CPL General

[HfxCeltic]

1 hour ago, grasshopper1917 said:

Locally our Jr Hockey team in Halifax charges 20$ for adults and 10$ for kids. They also have multi pack and family deals. I think getting the pricing right will be a big thing for the league. Too expensive and no one will go - too cheap and everyone will just view it as small time.

However BBTB has touched on a good point regarding the cost for a family. I think if this is going to be successful the teams will need to draw in families and it has to be affordable for a family of 3 or 4 to go to. Im sure he price point will vary but I have the feeling in Halifax 20$-25$ is going to be about the max you can charge for an adult ticket unless your in a top notch/luxury seat. 

I think Derek Martin mentioned ticket prices in the $10-$35 range when Paul Bierne was in town last year. $10 was leaning more towards the beer garden and supporters group sections behind the nets, and up to $35 was premium seating near midfield I think. Regardless, I think keeping the majority of the ticket prices in line with the Mooseheads and having some local group/themed/family deals is the way to. I plan on going to a majority of the matches with family and shelling out $75-$100 on tickets alone every couple weeks might be a little hard to swallow.

[deschamp86]

15 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Something worth keeping an eye on this season is how the Ottawa Fury get on given JdG has signed a roster with many of the sort of Canadian players most on here seem to envisage as mainstays in a CanPL context. They got annihilated by the Tampa Bay Rowdies this weekend, which is a bit depressing to see but not altogether surprising

Ottawa has already been ravaged by injuries. They only had 5 players on the bench for the game

So I didn't watch the game, but a lot of their bigger Canadian players were missing: Edward, Attakora, Tissot, Reid and more.

One of the "big" signings that played was Mannella, who also according to the lineup, was playing center back. He isn't a center back.

[Macksam]

14 minutes ago, deschamp86 said:

Ottawa has already been ravaged by injuries. They only had 5 players on the bench for the game

So I didn't watch the game, but a lot of their bigger Canadian players were missing: Edward, Attakora, Tissot, Reid and more.

One of the "big" signings that played was Mannella, who also according to the lineup, was playing center back. He isn't a center back.

Of course BBTB would leave all this information out as it doesn’t fit his agenda.

[Shortdutchcanuck]

1 hour ago, deschamp86 said:

Ottawa has already been ravaged by injuries. They only had 5 players on the bench for the game

 

I've been wondering why some of these guys have stayed behind so far.

Anyway the Fury were a solid USL club last year and signed some players with good NASL pedigrees so I think this is just a rough start.  They have a new coach trying to implement a new system and only recently have been able to practice outdoors.  Fingers crossed these were just a couple of bad results.

[BuzzAndSting]

6 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

That's debatable. You can still watch a top blockbuster movie in 3D for $15 + tax (or less for children) in London, Ont. at the cinema I sometimes go to, so I suspect it very much depends on what city you are in and the average income locally. Some people will only go on discount Tuesdays when prices can be under $10. Expecting a family of four to spend over $100 regularly once concessions are factored in to watch relatively low quality pro soccer is expecting a lot in a sport that is still skewed in interest terms towards recent immigrants and young adults on low incomes who tend to be more spendthrift than the rest of the population. There are legitimate reasons behind why Steven Sandor sometimes blogs about the soccer demographic being notoriously cheap in the eyes of marketing exceutives. It's not safe to assume soccer fans will respond the same way CFL or hockey fans would and investors in soccer in Canada have often found that out the hard way.

Ottawa have used massively discounted groups sales to youth soccer to boost their attendance stats so it is not safe to assume that the listed attendance numbers at USL or NASL games have all been paying upwards of $20+ on average. Youth soccer group sale discounts along with copious amounts of freebies being distributed in some cities is part of why it's still possible to lose big money at D2 level even with apparently impressive looking announced numbers. Another issue that the NASL specifically has had was operating without a salary cap and allowing teams like the NY Cosmos and FC Miami to spend crazily to try to compete with MLS in the US Open Cup. At that point the other teams have to substantially overspend as well relative to their revenue streams to remain competitive.

In Kitchener, the local newspaper was told a few weeks ago that 8000 to 10000 seats with expandability is the entry point on stadiums and that the existing 6000 capacity university stadium at Wilfred Laurier, which I think is larger than the stadia at York U, would not be suitable for a pro team. I guess they might be more flexible when it is the GTA that is involved in a North York Rockets at Esther Shiner sort of way, but that can be a one way ticket to being viewed as bush league.

It’s debatable?

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

...so general prices are $13 + tax and a family of four could do a movie together for around $50 in total ticket prices. Think that would also be about right for a startup pro soccer league at the moment for the bulk of the cheaper general admission seats, if you want people to show up more than once and start making a habit of it. You can always ramp up prices a bit later once people are hooked and have become emotionally invested.

[Gian-Luca]

6 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

In Kitchener, the local newspaper was told a few weeks ago that 8000 to 10000 seats with expandability is the entry point on stadiums and that the existing 6000 capacity university stadium at Wilfred Laurier, which I think is larger than the stadia at York U, would not be suitable for a pro team. I guess they might be more flexible when it is the GTA that is involved in a North York Rockets at Esther Shiner sort of way, but that can be a one way ticket to being viewed as bush league.

This stadium size sense if the 6000 attendance is the projected break-even point, since you want to be able to accommodate being able to seat more than the break even amount. It could be that the GTA team is not going to be one of the next batch to be announced for this reason and they are one of the "maybe's" that has delayed things a bit. Despite this, with all of the rumblings of activity on the York Region front my guess is that they will be one of the four next to be announced and there will be a temporary solution for them in year one (or some significant bleachers added to the Soccer centre in Vaughan over the summer).

[Rheo]

On 4/6/2018 at 2:50 PM, Rheo said:

Halifax announcement possibly? 

 

It's a series Rugby friendlies Canada vs England Women under 20 across Halifax.  Three games, two at established locations and one TBA.

[Kent]

1 hour ago, Rheo said:

It's a series Rugby friendlies Canada vs England Women under 20 across Halifax.  Three games, two at established locations and one TBA.

I said I would be annoyed if they announce they are buying the NBL team, but this works too. Actually, I'm not sure "annoyed" is the right word. Exhausted might be a better word.

Or maybe it's kind of like those nightmares where you are in a rush to get somewhere, and you are eternally running late and things keep getting in your way preventing you from getting to your destination. Or am I the only nerd that has nightmares about punctuality?

[HfxCeltic]

1 hour ago, Rheo said:

It's a series Rugby friendlies Canada vs England Women under 20 across Halifax.  Three games, two at established locations and one TBA.

The 2 announced locations are at private school in Windsor (45 mins from Halifax) and Acadia University in Wolfville (1 hour from Halifax). The TBA location is likely Wanderers Grounds in Halifax as I assume there holding out on formally announcing any events there until they have the stadium deal squared away with the City and publically announced - which I think is coming shortly.

[Rheo]

4 minutes ago, HfxCeltic said:

The 2 announced locations are at private school in Windsor (45 mins from Halifax) and Acadia University in Wolfville (1 hour from Halifax). The TBA location is likely Wanderers Grounds in Halifax as I assume there holding out on formally announcing any events there until they have the stadium deal squared away with the City and publically announced - which I think is coming shortly.

That's what I was thinking/hoping but I wouldn't know lol.  I did ask on Twitter but no reply

[deschamp86]

36 minutes ago, Kent said:

I said I would be annoyed if they announce they are buying the NBL team, but this works too. Actually, I'm not sure "annoyed" is the right word. Exhausted might be a better word.

Or maybe it's kind of like those nightmares where you are in a rush to get somewhere, and you are eternally running late and things keep getting in your way preventing you from getting to your destination. Or am I the only nerd that has nightmares about punctuality?

Hate those dreams haha. Though I also hate arriving anywhere late even if its just to a friend's place. Though when in reverse I expect friends to be at minimum a half hour late to my place

Edited April 9, 2018 by deschamp86

[Macksam]

2 hours ago, Kent said:

I said I would be annoyed if they announce they are buying the NBL team, but this works too. Actually, I'm not sure "annoyed" is the right word. Exhausted might be a better word.

Or maybe it's kind of like those nightmares where you are in a rush to get somewhere, and you are eternally running late and things keep getting in your way preventing you from getting to your destination. Or am I the only nerd that has nightmares about punctuality?

No, my nightmares usually revolve around being naked at work and no one noticing....along with the occasional dream of me directing a remake of Jaws....but the animatronic Shark just keeps malfunctioning so the production is stuck in an everlasting limbo.

Edited April 9, 2018 by Macksam

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

55 minutes ago, HfxCeltic said:

...The TBA location is likely Wanderers Grounds in Halifax as I assume there holding out on formally announcing any events there until they have the stadium deal squared away with the City and publically announced - which I think is coming shortly.

Could see a pop-up with 6500 temporary seats being installed for Canada vs USA at men's rugby, but that's probably a bit of a stretch for a U20 women's game in terms of the likely spectator interest level? The rumoured June 23rd game against the United States still rates a mention on wikipedia for what it's worth and even has the name of an assigned referee listed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_mid-year_rugby_union_internationals#Week_5

 

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

More job postings.

http://canpl.ca/careers/

 

[ChrisinOrleans]

4 hours ago, BenFisk'sBiggestFan said:

More job postings.

http://canpl.ca/careers/

 

I honestly hope Wandrille Lefèvre gets the Director of Finance job. 

[Rheo]

Nick Bontis has some CPL related quotes in this article http://www.northernstartingeleven.com/csa-town-hall-and-the-future-of-canadian-soccer/ 

[mpg_29]

I'm curious as how to TV/video production is going to be handled as I think that is so critical to the impression of the league. Are you going to leave it up to the clubs to handle it themselves which could lead to varying quality? Are you going leave it to a potential broadcasters which may not carry every game depending on the size of the TV market? Or are you going to go in and do it yourself and make sure you standardize decent production values for all games and then sell it?

My thoughts are you almost have to do it yourself at first to ensure a certain standard. And it's going to cost money intially.

[Gopherbashi]

I would assume that would be handled in large part by CSB.

If they're truly intending to go with digital access as opposed to a traditional cable reach, the league's ability to thrive will be heavily dependent on what kind of production quality they can come up with.

[Admin]

8 minutes ago, Gopherbashi said:

I would assume that would be handled in large part by CSB.

If they're truly intending to go with digital access as opposed to a traditional cable reach, the league's ability to thrive will be heavily dependent on what kind of production quality they can come up with.

Or be incredibly enhanced if starting from the beginning they are not encumbered by the limits of TV.

Think of all the great features you could have.....  Multiple audio channels, demographic based targeted advertising, immediate user controlled replays from multiple angles, coaching annotations for education, gamify all sorts of things,  the list goes on.....

[mpg_29]

13 minutes ago, Gopherbashi said:

I would assume that would be handled in large part by CSB.

If they're truly intending to go with digital access as opposed to a traditional cable reach, the league's ability to thrive will be heavily dependent on what kind of production quality they can come up with.

My issue wasn't TV vs online but more so the general video production quality of every game. If you can get broadcaster that is willing to do every game at same production standards then yeah go bananas. But I don't see that at the outset. Which means you are going to have to do it yourself.

[Kent]

15 minutes ago, admin said:

Or be incredibly enhanced if starting from the beginning they are not encumbered by the limits of TV.

Think of all the great features you could have.....  Multiple audio channels, demographic based targeted advertising, immediate user controlled replays from multiple angles, coaching annotations for education, gamify all sorts of things,  the list goes on.....

That all sounds lovely (especially the replays thing), but sounds like a lot further down the road than 2019. But so far I have yet to watch a streamed match where I thought the experience was as good as watching on TV. And I can't think of a game where watching on TV was worse than the best I have experience with watching online. I guess the one example would be the deciding match against Australia about 25 years ago in qualifying for 1994, where the video went out and we ended up hearing I think Dick Howard essentially doing a radio broadcast for a significant amount of time.

[Kent]

1 hour ago, Rheo said:

Nick Bontis has some CPL related quotes in this article http://www.northernstartingeleven.com/csa-town-hall-and-the-future-of-canadian-soccer/ 

Thanks for the link. That was a good read.

This part however "an Olympic medal for our Women’s team; the growth to the aforementioned twenty-five million dollars in operating budget; one million players; putting together a Men’s World cup bid, and creating a new domestic professional league. All of these goals have been met."

I'm not so sure about the one million players (at least not in terms of registered players) and I don't feel comfortable saying creating a new domestic professional league has been done before we have even a 3rd team announced.

Glad to hear they are still working towards the player registry. I think that could be a cool and useful thing.

[mpg_29]

6 minutes ago, Kent said:

That all sounds lovely (especially the replays thing), but sounds like a lot further down the road than 2019. But so far I have yet to watch a streamed match where I thought the experience was as good as watching on TV. And I can't think of a game where watching on TV was worse than the best I have experience with watching online. I guess the one example would be the deciding match against Australia about 25 years ago in qualifying for 1994, where the video went out and we ended up hearing I think Dick Howard essentially doing a radio broadcast for a significant amount of time.

It's personal preference whether to stream or watch on TV. But ultimately it comes down to the general production quality. If its good you can watch it on any device, if it sucks then it won't matter what you watch it on.

For instance one issue I can see is some of the smaller stadiums resulting in a poor(low) camera angle. It might not seem like a big deal but try watching full games when you are nearly eye-level with the field. 

Simple stuff like this impacts how watchable it is. And ultimately a lot hinges on how watchable this will be from home.

[Admin]

Production value as MPG says is more important than the platform.   Legit streams are generally very good, most of the time when using a stream it is either low production value or pirated, so I'm not sure the comparison is fair at this point in time.