied, he took OCSL out of his comment. That to me implies a bit that he'd be more interested in seeing how L1O teams could be promoted up to a higher league in the distant future, something like a CPL.

Though to me, a CPL in the proposed form and L1O currently seem to be light years apart, from my casual understanding of the two leagues.

[Kent]

2 hours ago, ironcub14 said:

Just a random little tidbit, I asked Dino Rossi over the weekend if he'd ever consider pro/rel in the distant future between L1O and the top district leagues, such as OCSL for Ottawa (I don't know if TSSL is the top one for Toronto, I'm still fairly new here).

He said we never know what the future might hold in this regard. Which I thought was a pretty cool answer still. I'm pretty sure he'd be for it in the future, as long as it works out in some pragmatic way.

The thing is, when he replied, he took OCSL out of his comment. That to me implies a bit that he'd be more interested in seeing how L1O teams could be promoted up to a higher league in the distant future, something like a CPL.

Though to me, a CPL in the proposed form and L1O currently seem to be light years apart, from my casual understanding of the two leagues.

He could also be thinking of having a L2O someday. I wouldn't be surprised to see that. Currently the league is at 16 teams (9 in 2014, 12 in 2015). If it grew beyond 20 teams it would seem to make sense to me to split it up. There are some sizeable gaps in the standings, so that would seem to make splitting the league into 2 tiers make sense. Plus, the fact that it's not a money maker at the moment means that teams wouldn't be that burdened by a drop from L1O to L2O.

[Kent]

http://www.league1ontario.com/news_article/show/706457?referrer_id=2309049

This article claims and lists 32 L1O players that have represented Canada at various age levels (men and women) this year. Somehow in the alumni section at the bottom it failed to mention Cyle Larin. I'm not sure if others are missing. But still, this is a great article to see. Hopefully on the men's side the call ups won't be as dominated by TFCA in the future.

[Gopherbashi]

4 hours ago, ironcub14 said:

Just a random little tidbit, I asked Dino Rossi over the weekend if he'd ever consider pro/rel in the distant future between L1O and the top district leagues, such as OCSL for Ottawa (I don't know if TSSL is the top one for Toronto, I'm still fairly new here).

He said we never know what the future might hold in this regard. Which I thought was a pretty cool answer still. I'm pretty sure he'd be for it in the future, as long as it works out in some pragmatic way.

The thing is, when he replied, he took OCSL out of his comment. That to me implies a bit that he'd be more interested in seeing how L1O teams could be promoted up to a higher league in the distant future, something like a CPL.

Though to me, a CPL in the proposed form and L1O currently seem to be light years apart, from my casual understanding of the two leagues.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a L2O in the future (love that name, by the way, Kent) - no one gains anything in the weekly slaughter of Masters, ProStars, and Sanjaxx; not to mention that you can only rely on expanding conferences so much if you still want everyone to meet once during the season.

Let's assume that they've got 20 teams for next season, which isn't a huge stretch if you assume the PDL teams are still being forced over.  Let's make a second assumption that L1O wants to stick around the 18-22 games per season they've done in their first three seasons, and they want every team to meet at least once.  You can therefore either do a single-table setup (giving 19 games per season), or do some fancy four-divisions-of-five-teams setup, playing everyone in your division twice and everyone else once, giving 23 games per season.  You can't really expand it more than that without running into problems.

Like Kent said, it would be fairly easy to do since there's next to no income involved in this.  The biggest obstacle to this might actually be travel issues, if poorer teams somehow get stuck making more trips out to Kingston & Windsor if that's the way the cookie crumbles.  Dino's shown himself to be open to this idea, and though I'm not holding my breath on it happening, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if we do get a vertical split next year.

As for pro/rel with lower Ontario leagues - I really don't see it happening in the foreseeable future.  What would block that initiative isn't the quality of play, but rather teams being able to operate as per the semi-pro/pro-am league standards.  L1O isn't just meant for the top teams on-the-field, but off-the-field as well, and while some top-performing teams might get a behind-the-scenes "Hey, I think you'd be great in L1O, you should apply" nudge, I really don't see it becoming any kind of automatic thing.

And regarding any type of L1O promotion to a pro league (whatever form that takes), you're right about them being light years apart.  If it happens at all, it will probably be to some form of L1O/PLSQ D2 superleague, but I don't think that's on anyone's radar.  Certainly nothing performance based unless someone like Sigma or FCL decides to take a big financial gamble on a CPL jump.

[Gopherbashi]

18 teams might work nicely as well - three divisions of six could give a 22-game season; same as they did this year.  Expand the year-end playoffs they started this year to the three div winners + a wildcard.

Alternatively, instead of a west-central-east setup for those three divisions, you could have L1O, L2O West, and L2O East divisions.  The six-team L1O division could take the top four teams from this year, plus PDL-KW & PDL-TFCA if they're forced in, while the remaining twelve are split west/east.  Everyone would still meet each other once, while top teams would get more games against top teams.

You'd have a few end-of-season options with that setup - either give the title straight to the L1O division leader, have a playoff either with just L1O teams or including the L2O division leaders as well, or have some kind of pro/rel playoff between the bottom two L1O teams and the L2O division leaders.

Unnecessarily complicated of course, but it's fun to dream sometimes.