CPL General

[masster]

20 hours ago, Ansem said:

To add to this, the 6 mandatory Canadians starting is to avoid this

 

Just partly. A large reason the number is down so much is that foreign born players can turn into domestic players as soon as they get their green card. And we have seen that process take as little as 12 months. If you have a foreign born player taking up a domestic spot, you don't need as many US born players to fill those spots.

Also, MLS has increased the number of international roster spots with expansion of the league. So 2006 to now isn't really apples to apples.

This is definitely something the USSF should be worried about though.

[matty]

19 hours ago, Complete Homer said:

https://mobile.twitter.com/GregMcIsaac/status/1019382020449894401

Interesting tweet from McIsaac, nothing directly related to CPL but it's interesting that he's been talking with DAZN

Not 100% he's still with the league though. I think he's a consultant so it might have been a temporary gig

He is still working the the CPL (here's him listed on the Hamilton press release http://canpl.ca/article/forge-fc-unveiled-as-hamiltons-canadian-premier-league-club). He's also working with beIN.

[Complete Homer]

Good article from the Athletic 

https://theathletic.com/434047/2018/07/18/making-the-pitch-a-new-league-and-a-new-hope-for-young-canadian-soccer-players/

Brief gist, don't want to break their payment model:

-Use of Telfer to illustrate untapped talent lying around because there's only a handful of clubs to seek it out

- Easton talking about the expected benefits for the national team/2026

- Used history of a half dozen underperforming nations after they launched their own leagues as a model of what to hope for post-cpl

- "It is believed teams will operate under a $2-million salary cap."

- DeVos' views on CPL's impact

 

[Rheo]

More roster details in here 

 

[baulderdash77]

A $2 million salary cap is big news.  That extra 500k is pretty big in terms of impact, especially for starters.  It puts average salary as roughly non DP and TAM players from MLS 

[mpg_29]

$2 MILLION SALARY CAP BABYYYYY!!!! BOOM OR BUST!!!!

[Complete Homer]

To temper expectations, he did say it is believed

But two mainstream journos releasing similar numbers on the same day with interviews attached...gotta think they were given at least soft confirmation on those numbers

[CDNFootballer]

1 hour ago, matty said:

He is still working the the CPL (here's him listed on the Hamilton press release http://canpl.ca/article/forge-fc-unveiled-as-hamiltons-canadian-premier-league-club). He's also working with beIN.

beIN Sports Canada having at least a "CPL match of the week"  would be great, TV exposure Nationally for Canada and a streaming of all other CPL matches on DAZN or TSN GO.

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, Complete Homer said:

To temper expectations, he did say it is believed

To further temper expectations, the article has a number of other inaccuracies in it, such as the Impact and Whitecaps only signing "6 and 4 players to MLS homegrown contracts since 2008", which is laughably off.

[BuzzAndSting]

New article from Milton dealing with roster allocation.

- salary cap for players and coaches. Average salaries between $40-60K. Possible overlap.

- acquisitions will be made from five pools of players in a stepped sequence.

Details:

1. Foundational

These are the top Canadian players already playing pro at a high level. They'd be put in a pool, and individual teams would deal with, and try to sign, them. 

2. Up-and-coming

These are players coming up through various systems, such as Ontario's League 1 or other developmental leagues who have a future but aren't on big-name teams or maybe haven't been included in the national team system. It could also include players in, say, third division European leagues who aren't making much money. 

3. Home territory

This bucket would contain players that a team would identify to the league as coming from their immediate or regional market, and would be important to fan support and development. "One of the things we are adamant about is creating hometown heroes," Clanachan says. "There are a lot of great soccer players who will be, and are, coming out of Hamilton." You could envision former Mac players or, say, Hamilton-raised national team goalie Milan Borjan (now playing for Red Star Belgrade) on the list Forge FC submits.

4. Canadian universities and colleges

The CPL has been talking to USports about conducting a university draft.

5. Open market

When the first four buckets have been completed, the more-than-50 per cent Canadian content should be fulfilled for all teams. The open market pool could be a mixture of Canadians and internationals. "We don't know exactly what we're going to get there," Clanachan says. He doesn't anticipate any big-name big-money internationals to start with, but the league has heard from a number of non-Canadians interested in playing here. And some non-Canadian club systems have expressed interest in a working arrangement with the CPL.

https://www.thespec.com/sports-story/8749807-cpl-players-will-come-from-five-pools-/

[Unnamed Trialist]

Just now, BuzzAndSting said:

New article from Milton dealing with roster allocation.

- salary cap for players and coaches. Average salaries between $40-60K. Possible overlap.

- acquisitions will be made from five pools of players in a stepped sequence.

Details:

1. Foundational

These are the top Canadian players already playing pro at a high level. They'd be put in a pool, and individual teams would deal with, and try to sign, them. 

2. Up-and-coming

These are players coming up through various systems, such as Ontario's League 1 or other developmental leagues who have a future but aren't on big-name teams or maybe haven't been included in the national team system. It could also include players in, say, third division European leagues who aren't making much money. 

3. Home territory

This bucket would contain players that a team would identify to the league as coming from their immediate or regional market, and would be important to fan support and development. "One of the things we are adamant about is creating hometown heroes," Clanachan says. "There are a lot of great soccer players who will be, and are, coming out of Hamilton." You could envision former Mac players or, say, Hamilton-raised national team goalie Milan Borjan (now playing for Red Star Belgrade) on the list Forge FC submits.

4. Canadian universities and colleges

The CPL has been talking to USports about conducting a university draft.

5. Open market

When the first four buckets have been completed, the more-than-50 per cent Canadian content should be fulfilled for all teams. The open market pool could be a mixture of Canadians and internationals. "We don't know exactly what we're going to get there," Clanachan says. He doesn't anticipate any big-name big-money internationals to start with, but the league has heard from a number of non-Canadians interested in playing here. And some non-Canadian club systems have expressed interest in a working arrangement with the CPL.

https://www.thespec.com/sports-story/8749807-cpl-players-will-come-from-five-pools-/

I am not even sure that pooling like that is legal. They have no rights to any player, no player has any obligation to belong to a pool, and no contract could be bound to a pooling system like that, as if you had 5 draft categories. The only remotely reasonable pool I would say is a draft of Canadians from NCAA and USports. 

I mean, you have freedom of movement in Canada. If I am playing PDL for Thunder Bay, and live in northern Ontario, why the hell couldn't I contact Victoria or Halifax and get a tryout? How could the league force me to be restricted to a region, or allow a team to get first option on me just because of where I happened to be living at a certain moment?

The last thing we should be doing is copying the ridiculous and convoluted system in MLS, which appears to have tainted our CPL brains. Just be as natural as you can, sign players like in any other league. I can assure you nobody getting offered a decent salary to play pro is going to worry about they are 400 km from their parents or their high school friends, or 4000.

Now people will post that York 9 as an unfair advantage since they have a greater pool of quality players to draw from nearby. They'll pick the best and leave the dregs to the rest. I'd like to see it in action, as if that factor were really going to skew the balance of the league.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Unnamed Trialist

[Complete Homer]

40 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I am not even sure that pooling like that is legal. They have no rights to any player, no player has any obligation to belong to a pool, and no contract could be bound to a pooling system like that, as if you had 5 draft categories. The only remotely reasonable pool I would say is a draft of Canadians from NCAA and USports.

Where was it indicated that each of those "pools" was a group they were trying to draft? Pretty sure they are just saying that these are the five groups of player types they see themselves targeting, and are considering a U Sports draft 

Beirne has said a couple times that they don't want complicated roster mechanisms, aside from possibly an initial way to fairly distribute players in the first year. I wouldn't jump to assuming anything sinister from the article. 

[BuzzAndSting]

7 minutes ago, Complete Homer said:

Where was it indicated that each of those "pools" was a group they were trying to draft? Pretty sure they are just saying that these are the five groups of player types they see themselves targeting, and are considering a U Sports draft 

Beirne has said a couple times that they don't want complicated roster mechanisms, aside from possibly an initial way to fairly distribute players in the first year. I wouldn't jump to assuming anything sinister from the article. 

The articles does say that players will be put in pools and individual teams will deal and try to sign them. So don’t think it’s a draft but it seems like they’re will be a limit on the number of players from each pool any team can sign.

[matty]

$2million...I want to change some of my players predictions and say we will see CPL lure some guys from the bigger teams in Central America and South American top tiers. Also more MLS guys will come (Tosaint, Tesho, Jackovic) and Haber and Aird will be leaving Scotland. Maybe we actually see non-Canadian names.

Funny what an extra $500k can do. We could actually see CPL teams with $1m+ starting XIs.

Edited July 19, 2018 by matty

[Dub Narcotic]

The big North American leagues have anti-trust and labour market exceptions that allow them to operate the way they do. The CPL must be working on something similar.

[Cheeta]

If that $2M cap includes coaches/managers then you have to keep in mind that a fair slice is going to the gaffer and his.  Don't expect to see too many player/coaches but I suppose you never know.  But do the math.   No manager worth a damn is moving anywhere for $40K a year.  Still, $2M isn't a bad number.  A better than decent one if you expect the number of players under contract to be fairly tight.

You can understand the idea of the teams having a "right of 1st refusal" within their catchment, however you decide that boundary, but I can't imagine how you'd enforce it.  Of course I don't know how drafts are anywhere near legal in the various North American sports that use the system so....

Anyway, if $1.5M or better is the figure for on-field talent I think the league is going to attract some reasonable talent.  The sort of talent which will elevate the level of play the numerous rookie professionals will need to compete in.  Grand.  Can see it working.  

     

[baulderdash77]

After reading the Milton article I think the $2 million is taken out of context and includes players and coaching staff.  So it’s more likely 1.5 to 1.7 million.

Still it’s most likely ~35k for the bottom 10 players and an average of 80-100 for the top 14 guys with maybe a couple making 125k+ per team.

[Unnamed Trialist]

2 hours ago, BuzzAndSting said:

The articles does say that players will be put in pools and individual teams will deal and try to sign them. So don’t think it’s a draft but it seems like they’re will be a limit on the number of players from each pool any team can sign.

As I said, if they do that, I think it would be illegal. You cannot restrict freedom of movement or give monopoly rights to hiring in Canada when it comes to a Canadian citizen. 

It could only apply as a condition of immigration, or other employment factors (rehabing individuals, former cons, previous union members, etc).

If the CPL  wants to make lists, fine. If I am coach of Edmonton or Halifax, I am going for the best bunch of guys I can, within my budget. On what terms is the league going to stop me?

Edited July 19, 2018 by Unnamed Trialist

[An Observer]

19 hours ago, Shortdutchcanuck said:

 

From CFL roster rules:

Of the 24 starters on a team, a minimum of seven starters will be nationals players. When applied to a starting roster of a team it breaks down as follows (when using the minimum number of national players):

• 1 QB
• 16 international players
• 7 starting national players

 

Thanks. Didn't realise that. 

[Gordon]

13 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

As I said, if they do that, I think it would be illegal. You cannot restrict freedom of movement or give monopoly rights to hiring in Canada when it comes to a Canadian citizen. 

It could only apply as a condition of immigration, or other employment factors (rehabing individuals, former cons, previous union members, etc).

If the CPL  wants to make lists, fine. If I am coach of Edmonton or Halifax, I am going for the best bunch of guys I can, within my budget. On what terms is the league going to stop me?

https://www.westlawnextcanada.com/blog/insider/ced-an-overview-of-the-law-sports-25/

I’m no expert, and I think this might be a few years old, but the section exempting pro sport from certain provisions of the competition act may be the window they are using. Of course the issue of unreasonable may also apply, especially if no initial contract is reached.

I’d like to think they would have consulted with a law firm and for the most part the owners have the type of background and experience that makes me think they would.

My apologies for the amount of gobbledygook the link contains. 

[Rheo]

So no professional teams would be legal according to the one interpretation. How has this gone on for a over a century with no one figuring it out

Just teasing. No need to start a war 

[Gopherbashi]

I'm really pumped for the Victoria announcement tomorrow so I can see what happens to the "next team countdown timer" on the website.

[ted]

2 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

I'm really pumped for the Victoria announcement tomorrow so I can see what happens to the "next team countdown timer" on the website.

Oh that would be cool if it got reset. More teams please!

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Ottawa is still the big question mark at this point in official terms, so I suspect there might be a reset with a long countdown for them.

[baulderdash77]

I don’t think so.  They’re just waiting for the season to play out to respect the competition.  Everything Ottawa is doing and everything people are saying is that they’re in.  They’re just playing nice until the season is over.