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CPL new teams speculation


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2 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Any word yet on who the three groups in Toronto are? There didn't seem to be any problem in nailing down the identity of the Quebec City and Trois Rivieres groups. Suspect it may be the usual suspects in NSL/CPSL/CSL terms like Croatia, the White Eagles and York Region Shooters.

I just hope they all learn of each other and combine their efforts to make a super solid bid. 

 

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5 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Any word yet on who the three groups in Toronto are? There didn't seem to be any problem in nailing down the identity of the Quebec City and Trois Rivieres groups. Suspect it may be the usual suspects in NSL/CPSL/CSL terms like Croatia, the White Eagles and York Region Shooters.

Sorry, where was it confirmed who the QC and TR groups were? All I saw was a relatively unknown twitter account staking a claim

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1 hour ago, Complete Homer said:

Sorry, where was it confirmed who the QC and TR groups were? All I saw was a relatively unknown twitter account staking a claim

And/or Rollins admittedly guessing in one of this articles. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So the state of play appears to be:

Halifax (SEA stated publicly) waiting for permission on a pop-up to be confirmed

Moncton (unknown) possibly just wishful thinking from a local soccer official

Quebec City (Or et Rouge benefactor speculated to be interested) haven't surfaced publicly yet

Trois Rivieres (former CSL owner speculated to be interested) haven't surfaced publicly yet

Ottawa (OSEG have talked to CPL) not clear they are actually interested

Toronto (three groups said to have contacted CPL) haven't surfaced publicly yet

Hamilton (Bob Young) in for sure

K/W (Barry McLean) publicly stated interest with pop-up on the agenda

Winnipeg (Blue Bombers) in for sure

Saskatchewan (owners of the Saskatoon lacrosse team) publicly stated interest with pop-up on the agenda

plus expressions of interest from a minimum of two other markets with Calgary being a prime suspect

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2 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

So the state of play appears to be:

Halifax (SEA stated publicly) waiting for permission on a pop-up to be confirmed

Moncton (unknown) possibly just wishful thinking from a local soccer official

Quebec City (Or et Rouge benefactor speculated to be interested) haven't surfaced publicly yet

Trois Rivieres (former CSL owner speculated to be interested) haven't surfaced publicly yet

Ottawa (OSEG have talked to CPL) not clear they are actually interested

Toronto (three groups said to have contacted CPL) haven't surfaced publicly yet

Hamilton (Bob Young) in for sure

K/W (Barry McLean) publicly stated interest with pop-up on the agenda

Winnipeg (Blue Bombers) in for sure

Saskatchewan (owners of the Saskatoon lacrosse team) publicly stated interest with pop-up on the agenda

plus expressions of interest from a minimum of two other markets with Calgary being a prime suspect

I'm gonna assume one of the Toronto groups is MLSE

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On 5/20/2017 at 6:52 PM, snake said:

I believe that a Team Okanagan based in Kelowna could really do well 

Kelowna would be a good market for a League 1 Ontario style BC/Western Canada D3 regional league but Can PL needs to concentrate on the larger markets as it will be a Division 1 league and needs to portray an image as such.

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10 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

 

Saskatchewan (owners of the Saskatoon lacrosse team) publicly stated interest with pop-up on the agenda

Lee Genier is the former president of the Rush lacrosse team. It was not stated that the owners of the Rush were the interested party. 

It's not been stated that the ownership group wants to build a pop-up stadium, just that they want to build a stadium. 

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5 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

Kelowna would be a good market for a League 1 Ontario style BC/Western Canada D3 regional league but Can PL needs to concentrate on the larger markets as it will be a Division 1 league and needs to portray an image as such.

If as has been reported, the CPL views K-W as a viable market, I think Kelowna is also viable. I can't remember if it was a rumour or reported but if CanPL execs went to Scandinavia to look at their leagues and understood it as a model, I think there is acknowledgment that a top tier league can have a combination of large cities and smaller communities. I don't really understand the notion that unless all teams come from big cities, the league will look minor? It doesn't work that way anywhere else in the world... I think as long as most of the bigger cities are also covered, it'll be fine, and the smaller communities: K-W, Saskatoon, Kelowna, Moncton would give it character and flavour.

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7 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

Kelowna would be a good market for a League 1 Ontario style BC/Western Canada D3 regional league but Can PL needs to concentrate on the larger markets as it will be a Division 1 league and needs to portray an image as such.

Paul Beirne has been talking about having teams in markets as small as 200,000 as the long term vision. Kelowna just about fits the bill on that in terms of its metro area (194,000 in the last census). Think Kelowna is a bit of a soccer hotbed in a similar sort of way to Victoria. Certainly more so than the likes of Saskatoon and Moncton. An Okanagan team tried to get into the original CSL when it was in its death throes back in 1992.

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1 hour ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

...I don't really understand the notion that unless all teams come from big cities, the league will look minor?...

The budgets that have been rumoured are minor relative to MLS. Arguably, it's easier to make that work in a smaller city that doesn't expect its sports teams to be in the top tier. In K/W, for example, a pro soccer team with an overall budget of around $2 million definitely wouldn't look out of place next to the Rangers of the OHL, which is why the fan group are viewed as meriting a picture on the front page of the local daily newspaper. In Edmonton, FC Edmonton doesn't really stack up against the Oilers and Eskimos in terms of being seen as an equal, which makes it more difficult to build up media and spectator interest.

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4 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

The budgets that have been rumoured are minor relative to MLS. Arguably, it's easier to make that work in a smaller city that doesn't expect its sports teams to be in the top tier. In K/W, for example, a pro soccer team with an overall budget of around $2 million definitely wouldn't look out of place next to the Rangers of the OHL, which is why the fan group are viewed as meriting a picture on the front page of the local daily newspaper. In Edmonton, FC Edmonton doesn't really stack up against the Oilers and Eskimos in terms of being seen as an equal, which makes it more difficult to build up media and spectator interest.

Oh, I completely agree. I might've phrased it a little odd. What I meant was that all around the world, soccer leagues involve teams from smaller towns without the league having the stigma of being seeing as irrelevant. 

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I think the main reason why having smaller cities represented in top leagues doesn't make the league feel minor league around the world, but it does here, is that around the world they are dealing with promotion and relegation. That means that whoever is in the top division, deserve to be in the top division. Being a small city just maybe makes it a bigger accomplishment, rather than cheapening the league.

In Canada and USA we don't have promotion and relegation (at least in any leagues I'm aware of), and we have a culture of big leagues and minor leagues, with big cities in the big leagues, and smaller cities in minor leagues. I'm hoping that if CPL does in fact get smaller cities that it can get beyond the minor league stigma due to soccer fans' familiarity with leagues around the world and the idea of small and big cities competing at the top level together. It will definitely be a challenge though.

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Just now, mpg_29 said:

So is CPL going to set up it's own USL right off the bat?

This is based on Paul Beirne talking about divisions being formed eventually, which probably was simply a reference to regional east and west conferences, if they can get the numbers up to eight or more after their planned soft launch with as few as five or six. I haven't seen any suggestion that smaller markets like Halifax, K/W and Saskatoon would be placed in a lower division than Hamilton and Winnipeg.

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Noticed this comment from the Sudbury Star in an article announcing Sudbury's new NBL Canada club. Doesn't mean anything really. Also, since comparisons of a domestic league to NBL Canada have been made in the past (by myself specifically), I think it's good to know the league is expanding and not contracting going into season 7:

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2017/05/09/sudbury-wolves-sports-and-entertainment-to-bring-nbl-canada-expansion-franchise-to-nickel-city

My daughter is at LU, my niece is a strong player vying to make the Canadian team, so basketball is in my blood, while my brothers John and Paul played varsity football, and my other brother, Rob, played varsity soccer," he said.

So could a soccer team be next? Zulich just raised an eyebrow and smiled, then returned to the basketball team.

 

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43 minutes ago, shermanator said:

Noticed this comment from the Sudbury Star in an article announcing Sudbury's new NBL Canada club. Doesn't mean anything really.

Sudbury in the CPL seems extremely unlikely. A Sudbury club in League1 Ontario on the other hand would be a great development and very likely to go through given L1O's stated intention of focusing on expansion outside the GTA.

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