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Someone who claims to be in touch with the Port City group said they were really pushing for Victoria to start at the same time as them and really only wanted to start in the first season if both teams were kicking off together at the same time 

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3 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

I'm not from Victoria but isntnthere a lot of talk in Victoria about a commuter train that would run from downtown right next to the stadium location? Just a thought about location

 

Also correct me if I'm wrong, like most people in Vancouver I know a handful of people who recently moved to Victoria and ive been told that area is where there is a lot of growth is happening. It's often referred to as the Surrey of Victoria

Yes the area is growing quickly. I would guess it's the fastest growing municipality on the Island. It also desperately needs improved public transit. Heading north out of Victoria is a nightmare during rush hour. The commuter train could certainly help.

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There has been an interested Victoria group in play for more than a year. I can't say for certain if all of those people remain involved or how the group has evolved, but this hasn't come out of thin air in any event.

cheers, matthew

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I think folks should go back to look at some previous posts here, including that interview with new Highlanders partners. There is a clear idea that Highlanders are strengthening their position in terms of broader support financially, though we all thought it meant for a future possibility. Perhaps they have decided to move, but not alone. The whole Josh Simpson participation sounds new, perhaps Friend encouraged him, or he saw that the model with Brennan and Friend could be repeated and jumped in, or was asked in.

The other thing, as I mentioned in one post, is that Langford is just coming of a fairly high profile rugby tournament, the women's 7s series, and surely from their city hall they have the vision of what it could mean to host pro soccer. They have experience with the logistics for the stadium, and have made the investment, the stadium pitch is FIFA approved. All they need is to expand the stands. They appear to be more ambitious than Victoria, but that is mostly that Victoria may not feel they have the margin to go for this opportunity right now.

The stadium name, Westhills, is that of the area, but also a housing development, and a developer actually is named Westhills as well. I am not sure if that is a municipal developer that has taken the name, if it is private-public, no idea. In any case, the name has promotional value for developing that part of Victoria. 

The local population base is thin. Langford has 35,000, the adjacent municipalities are small, totalling another 30 thousand or so. It is nowhere near the immediate fan base for a Surrey project, or any other in the works for CPL (I am ignoring Greater Victoria for a moment) at least it is a start in terms of ultra-local support. BC Premier Horgan is actually from Langford, btw (cue jokes about tripling traffic flow capacity to the stadium).

For those who have read the posts about travel, the problem is that western Victoria tends to bottleneck, there is  only one major road, then a secondary (1, and 1A), so if you are in the traffic jam, you are in the jam, sea and lakes on either side, or parkland with lakes, they can't really solve this problem handily. The stadium actually sits in a bottleneck that is even tighter. The same jam as people trying to go up island from Victoria are in, so it has chronic problems. Game times should be wisely chosen. Of course this is nothing compared to larger city traffic problems but Victoria is bad particularly from city centre out west.

Finally, as said Royal Athletic Park is better, in all respects. It could be adapted for soccer, it would have to live with baseball (I once calculated here, maybe a few years ago, how many times they'd have to convert, especially the mound, like at Yankee, given the baseball schedule). It could also be susceptible to certain nimby complaints as the area is residential, and parking is a bit scarce. Mind you, a large part of Victoria could walk or bike to RAP. As I mentioned earlier, when I am in Victoria with friends I'm literally a 5 min walk away. 

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4 hours ago, BenFisk'sBiggestFan said:

Those are rugby lines. 

Yes, football lines, Rugby Football. ;)

There is also Association Football, Australian Rules Football, Gaelic Football... oh and American Rules Football. 

 

4 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

I'm not from Victoria but isntnthere a lot of talk in Victoria about a commuter train that would run from downtown right next to the stadium location? Just a thought about location

Sadly just the other day the Premier shot down commuter rail. Would have been perfect. :(

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Let me just make the argument for Royal Athletic a bit better. 

First, as mentioned, it is close to the downtown, fairly central, and easy access. 

Second, it has more tradition as a sports venue, and had PDL soccer a few years ago. 

Next, it has over 3000 seats as is. The configuration is not 100% baseball, as there is a long stand centered on the soccer pitch, basically 1st base line. Covered. Then some extension to what would be first base line to the outfield, not covered. Then the baseball stand behind home plate, covered in the middle, not on the sides. So it already has a basic convertible baseball-soccer set up in terms of stands. 

The entire opposite side could be adapted with temporary or more permanent stands for soccer. The wiki says it could go up to 10,000.

Fourth, the pitch is quite nice, grass.

Fifth, the HarbourCats baseball season is last week of May to early August. So basically, if you started mid April, you could have the set up a month, then after the second week of August, it is all yours too. I just looked at the Harbourcats schedule, of that 10 week season, just half they are playing away on weekends. So potentially you are not even in direct conflict, but would have to convert those times.

Conclusion: my impression is that the City of Langford has moved more aggressively, with greater vision, in seeing their stadium investment plays out. Though I have no idea if Victoria stalled, rejected, or was simply slow on the uptake.

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35 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Conclusion: my impression is that the City of Langford has moved more aggressively, with greater vision, in seeing their stadium investment plays out. Though I have no idea if Victoria stalled, rejected, or was simply slow on the uptake.

^ This. 

The City of Victoria is worried about bike lanes and homeless shelters. RAP is something that they ignore.

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1 minute ago, Rheo said:

It appears the brakes are on for Victoria https://the11.ca/clanachan-victoria-group-still-needs-to-be-vetted/

It is not brakes, it is simply the same process the others have gone through. And no one was talking about them presenting immediatly, except those who speculated that they were replacing the Fraser Valley team. 

So now we know that they are different, that the Port City bid is separate, and that it is still on the go and has not been stalled permanently.

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4 minutes ago, BuzzAndSting said:

The article gives an announcement date of May 31.

I saw that.  I'm taking it with a grain of salt given the Commish's comments to Sandor yesterday.  It does match up with the original article yesterday

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I think the CPL might object to being considered minor league....

"The professional CPL plans to operate on a level below the MLS, much as the AHL does to the NHL, but with a heavy emphasis on developing Canadian talent."

I know I do...

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1 minute ago, Raven1555362272 said:

I think the CPL might object to being considered minor league....

"The professional CPL plans to operate on a level below the MLS, much as the AHL does to the NHL, but with a heavy emphasis on developing Canadian talent."

I know I do...

The AHL/NHL comparison is wrong but the sentiment is correct. Realistically the CPL will be below MLS quality wise and it will take years for them to be competitive with them.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  We have to start somewhere

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All that was needed is to say that there is both a Tier 1 Level in the USA and Canada and state the MLS teams. If the teams are percieved as minor league it will dissuade some people from even paying attention.

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I'm a bit disappointed in the fact that the Highlanders will exist next to the new Victorian team, unless they'll serve as a feeder / academy team for it. Otherwise they will compete witch each other no matter which way you want to look at it. 

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7 minutes ago, Raven1555362272 said:

All that was needed is to say that there is both a Tier 1 Level, both in the USA and Canada and state the MLS teams. If the teams are percieved as minor league it will dissuade some people from even paying attention.

You can't control lazy/bad journalism unfortunately.  The league is division 1 in Canada and they are loudly proclaiming that.  

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5 minutes ago, shamrock said:

I'm a bit disappointed in the fact that the Highlanders will exist next to the new Victorian team, unless they'll serve as a feeder / academy team for it. Otherwise they will compete witch each other no matter which way you want to look at it. 

Disappointed would barely scratch the surface for me. There is room in this town for one spectator-attracting team. If they are not at least working as a unified partnership then we have no hope of continuing the Highlanders and a new CanPL team would be harmed by the negative press and feeling within the soccer community for killing the Highlanders. And while there may be some who say it's "justice" for the demise of Victoria United, I would remind them that it was Victoria United which rejected a merger.

If this "CanPL group" is NOT working with the Highlanders (or planning to "buy them out") I have to question their competence and commitment to the soccer community in Victoria.

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1 hour ago, Rheo said:

The AHL/NHL comparison is wrong but the sentiment is correct. Realistically the CPL will be below MLS quality wise and it will take years for them to be competitive with them.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  We have to start somewhere

Watching MLS now compared to watching it in 2007 is night and day.  Quality is light years better.  I can only imagine what it was like in 1996 when it started off.  You are correct Rheo, we have to start somewhere.

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31 minutes ago, Ivan said:

Watching MLS now compared to watching it in 2007 is night and day.  Quality is light years better.  I can only imagine what it was like in 1996 when it started off.  You are correct Rheo, we have to start somewhere.

I could very well be wrong about this, but I wouldn't be surprised if MLS quality has not gotten better each year since it's first year of existence. Yes it has gotten better recently, but I think in the early years when they pulled all USMNT players into the league (save for Claudio Reyna I believe) it might have been better than some of the more lean years. Besides, most on this board when they think of 2007 MLS they are actually thinking of 2007 TFC and that certainly wasn't an accurate reflection of the quality of the league.

Anyways, that was all very off topic. I also didn't like the minor league comment from that article, but I suspect we will see more of that in the years to come. We'll have to try to thicken our skin.

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I'm not big on the Friend group dropping in on the 11th hr and not working with the Highlanders. I' Not sure if the situation exactly but those are my initial thoughts 

 

Friends group if the Valley isn't happening, should explore Kelowna/Okanagan. I see that area having huge upside

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