CPL new teams speculation

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

https://www.ptbocanada.com/journal/Peterborough Welcomes Electric City Football Club

...Electric City FC plans to kick-off in 2022 playing in League 1 Ontario Men’s division and adding a Women’s team in 2023, pending approval. The club also has ambitions to reach the CPL in the future.

“For Electric City FC to reach the heights of the CPL and be considered by the League as a possible expansion club it’s going to take the whole community to get behind the project and show the rest of Canada why Peterborough deserves to be in the country’s top professional league,” said Jenkins. “From what I’ve seen so far from Peterborough and the passionate, hardworking, and talented people who live here, they are up to the challenge.

[DrFitzpatrick]

8 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

https://www.ptbocanada.com/journal/Peterborough Welcomes Electric City Football Club

...Electric City FC plans to kick-off in 2022 playing in League 1 Ontario Men’s division and adding a Women’s team in 2023, pending approval. The club also has ambitions to reach the CPL in the future.

“For Electric City FC to reach the heights of the CPL and be considered by the League as a possible expansion club it’s going to take the whole community to get behind the project and show the rest of Canada why Peterborough deserves to be in the country’s top professional league,” said Jenkins. “From what I’ve seen so far from Peterborough and the passionate, hardworking, and talented people who live here, they are up to the challenge.

I think Peterborough can do it.  Correct me if I'm wrong but I think their Senior A Lacrosse Club, the Peterborough Lakers who play in Ontario's Major Series Lacrosse League, do really well with attendance.  I know it's comparing apples and oranges with Lacrosse and Soccer but it does show that the community supports their clubs.  How does their OHL team the Petes do attendance wise?  I'm not familiar with the OHL but I imagine they draw a good crowd as well.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^this link is worth a read for a lot of the background like how the Petes draw etc:

https://northerntribune.ca/peterborough-electric-city-fc/

Do I believe Peterborough by itself has enough population for a pro team? If it was in England, you’d have no problem because the sport is so over the top. You can get 30,000 fans in a 50,000 person city there. Having said that, the catchment area we’re talking about [in Peterborough] is somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 people within a 30- to 45-minute drive. It works. It really does.

David Clanachan

In reality you would be doing well to draw 2,000 for a team in a 50,000 town in the UK, but the wider catchment of 400,000 people mentioned by David Clanachan where Peterborough is concerned is interesting. Had this filed under no chance until I read that.
 

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[toontownman]

L1O then a jump to d2 if it ever happens before CPL? 

A pyramid that could work? Don't believe it 😛

Good luck to ECFC!

[DontPanic]

As a longtime Peterborough resident (born and raised) I wish them luck. 
as a Canadian soccer fan I wish them luck 

yellow and black as team colours though? I can’t think of any way those colours are associated with the city 

 

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

2 hours ago, toontownman said:

L1O then a jump to d2 if it ever happens before CPL? 

Worth bearing in mind that the only difference between D2 or D3 is whether the CSA or a provincial association does the sanctioning. Suspect this summer's L1O university division is where most of the eastern portion of the would be D2 is currently parked in sanctioning terms but time will tell.

Given CanPL own L1O and David Clanachan is taking them somewhat seriously they'll probably prefer the longer season D3 format to a shorter season Canadian version of PDL. Not sure about the 400k being in 45 minutes drive angle the more I think about it as they might need to take in parts of the Oshawa area to arrive at that (?) and it reminds me of arguments pushed by a Port Hope NHL expansion bid that briefly got some publicity about 30 years ago. 

Having said that would love to see it work and trying to figure out how to emulate Halifax is something they very much should be exploring.

[Mikmacdo]

1 hour ago, DontPanic said:

As a longtime Peterborough resident (born and raised) I wish them luck. 
as a Canadian soccer fan I wish them luck 

yellow and black as team colours though? I can’t think of any way those colours are associated with the city 

 

 

the minor hockey team the nationals are or were those colours when I played hockey as a kid. 

[DontPanic]

2 minutes ago, Mikmacdo said:

the minor hockey team the nationals are or were those colours when I played hockey as a kid. 

Lol. Would be sad if that was what they choose the colours from. 
 

As a fellow native Id guess green/white or maroon/white is a lot more associated with the area. 

[Mikmacdo]

1 minute ago, DontPanic said:

Lol. Would be sad if that was what they choose the colours from. 
 

As a fellow native Id guess green/white or maroon/white is a lot more associated with the area. 

I havent lived in Peterborough in ten years, do you still live there? I cant envision soccer being such a huge success that they get a CPL team one day. The 400,000 number is way off too, no one is coming from the Oshawa area to Peterborough for soccer when they could go to a TFC or York game in less time. 

[toontownman]

48 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Worth bearing in mind that the only difference between D2 or D3 is whether the CSA or a provincial association does the sanctioning. Suspect this summer's L1O university division is where most of the eastern portion of the would be D2 is currently parked in sanctioning terms but time will tell.

I expect there are a handful of clubs eager and able to have a Proper D2 and form that standard. Not sure there is enough outside to differentiate as you suggest.

The priority for these prospective D2 teams and the CSA should be to cement working D3/L1 across the board and grow upwards rather than having 3/4 proper, competitive D2 teams and other new clubs or otherwise struggling and no different to D3. 

I guess either route could work but the build up approach allowing all teams to grow and improve with new clubs/players growing underneath makes more sense to me. Can understand any possible impatience and frustration of a clutch of clubs that are not quite ready for CPL but ambitious and ready for a step above D3.

Not sure we are there yet with enough clubs for a Proper D2 but there simply isn't enough info released to know. Maybe there are some big ownership groups and backing in the wings. 

[DontPanic]

12 minutes ago, Mikmacdo said:

I havent lived in Peterborough in ten years, do you still live there? I cant envision soccer being such a huge success that they get a CPL team one day. The 400,000 number is way off too, no one is coming from the Oshawa area to Peterborough for soccer when they could go to a TFC or York game in less time. 

Let’s just say 400,000 is possible if they are counting cats and dogs as well (plus maybe geese)

I think Peterborough could realistically do very well in league one. If there’s pro/rel with a division above they have a chance to go up if they had a good year. 
Expansion franchise directly to cpl? No chance. 

the best spots for soccer in Peterborough were all long gone years ago. 
morrow park had multiple fields. Turned into slow pitch diamonds

Nichols oval. Turned over to rugby. 

 

east gate is still a decent field though but I heard they want to put this team way out on chemong near portage place. That kills any walk up option. 

comparing the Lakers to anything is useless. They’re such a weird anomaly. Yes they sell out. But honestly it’s such a Peterborough and a few other minor spots type thing (unless you give new Westminster a team as well then you have a rivalry 

Edited August 10, 2021 by DontPanic

[DontPanic]

8 minutes ago, toontownman said:

 

The priority for these prospective D2 teams and the CSA should be to cement working D3/L1 across the board and grow upwards rather than having 3/4 proper, competitive D2 teams and other new clubs or otherwise struggling and no different to D3. 

 

This. 
this is where the Peterborough’s. Barries. Kingston’s etc should be starting. 
Build up the d3. Fill it out across the province so it’s not so gta centric. If you think after crushing it there you’re ready for more. Join/start/promote to a higher level. 
 

Edited August 10, 2021 by DontPanic

[Ansem]

Just reiterating that Surrey would be fantastic with a SSS

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[Kent]

3 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

 

That's a pretty good reveal video. Reminds me of similar ones we had seen for CPL teams. Maybe that's a perk of CPL owning L1O, great to see!

Hopefully unlike the Barrie team they play their home games in their home city in their first season.

[Ansem]

Claims...

Laval 2022

Québec City 2023

 

[Shway]

Has there been any mention of a target amount of teams? I think 14 teams seems like the golden number based on the feasibility of a 28 game schedule.

9 - Laval (2022)
10 - Quebec City (2023)
11 - Saskatchewan (2024)
12 - Vancouver GVA? 
13 - Windsor?
14 - Moncton? 

I know guys will talk about splitting the league into conferences, however I hope we never see it or anything that will resemble MLS ever expanding setup. 

[SthMelbRed]

21 minutes ago, Shway said:

Has there been any mention of a target amount of teams? I think 14 teams seems like the golden number based on the feasibility of a 28 game schedule.

9 - Laval (2022)
10 - Quebec City (2023)
11 - Saskatchewan (2024)
12 - Vancouver GVA? 
13 - Windsor?
14 - Moncton? 

I know guys will talk about splitting the league into conferences, however I hope we never see it or anything that will resemble MLS ever expanding setup. 

12-14 is the realistic maximum unless you want to put a ceiling on what the strongest teams would be allowed to do, or accept a massive competitive imbalance within the league.

[Macksam]

3 hours ago, SthMelbRed said:

12-14 is the realistic maximum unless you want to put a ceiling on what the strongest teams would be allowed to do, or accept a massive competitive imbalance within the league.

Accept a competitive imbalance I would say. I think it will be quite interesting to see a hypothetical scenario 10 years from now of Cavalry drawing 20,000 on a bi-weekly basis taking on Barrie, which only has a 7,000 seat stadium. 

[youllneverwalkalone]

I think 16 is the magic number and I believe the commish mentioned this at one point. Our calendar can barely sustain 28 matches in prime time, but if you went down to 26 it looks a bit bush. 15 clubs doesn't make any sense from a scheduling point of view.

[brianjc]

5 hours ago, Shway said:

9 - Laval (2022)
10 - Quebec City (2023)
11 - Saskatchewan (2024)
12 - Vancouver GVA? 
13 - Windsor?
14 - Moncton? 

I would substitute Grand River region (Kitchener-Waterloo) for Windsor and Fraser Valley for Vancouver GVA.   

Edited August 18, 2021 by brianjc

[Stanley]

5 hours ago, Shway said:

Has there been any mention of a target amount of teams? I think 14 teams seems like the golden number based on the feasibility of a 28 game schedule.

 

You'd need 15 teams for a balanced 28 game schedule.

[Shway]

12 minutes ago, Stanley said:

You'd need 15 teams for a balanced 28 game schedule.

You are right, I stand corrected. 15 teams would be too much if they are planning to expand the league down. 

So let me correct myself and say "I think 13-14 teams would be the golden number based on the feasibility of a 24 or 26 game balanced schedule."

[Unnamed Trialist]

Since the players are on salaries for a season, playing more games is not an issue (as long as we're not going overboard, which we're not). So get those 2-3 more home matches to benefit revenues. 

A 28-match season is still short. Add a few cup matches, still not long. We haven't even seen friendlies to enhance gate yet. 

[toontownman]

Get that Magic number and develop the D2. When push comes to shove I l'd be surprised if there isn't resistance to pro/rel. 

If Saskatoon gets the go ahead there will be a Regina team too imo.