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RUMOUR: Ottawa Fury to leave NASL?


shermanator

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Unless the CPL is the best kept secret in the history of league start ups, there's no way it starts in 2017, which, if this rumor has legs, means the Fury would be dormant for a year until CPL launch in potential 2018.

Would it make sense for them to operate in the USL for a single season? Unless the expansion fee is waived, maybe. It allows them to clean up house and stock up on domestically listed Canadians before a CPL move if that's what they desire. If USL is the long term goal, sweet, would be great for them to regularly play Montreal FC and TFC 2. 

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Canada Soccer officials have maintained that the launch timeline for the league is "2017 or 2018", so CPL is potentially possible. I really hope it is because I'd be pretty upset if the Fury were reduced to playing in the MLS reserve league, especially given the club's steady increase in popularity over the last three years.

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6 minutes ago, ThatDaveCh said:

Unless the CPL is the best kept secret in the history of league start ups, there's no way it starts in 2017, which, if this rumor has legs, means the Fury would be dormant for a year until CPL launch in potential 2018.

Would it make sense for them to operate in the USL for a single season? Unless the expansion fee is waived, maybe. It allows them to clean up house and stock up on domestically listed Canadians before a CPL move if that's what they desire. If USL is the long term goal, sweet, would be great for them to regularly play Montreal FC and TFC 2. 

I would think it does make sense for them to move to USL for a year. Staying dormant for a year would kill a lot of momentum they have with their fan base, and they can cut costs this way.

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3 minutes ago, shermanator said:

I would think it does make sense for them to move to USL for a year. Staying dormant for a year would kill a lot of momentum they have with their fan base, and they can cut costs this way.

Would USL want a team that's only going to be in their league for one season?

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3 minutes ago, shermanator said:

I would think it does make sense for them to move to USL for a year. Staying dormant for a year would kill a lot of momentum they have with their fan base, and they can cut costs this way.

I agree, it's necessary for the club to be involved in something if the CPL isn't kicking off asap. I know this is mostly a business and cost decision, and credit to them for realizing it may not be feasible to compete in the NASL midtable with their resources. That being said, CPL ambition is to play in CFL stadia, right? So would the Fury stay at TD Place wherever they go?

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7 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

Would USL want a team that's only going to be in their league for one season?

Probably... The league would get the franchise fees from Ottawa, and know that they wouldn't be too bothersome.

 

Does it make sense for Ottawa to pay another franchise fee, rather than sticking around the NASL for another year with a threadbare budget? Even being oh so close to the bottom of the league they're still getting good crowds.

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7 minutes ago, shermanator said:

I would think it does make sense for them to move to USL for a year. Staying dormant for a year would kill a lot of momentum they have with their fan base, and they can cut costs this way.

Why would "staying dormant" be the alternative rather than just playing another year in the NASL? The team's not profitable sure, but few clubs are, especially in North America. Moreover, any cost-cutting benefits of moving to the USL (if any, given the possible cost of entry) would be offset by a drop in revenue because fewer casual fans are going to show up to watch the team play lower division football.

 

6 minutes ago, ThatDaveCh said:

I agree, it's necessary for the club to be involved in something if the CPL isn't kicking off asap. I know this is mostly a business and cost decision, and credit to them for realizing it may not be feasible to compete in the NASL midtable with their resources. That being said, CPL ambition is to play in CFL stadia, right? So would the Fury stay at TD Place wherever they go?

They absolutely can compete midtable for one more season with their resources. If FCE literally lost half their roster to injury they'd be near the bottom of the table too.

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If the Fury are going to USL I would think it is for economic or philosophical reasons (unhappy with NASL leadership).  If the former then they have no chance to run a franchise in a hypothetical CPL.

I'd like to see the rumour confirmed elsewhere before putting too much stock in it, though.

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7 minutes ago, Zem said:

They absolutely can compete midtable for one more season with their resources. If FCE literally lost half their roster to injury they'd be near the bottom of the table too.

The Fury didn't just lose their squad to injuries. They gutted their Soccer Bowl squad first, refusing to spend to keep the core around, bringing in USL caliber players to replace them. Then the USL caliber players got hit with injuries and they brought in some better quality players.

Also, I wouldn't call 10th in the table "mid table", it's bottom table. They're above only the Armada, and Puerto Rico, who've played half the games.

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1 hour ago, shermanator said:

The Fury didn't just lose their squad to injuries. They gutted their Soccer Bowl squad first, refusing to spend to keep the core around, bringing in USL caliber players to replace them. Then the USL caliber players got hit with injuries and they brought in some better quality players.

Also, I wouldn't call 10th in the table "mid table", it's bottom table. They're above only the Armada, and Puerto Rico, who've played half the games.

They didn't "gut" their Soccer Bowl squad, many of the non-Canadian players asked to leave after the Canadian Dollar plunged in the offseason and their contracts ceased to be worth remotely as much as when they signed. Tom Heinemann is believed to have had a salary of about $50,000CAD with Ottawa. Tampa offered him $150,000USD in a league where clubs have budgets of around $1.5M. Trafford was supposed to stay, but because he had a minimum fee release clause in his contract Miami was able to steal him at a bargain-basement price because of the CAD. In short, Ottawa had trouble competing with American clubs who had far more spending power per dollar and in general.

They also didn't replace their roster with USL players ffs. Most of the signings were for players who have never played in the USL. James Bailey, Gerardo Bruna, Pablo Dyego, Jonny Steele, Kyle Porter, Rich Balchan, Idan Vered and Marcel de Jong are not USL players. In pre-season alone, Ottawa signed 8 players who did not play in the USL last season and 6 who did. Of those six, Chin and Gyorio were the only disappointments, whereas Obasi, Timbo and Rozeboom have all been great for Ottawa this season. Venter was injured in pre-season. Since then they have signed another 7 non-USL players and 2 USL players, Stewart and Olivera, both of whom have been good for Ottawa as well.

And I never said 10th was mid-table, I said next year they could easily be a mid-table team if they don't have massive injury problems like they've had this year.

Edited because I'm a dummy

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I know Fury Fanatic and he's more often right than not on matters related to the Ottawa Fury.  Even with the very decent attendances the Fury draw, I would think that they may be breaking even, if that.  I would rather have USL than nothing and there are some decent sized teams in the league such as Cincinnati, Sacramento and Louisville.   

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1 hour ago, ThatDaveCh said:

Unless the CPL is the best kept secret in the history of league start ups, there's no way it starts in 2017, which, if this rumor has legs, means the Fury would be dormant for a year until CPL launch in potential 2018.

Would it make sense for them to operate in the USL for a single season? Unless the expansion fee is waived, maybe. It allows them to clean up house and stock up on domestically listed Canadians before a CPL move if that's what they desire. If USL is the long term goal, sweet, would be great for them to regularly play Montreal FC and TFC 2. 

I could see a year off in prep for CPL, but that would kill a lot of attendance momentum 

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3 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

I know Fury Fanatic and he's more often right than not on matters related to the Ottawa Fury.  Even with the very decent attendances the Fury draw, I would think that they may be breaking even, if that.  I would rather have USL than nothing and there are some decent sized teams in the league such as Cincinnati, Sacramento and Louisville.   

They've yet to break even from what I've heard. The first season in particular was a big let-down for OSEG. Fury Fanatic is one of the best sources for anything on the Fury and I agree that something is obviously happening, but I'm not convinced that moving to the USL could be a significant cost-saving measure given fees and a likely drop in attendance.

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22 minutes ago, Zem said:

They didn't "gut" their Soccer Bowl squad, many of the non-Canadian players asked to leave after the Canadian Dollar plunged to $0.30 in the offseason and their contracts ceased to be worth anything. Tom Heinemann is believed to have had a salary of about $50,000CAD with Ottawa. Tampa offered him $150,000USD, or around $500,000CAD at the time in a league where clubs have budgets of around $1.5M. Trafford was supposed to stay, but because he had a minimum fee release clause in his contract, Miami was able to steal him at a bargain-basement price because of the CAD. In short, Ottawa had trouble competing with American clubs who had 3x the spending power per dollar.

 

I don't know if you're exaggerating for effect or what, but the low point over the last year for the Canadian dollar vs USD was $0.69 in January. The exchange rate is an issue for all pro sports franchises in Canada, but being this obtuse does not help what is a serious discussion.

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Ottawa joining USL Pro would open a far more viable path to one day having a stable Canadian league than staying in the NASL or jumping head first into a CPL.

Instead of having to find five to seven more well capitalized investors, with appropriate facilities ready, and launch them all at the same time, new teams can be added one-by-one as they are ready. We can get out of the waiting game and actually manifest the growth of Canadian pro soccer.

The USL has proven to be flexible on scheduling. Canadian teams can play a schedule primarily of teams in their conference (i.e. East or West) but the league can make sure that independent Canadian clubs all play each other home and away once a season. That doesn't have to be a separate "Canadian Conference". That way, you don't have the MLS second teams travelling across the entire country, but Ottawa could still play Winnipeg, Regina, or Calgary as the case may be.

Eventually, if there are enough teams that are all stable enough, they can choose to separate. But the real benefit is that, before then, they won't all succeed or fail together: good organizations won't go down with the bad ones. If pro soccer turns out to only be viable in three or four non-MLS Canadian markets, we'd still be better off from a player development standpoint. More importantly, fans in those cities would not see another team (and league) fold.

People don't seem to have noticed the geographic dispersion that the USL is achieving. Further, Sacramento, Louisville, Oklahoma City and Cincinnati all show that professionally run, well marketed teams can draw just as well in a "D3" "reserve league" as good NASL teams.

The idea that independent clubs can't play against second teams is not borne out by the examples of Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. Those countries are generally credited with having the best player development systems in the world and all allow second teams in their league structure all the way up to the second or third division level. Really, it is only the pervasiveness of the English model on the North American soccer imagination that prevents us from seeing that. And the English model regularly cited as part of the reason that their player development is not as consistent as their continental rivals.

If you want mores places for young Canadian players to experience a professional training environment in their late teens, support Canadian teams in USL Pro. If you want more Canadian soccer fans to have a local team they can watch, support Canadian teams in USL Pro.

And all the CSA has to do is get out of the way.

---

I visited Edmonton last summer and enjoyed the Eddies game I went to. I was impressed with the game presentation in the face of the limitations of the stadium. I really respect what the Fath's have built and don't want to see that go away.

But it's really starting to feel like the reported NASL shares that Tom Fath owns are the poisoned chalice. Hopefully they don't prevent the club from moving forward, something can be worked out, and he can get some return on them.

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4 minutes ago, jonovision said:

I don't know if you're exaggerating for effect or what, but the low point over the last year for the Canadian dollar vs USD was $0.69 in January. The exchange rate is an issue for all pro sports franchises in Canada, but being this obtuse does not help what is a serious discussion.

That is true, I probably should've actually checked rather than relying on my memory, sorry. But the point is that the sudden drop in the CAD is what led so many players to ask to leave. Richie Ryan, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Colin Falvey and Ryan Richter all asked to leave because they could make far more money in the US, the Fury did not make them leave and could not reasonably offer them enough money to stay.

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7 minutes ago, Zem said:

They've yet to break even from what I've heard. The first season in particular was a big let-down for OSEG. Fury Fanatic is one of the best sources for anything on the Fury and I agree that something is obviously happening, but I'm not convinced that moving to the USL could be a significant cost-saving measure given fees and a likely drop in attendance.

Going to the CPL will be no cheaper than USL either unless they just decide to call it a day. 

And I'm still very sceptical about a CPL even happening because I don't see how the economics of this is anything other than a bankrupt operation in 4-5 years.. 

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32 minutes ago, Zem said:

They didn't "gut" their Soccer Bowl squad, many of the non-Canadian players asked to leave after the Canadian Dollar plunged to $0.30 in the offseason and their contracts ceased to be worth anything. Tom Heinemann is believed to have had a salary of about $50,000CAD with Ottawa. Tampa offered him $150,000USD, or around $500,000CAD at the time in a league where clubs have budgets of around $1.5M. Trafford was supposed to stay, but because he had a minimum fee release clause in his contract, Miami was able to steal him at a bargain-basement price because of the CAD. In short, Ottawa had trouble competing with American clubs who had 3x the spending power per dollar.

The players asked to leave because the club was not willing to pay a salary that they would have gotten elsewhere in the same league. If that is not a sheer gutting of what was a quality side then I don't know what is.

 

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1 hour ago, ray said:

If the Fury are going to USL I would think it is for economic or philosophical reasons (unhappy with NASL leadership).  If the former then they have no chance to run a franchise in a hypothetical CPL.

I'd like to see the rumour confirmed elsewhere before putting too much stock in it, though.

It could definitely be both. NASL is seeing big salary inflation driven by two teams with billionaire owners and it is hurting the league's health. NASL's philosophy says that is A-ok, but Ottawa can see the writing on the wall if they are forced to compete with teams outspending out of proportion amounts on D2 clubs. I really doubt they have trouble with a 1 - 1.5M roster, but competeting with teams that spend half of that on a single transfer probably isn't sustainable, in which case a capped league like CPL (rumoured to be 1.5M) or USL could be a major improvement.

To me, I could see a USL move done out of frustration with NASL leadership's failure to address how Miami and New York are hurting the league (just like the collapse of the old NASL), not purely out the inability to pay out a reasonable salary for its roster. A move to CPL may or may not eventually happen, but since USL is expected to challenge for D2 soon (but with much more league centralization), it is a good bet for now, IMO

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