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5 minutes ago, shamrock said:

Why would they want to stay in USL while there is excitement about a new national league and where they probably have a 60% shot of winning it in year one? Doesn't make sense to me, especially cause they already have half their team Canadians (more than any year before).

I'm not a usual doom and gloomer, but it's possible that they are satisfied with the cost structure of USL (well below CPL by every report) and its seemingly solid stability, and prefer to see if CPL actually works out before dipping their toes in.

But the other interpretation of Clanachan's comments is valid as well, hopefully we get some clarity sooner rather than later 

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7 hours ago, shamrock said:

Why would they want to stay in USL...

 

A disagreement over the size of the salary caps would be the obvious one as the numbers that are being mentioned on here would presumably put things back to the NASL-scale of operations that the Fury wanted to get out of because they were losing too much money. The thing to watch out for on this is whether David Clanachan stops mentioning there being 8 teams at launch over the next few weeks, given how often that has been talked about since the start of the year.

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Can the CSA not just revoke their consent to play in USL?  I mean they’ve taken so many Canadians that the league is going to need... it would be in our best interests to do so. 

But I think they’re in, ive heard from a reliable source that Ottawa players know but can’t talk about what’s happening - which would hint that they’re in.

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13 minutes ago, Keegan said:

Can the CSA not just revoke their consent to play in USL?  ...

 

The big question is how they got sanctioned for USL when CanPL was very much in the works. I have often wondered whether they actually hold the old FC Montreal franchise given they are now the Impact's affiliate as that would probably have been a less expensive way in that would be more difficult for the CSA to block, but maybe we are placing too much emphasis on some random facebook entry? Probably best to wait for a second source before taking this more seriously than being one to keep an eye on.

Edited by BringBackTheBlizzard
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22 hours ago, Complete Homer said:

I know it got brushed off as a necessity of Ottawa needing to keep things under wraps during the USL season, but Clanachan's comments a couple weeks ago didn't read that way to me. I would not be shocked if Ottawa was out for now 

Hopefully there is an 8th team regardless. The optics of 8 teams vs 7 teams is important in my opinion

I don't know that the optics matters too much of 8 vs. 7 but 8 teams is 1000 times better for scheduling purposes. With 7 teams each team regularly gets a bye week and/or a mid-week game.

Edited by Gian-Luca
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Another possibility: having operated a team (at a loss) for a number of years and currently employing a bunch of Canadian players, Ottawa may be balking at whatever the buy-in fee is for the league while at the same time losing a lot of their players in some sort of dispersal draft.  To be clear, I think Ottawa's in, but I could see them trying to negotiate some terms for themselves.

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8 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

I don't know that the optics matters too much of 8 vs. 7 but 8 teams is 1000 times better for scheduling purposes. With 7 teams each team regularly gets a bye week and/or a mid-week game.

I'll disagree.  I've known regular reporters who mocked the CFL for being only 8 teams for a long time, and wouldn't even give the time of day to a 7 team league.  I think 7 teams screams "minor league" in a way that the league wants to avoid.

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1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

Another possibility: having operated a team (at a loss) for a number of years and currently employing a bunch of Canadian players, Ottawa may be balking at whatever the buy-in fee is for the league while at the same time losing a lot of their players in some sort of dispersal draft.  To be clear, I think Ottawa's in, but I could see them trying to negotiate some terms for themselves.

I don't think there will be a dispersal draft. These are clubs not franchises. How can you force a stand-alone club to give-up it's players?

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2 hours ago, shamrock said:

I don't think there will be a dispersal draft. These are clubs not franchises. How can you force a stand-alone club to give-up it's players?

One possibility is that Ottawa would not participate in the dispersal draft so wouldn't lose players but wouldn't gain any either (and perhaps Calgary as well?)

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13 hours ago, Watchmen said:

I'll disagree.  I've known regular reporters who mocked the CFL for being only 8 teams for a long time, and wouldn't even give the time of day to a 7 team league.  I think 7 teams screams "minor league" in a way that the league wants to avoid.

That seems a bizarre attitude for these reporters to take for a Canadian league but I'll take your word for it. However, if they were mocking the CFL for playing in 8 large, major league venues, I can't see how having an 8 team league some of which are playing in "minor-league" facilities (ie. York, Victoria) is going to change the attitude of the folks with a bizarre but lousy attitude anyway. I mean, what tangibly speaking, is the difference between 7 teams screaming minor league and 8 teams politely shouting minor-league?

Whereas I think the scheduling complications resulting from an odd-number team league (especially when it is as few as 7) are more significant and could be a detriment to attendance (and thus team survival) if that forces them to more mid-week games than they would have wanted to do. But with 8 teams you can have 4 games every weekend and everything becomes a lot simpler.

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11 hours ago, shamrock said:

I don't think there will be a dispersal draft. These are clubs not franchises. How can you force a stand-alone club to give-up it's players?

Not saying that a dispersal draft will happen, but the league could easily make participation in the draft a condition of participating in the league.  

I definitely want Ottawa in at the ground floor, but it is hard to deny that they have a massive advantageover fledgling clubs.  They have had the opportunity to pick up young CPL-level Canadian talent over the last year in a way that other teams simply have not - and they have taken full advantage of that opportunity.  Mitigating the impact of that advantage through a dispersal draft is absolutely within the League's rights IMO.

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31 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

I mean, what tangibly speaking, is the difference between 7 teams screaming minor league and 8 teams politely shouting minor-league?

Nothing tangible, but I am thinking of what the optics are of the league's one-liner explanation in news articles that seem to be the primary way the league is getting exposure.

"An 8 team league hoping to expand to 10 in 2020" sounds like a stable, measured, and legitimate league. Lacking that round number hurts that narrative in my opinion and immediately signals for a first impression that the league is struggling to find investors.

CPL's struggle will be not be in finding enough soccer fans, it will be to prove itself to be legitimate to existing soccer fans who for many reasons (ex. Consider anything other than top tier soccer pointless, have bought into MLS heavily, have a general skepticism about the league's sustainability and don't want to bother investing time/money/emotional capital into it, etc) won't necessarily come running to support Cpl. 

Its not the biggest thing in the world, just saying that 7 would be unhelpful for the narrative that CPL needs to build

But again, this whole talk is based on the assumption that they don't have 8 teams, which is pretty unlikely given how many times Clanachan has said 8

Edited by Complete Homer
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After watching the CPL promo video for FC Edmonton it’s clear that if Ottawa is in they have talked to their supporters.  I don’t see much supporter talk here from Ottawa fans which is very suspect.. makes me think they know something and are held be a confidentiality agreement.

Let me put this simply so no one gets in trouble: can anyone from an Ottawa supporter group confirm that CPL has NOT talked to them?

Edited by Keegan
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20 minutes ago, Keegan said:

After watching the CPL promo video for FC Edmonton it’s clear that if Ottawa is in they have talked to their supporters.  I don’t see much supporter talk here from Ottawa fans which is very suspect.. makes me think they know something and are held be a confidentiality agreement.

Let me put this simply so no one gets in trouble: can anyone from an Ottawa supporter group confirm that CPL has NOT talked to them?

Paging @Olympique_de_Marseille.

I'm not part of one of the supporters group, so I wouldn't know. I only keep hoping. However, members of those groups have communicated their hope on social media that Ottawa joins, so take that for what it's worth.

I keep really hoping they do. I am a season ticket holder and have convinced others to do the same if the Fury joins the CPL. If they don't however, I am not sure about what I will do myself. Can't wait to see Hamilton and Halifax come to town. Louisville or an MLS farm team? Ugh... It's one thing when it's the only option, but when an actual Canadian league exists... It's a lot less interesting.

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1 hour ago, Sébastien said:

Paging @Olympique_de_Marseille.

I'm not part of one of the supporters group, so I wouldn't know. I only keep hoping. However, members of those groups have communicated their hope on social media that Ottawa joins, so take that for what it's worth.

I keep really hoping they do. I am a season ticket holder and have convinced others to do the same if the Fury joins the CPL. If they don't however, I am not sure about what I will do myself. Can't wait to see Hamilton and Halifax come to town. Louisville or an MLS farm team? Ugh... It's one thing when it's the only option, but when an actual Canadian league exists... It's a lot less interesting.

I generally only make it to a handful of games per year, however if they switch to CPL next year I will be getting season tickets and will do my best to convince others to join me

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