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Victoria CPL


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22 hours ago, shorty said:

Don't read too much into the amateur status.  WHL is amateur as well, and the HarbourCats are a similar niche.  It isn't as much of a sure bet that you will be watching a future pro as it is when you go to a Royals game, but it's the same idea, and it's (almost) equally popular around here.  They pulled in over 60,000 last summer over 27 dates.  http://harbourcats.com/harbourcats-attendance-ninth-collegiate-summer-baseball/   That's averaging over 2200 a game, which is less than the Royals, but more than the Highlanders.  They also invest a lot in things like fireworks and skydivers, etc. to make their games "events".

Now, I'm not mentioning this to say this is a model for the CPL to go all gimmicky and 1970s NASL. I'm just pointing out the reality of the context at RAP and in Victoria. College amateur or not, I don't imagine that a team bringing in those numbers is going away soon.  Any solution that places a CanPL franchise at RAP will probably have to involve sharing the facility, at least at the outset, and then after that they would have to put up big enough numbers to warrant looking at making them the primary tenant.

 

I'm in no way trying to take away from the HarbourCats. I know they've been quite successful in the city and have a strong following. I just think that if Victoria finds ambitious investors, like CPL has been touting, than we as fans need to start thinking a little bigger as well. This isn't the PDL and the Harbour Cats aren't the Yankees. I think the team struggles from the get go, if they're perceived to be playing second fiddle at RAP

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23 hours ago, C2SKI said:

I'm in no way trying to take away from the HarbourCats. I know they've been quite successful in the city and have a strong following. I just think that if Victoria finds ambitious investors, like CPL has been touting, than we as fans need to start thinking a little bigger as well. This isn't the PDL and the Harbour Cats aren't the Yankees. I think the team struggles from the get go, if they're perceived to be playing second fiddle at RAP

The real question is what the overall city sport philosophy is going to be. If you were going to go all in, the city would have to agree that the public facility was going to work for both sports, and that the investment would be made to do the conversions, maybe just 7-8 a season. Then there is the problem of training facilities, as both might want to train on the field of their choice. You'd have to say to the local community "okay, another dozen dates at RAP from May to October" (assuming that were the season, 20 games over 6 months plus playoffs, Voyageurs Cup). That is a high demand on the residential area, but they could help by expanding parking on the lots nearby and limiting impact on the immediate neighbourhoods. All the while remembering that the impact is greater from baseball than soccer.

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  • 7 months later...

A little late to the party here, but what do you guys think will happen to get a team here? Highlanders moving up (the new ownership group and rebrand might be hinting at this) or a brand new team?

 

Would the Lakeside Buoys be the supporter group or would we start something new?

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2 hours ago, Xavier said:

A little late to the party here, but what do you guys think will happen to get a team here? Highlanders moving up (the new ownership group and rebrand might be hinting at this) or a brand new team?

 

Would the Lakeside Buoys be the supporter group or would we start something new?

I'd hope the Highlanders would move up but that would only likely happen if they add or sell to a more moneyed owner, otherwise it would have to be a new club. That would likely kill the Highlanders, so makes sense for them to bring in an investor and make the move themselves.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey there, long time lurker, very rarely post anything. (my bad)

As president of the Lake Side Buoys, we are dedicated to supporting local soccer here in Victoria. If a CPL team sprang up in the next few years here, you better believe we'd be supporting it. If that meant the Highlanders were to move up, great. If that meant an entirely new team running concurrent with the Highlanders, well, I can't speak for all the Buoys, but I'd attend both.

And here's a little update to this thread - Westhills stadium is currently undergoing an expansion that will be completed next year. (an expansion that could, in theory, host a CPL crowd) Our new ownership group and sponsorship will make a lot more things possible than they have been in the previous few years, so I'm pretty hopeful for this upcoming season. (our first PDL match is tonight, our first home game is next week) The owner of the Westhills stadium has already reached out to some of our ownership group. Right now, the Highlanders have a commitment with UVic, but that deal could change next season, and if it does, we'll likely see a major venue change.

Our ownership group is very aware of the CPL, and the CPL is very aware of the Highlanders. My supporters group has been contacted by CPL's marketing team already to gauge interest in a CPL team in Victoria. My guess here is that this season in the PDL will be a trial run to determine if moving up to the CPL is economically viable. It may take a season or two to figure that out, but I highly doubt that the Highlanders ownership group want to remain in the PDL forever. 

Either way, it's an exciting time to be a Victoria soccer supporter.

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7 hours ago, Jason Armond said:

Hey there, long time lurker, very rarely post anything. (my bad)

As president of the Lake Side Buoys, we are dedicated to supporting local soccer here in Victoria. If a CPL team sprang up in the next few years here, you better believe we'd be supporting it. If that meant the Highlanders were to move up, great. If that meant an entirely new team running concurrent with the Highlanders, well, I can't speak for all the Buoys, but I'd attend both.

And here's a little update to this thread - Westhills stadium is currently undergoing an expansion that will be completed next year. (an expansion that could, in theory, host a CPL crowd) Our new ownership group and sponsorship will make a lot more things possible than they have been in the previous few years, so I'm pretty hopeful for this upcoming season. (our first PDL match is tonight, our first home game is next week) The owner of the Westhills stadium has already reached out to some of our ownership group. Right now, the Highlanders have a commitment with UVic, but that deal could change next season, and if it does, we'll likely see a major venue change.

Our ownership group is very aware of the CPL, and the CPL is very aware of the Highlanders. My supporters group has been contacted by CPL's marketing team already to gauge interest in a CPL team in Victoria. My guess here is that this season in the PDL will be a trial run to determine if moving up to the CPL is economically viable. It may take a season or two to figure that out, but I highly doubt that the Highlanders ownership group want to remain in the PDL forever. 

Either way, it's an exciting time to be a Victoria soccer supporter.

I hope to make it out to a game this summer, but the friday (we would get there late) and sunday games don't really work for us on Pender Island if we want to get back home on the same day. I do see a Saturday game in July that might work......

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6 hours ago, Jason Armond said:

Hey there, long time lurker, very rarely post anything. (my bad)

As president of the Lake Side Buoys, we are dedicated to supporting local soccer here in Victoria. If a CPL team sprang up in the next few years here, you better believe we'd be supporting it. If that meant the Highlanders were to move up, great. If that meant an entirely new team running concurrent with the Highlanders, well, I can't speak for all the Buoys, but I'd attend both.

And here's a little update to this thread - Westhills stadium is currently undergoing an expansion that will be completed next year. (an expansion that could, in theory, host a CPL crowd) Our new ownership group and sponsorship will make a lot more things possible than they have been in the previous few years, so I'm pretty hopeful for this upcoming season. (our first PDL match is tonight, our first home game is next week) The owner of the Westhills stadium has already reached out to some of our ownership group. Right now, the Highlanders have a commitment with UVic, but that deal could change next season, and if it does, we'll likely see a major venue change.

Our ownership group is very aware of the CPL, and the CPL is very aware of the Highlanders. My supporters group has been contacted by CPL's marketing team already to gauge interest in a CPL team in Victoria. My guess here is that this season in the PDL will be a trial run to determine if moving up to the CPL is economically viable. It may take a season or two to figure that out, but I highly doubt that the Highlanders ownership group want to remain in the PDL forever. 

Either way, it's an exciting time to be a Victoria soccer supporter.

HI Jason, as someone who might go to games in Victoria in summers as well, thanks for the post, v interesting. A question, though: when you talk about "our ownership group", who are you talking about? I found that a bit confusing, are you in with the CPL initiative, personally, or the LakeSide Buoys, just could you clear that up for us:

-who owns Highlanders

-who owns a possible CPL bid or who is spearheading it and to what degree could they build on or coincide with the Highlanders group.

-ownership and control of Westhills (formerly Langford) stadium

-City of Vic and other municipalities commitments and interests. 

Asking from your perspective, we have heard from Ted for years, who's really illuminated most issues in Vic for us, but would like to hear it as you see it.

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1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

HI Jason, as someone who might go to games in Victoria in summers as well, thanks for the post, v interesting. A question, though: when you talk about "our ownership group", who are you talking about? I found that a bit confusing, are you in with the CPL initiative, personally, or the LakeSide Buoys, just could you clear that up for us:

-who owns Highlanders

-who owns a possible CPL bid or who is spearheading it and to what degree could they build on or coincide with the Highlanders group.

-ownership and control of Westhills (formerly Langford) stadium

-City of Vic and other municipalities commitments and interests. 

Asking from your perspective, we have heard from Ted for years, who's really illuminated most issues in Vic for us, but would like to hear it as you see it.

I can answer most of this.

 

- I believe he means the Highlanders ownership, which now compromises of a number of local business owners. Included in these owners is the guy who owns the Strathcona downtown. 

 

- Rob Friend (former CMNT and LA Galaxy striker) seems to be part of the CPL BC ownership team. He’s the one who has been showing up to all CPL meetings. I’m sure there are others behind the scene.

 

-  Westhills Stadium is currently owned by the City of Langford I believe.

- Other stadiums in the region include Centennial Stadium (owned by UVic) and Royal Athletic Park (owned by the City of Victoria). I don’t believe there are any other venues that would fit the needs of a CPL team. One would most likely need to be built. Always thought Topaz Park would be a great place for a stadium (would help clean up the area as well). 

 

Hope that answers most of the questions.

 

Really hope to see CPL in Victoria shortly. Lets see what the next few weeks have in store for us.

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3 hours ago, Xavier said:

 

Really hope to see CPL in Victoria shortly. Lets see what the next few weeks have in store for us.

You have me totally confused with your posts about where Port City FC will be based out of. You know, but I feel like you're toying with us a little. :)

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If the choice at this point as has been suggested by well-connected Southsiders members is Langley or Victoria (Langford) and the stadium in Langford is going to be expanded in time, hopefully it's Victoria because I strongly suspect that smaller cities more distant from the three MLS markets than the normal workday commute sort of range have a better shot at building up a large home support for the same sort of reasons that also seems to work better in junior hockey. Bring back the Vistas! :) One of the things that sticks in my mind most about the old CSL beyond Justin Fashanu leaving the field of play during a Toronto Blizzard game to try to attack Mario di Bartolomeo was listening to a former Scotland international called Allan Evans who won the European Cup with Aston Villa going completely crazy at Geoff Aunger during an away game for the Vistas against the London Lasers for always going offside any time he tried to send a long ball. Verbal exchanges between players are easy to listen to when the crowd is only 200 or so.

 

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2 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

If the choice at this point as has been suggested by well-connected Southsiders members is Langley or Victoria (Langford) and the stadium in Langford is going to be expanded in time, hopefully it's Victoria because I strongly suspect that smaller cities more distant from the three MLS markets than the normal workday commute sort of range have a better shot at building up a large home support for the same sort of reasons that also seems to work better in junior hockey. Bring back the Vistas! :) One of the things that sticks in my mind most about the old CSL beyond Justin Fashanu leaving the field of play during a Toronto Blizzard game to try to attack Mario di Bartolomeo was listening to a former Scotland international called Allan Evans who won the European Cup with Aston Villa going completely crazy at Geoff Aunger during an away game for the Vistas against the London Lasers for always going offside any time he tried to send a long ball. Verbal exchanges between players are easy to listen to when the crowd is only 200 or so.

 

Would you rather have BCFC or Victoria Vistas as the name? I feel like you might be biased towards the old CSL name.

BCFC in the capital makes more sense than in Surrey or Langley.

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4 hours ago, shamrock said:

Vey confusing as they are talking only about the Highlanders while the new team is named Port City. However Port City FC fits better with Victoria than with Surrey. 

2 things.

 

Port City FC is just a placeholder name.

Victoria also does not have a real “port”.

Fort City would make more sense for Victoria.

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22 minutes ago, Xavier said:

...I feel like you might be biased towards the old CSL name...

More a joke related to my username, which dates back to when the MLS expansion to Toronto thing started to gather a bit of steam back in 2005 and I got fed up with reading what a poster called DoyleG was posting about it on Bigsoccer. Paul Beirne and co subsequently had other ideas on names obviously and perhaps understandably didn't want to be associated with an old franchise that eventually folded after being onto its fourth league by that point having backed the wrong horse (along with the 86ers and Impact) on the D1 legacy league to the 1994 World Cup. For similar reasons of not wanting to be reminded about what can go wrong I would be surprised if Vistas would be a contender on this. Have no strong opinion not being from the area, but think you could do a lot worse than the old PCSL name, Victoria United, given names with a top European club sort of feel seem to work well in marketing terms.

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1 hour ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

More a joke related to my username, which dates back to when the MLS expansion to Toronto thing started to gather a bit of steam back in 2005 and I got fed up with reading what a poster called DoyleG was posting about it on Bigsoccer. Paul Beirne and co subsequently had other ideas on names obviously and perhaps understandably didn't want to be associated with an old franchise that eventually folded after being onto its fourth league by that point having backed the wrong horse (along with the 86ers and Impact) on the D1 legacy league to the 1994 World Cup. For similar reasons of not wanting to be reminded about what can go wrong I would be surprised if Vistas would be a contender on this. Have no strong opinion not being from the area, but think you could do a lot worse than the old PCSL name, Victoria United, given names with a top European club sort of feel seem to work well in marketing terms.

Is this forum really that old?

 

I’m a big supporter of the name BCFC, especially for a Victoria team. 

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1 hour ago, Xavier said:

2 things.

 

Port City FC is just a placeholder name.

Victoria also does not have a real “port”.

Fort City would make more sense for Victoria.

I thought it was one of the trademarked names?

Port City still doesn't fit well with Surrey though... It would with PORT Coquitlam perhaps...

BTW I hate the name BCFC and I would think if that was it, they'd used it instead of Port City. It's so generic, like California United. 

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3 hours ago, Xavier said:

BCFC in the capital makes more sense than in Surrey or Langley.

I'd speculate that you won't see any teams named after a province, or even after the biggest cities like Toronto, Vancouver, etc.  They are planning long term and are targeting markets of very roughly 200,000. If you name a team after BC or Saskatchewan it makes it very difficult a few years down the road to add another team in that province. Same for big cities. For example, calling the team York 9 FC is very well thought out. The specific geographic target area could not be any more clear now, and at the same time it leaves room for teams in Scarborough, Mississauga, etc someday.

 

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7 minutes ago, CanSuffer said:

I'd speculate that you won't see any teams named after a province, or even after the biggest cities like Toronto, Vancouver, etc.  They are planning long term and are targeting markets of very roughly 200,000. If you name a team after BC or Saskatchewan it makes it very difficult a few years down the road to add another team in that province. Same for big cities. For example, calling the team York 9 FC is very well thought out. The specific geographic target area could not be any more clear now, and at the same time it leaves room for teams in Scarborough, Mississauga, etc someday.

 

Some could. Manitoba/Atlantic Provinces could get away with it if they wanted.

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8 hours ago, Xavier said:

 

 

I’m a big supporter of the name BCFC, especially for a Victoria team. 

There you go again. I thought you did some graphic work on the BCFC kit for the ownership group. I really liked your work btw. Two days ago I thought completely different than I do right now as to where this team is playing. You've got me totally messed up now.

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On 12/5/2018 at 1:34 AM, Xavier said:

I can answer most of this.

 

- I believe he means the Highlanders ownership, which now compromises of a number of local business owners. Included in these owners is the guy who owns the Strathcona downtown. 

 

- Rob Friend (former CMNT and LA Galaxy striker) seems to be part of the CPL BC ownership team. He’s the one who has been showing up to all CPL meetings. I’m sure there are others behind the scene.

 

-  Westhills Stadium is currently owned by the City of Langford I believe.

- Other stadiums in the region include Centennial Stadium (owned by UVic) and Royal Athletic Park (owned by the City of Victoria). I don’t believe there are any other venues that would fit the needs of a CPL team. One would most likely need to be built. Always thought Topaz Park would be a great place for a stadium (would help clean up the area as well). 

 

Hope that answers most of the questions.

 

Really hope to see CPL in Victoria shortly. Lets see what the next few weeks have in store for us.

For a guy posting authoritatively about Port City, you really do not know anything any amateur like myself would know about Victoria, do you Xavier? I mean, thanks and all, but you did not even answer a single question straight up.

Why don't you reserve the expertise for what you won't risk telling us about the Mainland option?

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