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Victoria CPL


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I hope we start with 8-10 teams, but if I had to put money on it right now I would guess 7 teams, as per my post in the CPL Thread (the seeming gap right now that appeared to be tailor made for Port City is what is taking my 8 down to a 7... hopefully it's just a hiccup, but it might be more than that). 

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An announcement in Edmonton appeared to explain why a series of 6 or 7 were anticipated after the CSA AGM and so far there is no indication that one is happening either as the Eskimos' intervention at the city council committee meeting was not a positive development for them. Uncertainty over BC and Edmonton would be the reason why 6 would still have been a possibility at that point. The settlement of the legal dispute in Hamilton that was standing in the way of lease negotiations perhaps not coincidentally right after Halifax and Calgary have posted some reasonably positive looking season ticket deposit numbers finally says loud and clear that a 2019 launch is definitely happening one way or another. Actions speak louder than words sometimes and that has been the proverbial 600 lb gorilla in the room that nobody wanted to mention for the last year or so. They'll no doubt have a contingency plan in place if Ottawa isn't #6 and Edmonton and "Port City" can easily be the two in the pipeline if they are not ready to rumble in time.

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Victoria in.  CPL officials in Victoria meeting today

 http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/greater-victoria-to-get-pro-soccer-team-next-year-1.23321490

  • Owners of the Victoria franchise will be former European pro and Canadian national team players Josh Simpson of Victoria and Rob Friend of Kelowna, and Vancouver-based financier Dean Shillington, founder and president of Knightsbridge Capital Group.
  • “This is not an official team launch yet, but we feel quite confident this is going to happen and that a pro team will be coming to the Island in 2019,” said Simpson, 
  • The team is expected to play at Westhills Stadium in Langford. Simpson acknowledged Westhills is not yet up to league standard. But that may only be a matter of time.
  • “We are looking at the kind of attendance — 5,000 to 6,000 fans per game — that Victoria is currently not used to for soccer,” said Simpson. “We see this team representing the Island and drawing from Sidney to Nanaimo.

 

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5 minutes ago, ted said:

Beat me by...that much!

 

I was lucky to beat you lol.  Just happened to catch it on Twitter and raced to post it before reading.  Not behind a paywall here, want me to send the entire text to you?

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4 minutes ago, Rheo said:

I was lucky to beat you lol.  Just happened to catch it on Twitter and raced to post it before reading.  Not behind a paywall here, want me to send the entire text to you?

Nah, I'm good. I was able to read it on my phone for some reason but when I got to my desktop: paywall.

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4 minutes ago, HfxCeltic said:

So with Rob Friend in with the Victoria group, I assume the Fraser Valley potential club is all but dead?

Seems to be the way it is from what I'm seeing on Twitter since the article posted.  Really seems to have caught people in the know by surprise that there wasn't two seperate groups in BC.  I've been checking out that Taking the Piss message board since AFTN pod mentioned it and even there they thought it was two groups.  Really interesting to see what happens now out there now in the Vancouver area.

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12 minutes ago, HfxCeltic said:

So with Rob Friend in with the Victoria group, I assume the Fraser Valley potential club is all but dead?

Lots of info pointing strongly to that has been on here for weeks now but some only pay attention to what fits their favoured outcome. Good news that they expect to resolve the hydro pole issue because I suspect Victoria will do as well or better than Halifax on season ticket deposits while Fraser valley may well have followed the York 9 trajectory due to being in the shadow of the Whitecaps. With Victoria in the mix they don't need Ottawa and Edmonton on board to be able to launch and can wait until near the end of the USL season and for the Clarke Stadium issue to run its course in local politics terms for them to potentially enter the mix.

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11 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Lots of info pointing strongly to that has been on here for weeks now but some only pay attention to what fits their favoured outcome. Good news that they expect to resolve the hydro pole issue because I suspect Victoria will do as well or better than Halifax on season ticket deposits while Fraser valley may well have followed the York 9 trajectory due to being in the shadow of the Whitecaps. With Victoria in the mix they don't need Ottawa and Edmonton on board to be able to launch and can wait until near the end of the USL season and for the Clarke Stadium issue to run its course in local politics terms for them to potentially enter the mix.

Never change, BBTB.

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Just now, mpg_29 said:

So wait...is this the "Port City" group? I can't keep track...

Friend and Shillington were always assumed to be Surrey/Port City group so it looks like it.  When the original Victoria article came out a month or so ago it only listed Simpson so it was thought there were two groups given the geographic differences but as BBTB will probably remind us all for the foreseeable future he was right and there was only one.

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1 minute ago, mpg_29 said:

Ok...so there was always only one ownership group?

Think so. There may have been an earlier Victoria CanPL group of some description that had some level of contact with Paul Beirne and co, but they probably didn't have the finances needed to be one of the 10 that was being taken seriously by the powers that be. In addition to the 8 that may launch next year (at least 6 almost definite now) there was also Saskatchewan and K/W on that, who may still be active to some extent and hence help to explain why David Clanachan sometimes says 10 teams for the launch.

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3 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

Vancouver Whitecaps must be the happiest people this morning. If true, I think the city of Surrey shit the bed a little bit on this one

It would be pretty funny for the Caps to be upset about a team moving into Surrey, when the country is literally blanketed by their academy/school plague. 

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Fuck, does this mean we are stuck with "Port City"!?! 

I was happy to let Surrey have that as a way to avoid being Surrey (sorry any proud Surrey peeps), but we have no reason to avoid being called Victoria. Christ at this point I'd accept Victoria City. 

Victoria United - history going back to 1904 and repeat winners of the only sporting trophy with President John F. Kennedy's name on it.

Victoria Highlanders - Short history but a name that is known in town.

Victoria Vistas - sorry, I can't get excited about bringing that name back. ;)

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