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CPL new teams speculation


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2 hours ago, EnigMattic1 said:

Given that Atletico Ottawa were announced in January 2020 and took part in the Island Games that took place in August 2020, What do you think the chances are of Toronto Blizzard joining next season?

Something's afloat. Get some tits in there and put a map of Florida in the background. Talking this up along with the Bayern angle no doubt helps to keep the youth club relevant given nobody under 40 will have much recollection of watching the Blizzard play nowadays.

Seems like a very long time ago now when the late Justin Fashanu left the field of play, climbed up into the seats at Centennial Stadium and ran right past me on his way to trying to get into the press box to try to attack Mario DiBartolomeo. 

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On 6/19/2022 at 3:18 AM, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Agree that Kelowna would probably do well compared to some of the teams in larger markets like York United and FCE right now. It's a metro area of 220,000 only when Penticton is factored in though, which isn't exactly next door, so not an easy fit for a big budget D1 type business model that emulates the CFL. Three out of eight currently play in huge CFL stadia but do you conceivably ever need 20,000+ seats once markets like Kelowna are involved? Never been fully clear what the end game is with CanPL.

Doubt it adds much to what we already know but here's Northern Tribune's take:

I don't think the CPL brass ever said they're trying to emulate the CFL. I am not sure why you keep bringing this up.

Also, why would Kelowna being in the league prevent another market from reaching its 20,000 potential? Think the CPL's long term vision can have clubs potentially drawing 20,000 people alongside clubs that only draw 5,000...you know, like soccer leagues around the world. 

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5 hours ago, narduch said:

Lol did PMK leave Pacific for a year so it wouldn't look as bad when he became Vancouver CPL manager?

That's probably too conspiracy theory-ish though.

We do know he has interviewed for 2 MLS jobs. Surprised he would come back to CPL so fast

You never know. I would be surprised too! He will know he will always be welcomed back to the CPL so I doubt there is a rush unless he is getting a bumper contract and believes the league is going to move up a few levels over the next few years salary cap and playing standard wise. 

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...While Electric City FC seems to have kept Rob Jenkins’ aspiration to become a fully professional club in the Canadian Premier League someday, it looks Couch aims to take things at a slower pace than jumping upwards in the next few years. Jenkins had once claimed this move could happen as soon as 2024, but evidently the club has a slower timeline in mind...Electric City FC has certainly made waves at the League1 Ontario level, where it smashed an attendance record for its home opener at Fleming College. The Peterborough Examiner reports that it has averaged about 500 fans of fewer in its regular season matches since, which is admittingly a much smaller number than the Peterborough Petes and Peterborough Lakers drew pre-pandemic...

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I think it is key to the success of the league that future expansions happen only where there is the likelihood of strong attendances similar to the numbers that Halifax has been seeing. In order to do this, the teams should be based in cities or regions that (1) have their own identities, as opposed to being a suburban community of a much larger CMA, (2) are not within the market area of an existing MLS club, sorry Mississauga and Laval, (3) are not going to be competing with a CFL Team, and (4) have a decent population size (250,000+...but better if more than 400,000 people). To me, Quebec City is the major missing piece. I also feel that teams in Kitchener-Waterloo, the Niagara Region, and London could do well. Saskatoon could do well, but I am not sold yet because of the Roughriders effect. 

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1 hour ago, Haligonian#1 said:

I think it is key to the success of the league that future expansions happen only where there is the likelihood of strong attendances similar to the numbers that Halifax has been seeing. In order to do this, the teams should be based in cities or regions that (1) have their own identities, as opposed to being a suburban community of a much larger CMA, (2) are not within the market area of an existing MLS club, sorry Mississauga and Laval, (3) are not going to be competing with a CFL Team, and (4) have a decent population size (250,000+...but better if more than 400,000 people). To me, Quebec City is the major missing piece. I also feel that teams in Kitchener-Waterloo, the Niagara Region, and London could do well. Saskatoon could do well, but I am not sold yet because of the Roughriders effect. 

I agree in broad terms, although it won't sit well with the "we can have multiple teams in each market because it works in Europe" crowd.

The new Vancouver area team will be a real test for the idea of sharing an MLS market.  York has been a massive failure in the stands so far.  If Vancouver CPL can succeed, then perhaps York's problem is something else.  If Vancouver CPL also draw poorly, then it looks like sharing with MLS is just a bad idea.

Using your criteria, then, yes, possible expansion markets are Quebec City, KW, London, Saskatoon, and St. Catharines.  I'd personally be a bit suspect of those last two.  The point being, however, that there aren't actually very many so it's important to maximize the success in all the possible markets.  (So hopefully someone can turn Edmonton around.)

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1 hour ago, Kingston said:

...The new Vancouver area team will be a real test for the idea of sharing an MLS market...

They are not quite Forge distance from the MLS team but not too far off at somewhere between Oakville and Burlington sort of distance from BMO Field so not sure that's true even if they are going for Vancouver branding. A Laval team would have been much more of a test.

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2 hours ago, Kingston said:

Using your criteria, then, yes, possible expansion markets are Quebec City, KW, London, Saskatoon, and St. Catharines.  I'd personally be a bit suspect of those last two.  The point being, however, that there aren't actually very many so it's important to maximize the success in all the possible markets.  (So hopefully someone can turn Edmonton around.)

In St. Catharines we're sandwiched between a lot of "somewhat-close" markets for sports and are pretty used to travelling to games. I don't know that the league would be willing to cut into the Forge FC base by putting a team in the region just yet. 

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58 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

They are not quite Forge distance from the MLS team but not too far off at somewhere between Oakville and Burlington sort of distance from BMO Field so not sure that's true even if they are going for Vancouver branding. A Laval team would have been much more of a test.

In terms of distance they may be similar to Forge but my impression is that they are a lot more like York in terms of identity.  Hamilton has a long history of supporting its own sports teams that predates the physical merging of the cities along the shore of Lake Ontario into one continuous urban blob.  York doesn't and (although I'll defer to a local) Langley doesn't really either; the hockey team is called Vancouver, not Langley.

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3 hours ago, Kingston said:

agree in broad terms, although it won't sit well with the "we can have multiple teams in each market because it works in Europe" crowd.

Across multiple divisions - yes and that's what they meant initially. That's the league's long term vision, not many think we'll have 3or 4 CPL clubs in Toronto but you already have a bunch in L10

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39 minutes ago, Ansem said:

Across multiple divisions - yes and that's what they meant initially. That's the league's long term vision, not many think we'll have 3or 4 CPL clubs in Toronto but you already have a bunch in L10

TFC, York, and some L1O teams, yes.

What I (and it seems you) disagree with are the people who suggest CPL teams in Mississauga, York, Scarborough, and Oshawa.  This is something I've seen posted elsewhere (often along with a forced move of TFC to the CPL to fill in the hole in old Toronto).

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8 minutes ago, Kingston said:

TFC, York, and some L1O teams, yes.

What I (and it seems you) disagree with are the people who suggest CPL teams in Mississauga, York, Scarborough, and Oshawa.  This is something I've seen posted elsewhere (often along with a forced move of TFC to the CPL to fill in the hole in old Toronto).

If a club has the right identity, right project, right venue - it can work. We all agree that York didn't have it. Hoping Woodbine will be a right fit for them.

Mississauga can work if again, right venue, right location, right owners, right vision if we're talking CPL

Otherwise - I view Oshawa as a solid D2 market, same for Scarborough

Edited by Ansem
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33 minutes ago, Ansem said:

If a club has the right identity, right project, right venue - it can work.

This is the whole ball of wax and something that many both within and without the CanPL don't seem to understand, let alone put into practice.

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