CPL General

[CanadianSoccerFan]

1 minute ago, Macksam said:

TSN has a conflict of interest though owning MLS rights. 

BINGO  

[SoccMan]

1 hour ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

This is part of the way TSN operates. TSN leverages its market power to pump properties they control and bury/relegate properties they don't.  Note that on Wednesday night, TSN led Sportscentre with 9 minutes of TFC coverage before even mentioning game 7 of the World Series (a rival sportsnet property).  Baseball fans were losing it on twitter.

The only time this year TSN has mentioned a CPL team at all was during CONCACAF League.  Of course, that's only because they had the TV rights.

 

Oh so sorry baseball fans were upset that TSN led with the TFC win that put them in the MLS Cup my heart goes out to them lol suck it up idiots!! I’ve been around a long fucken time and have seen soccer relegated to last few seconds of a sportscast even when it’s been big games. Can remember big games like Canada winning big qualifying games on the road to Canada’s first World Cup appearance in 1986 in Mexico and watching sportscast and having to wait to go through tons of Hockey, Baseball and so on highlights before just before the sportscast finished a few words with no highlights of the big Canada soccer win , so I say to all those bitching on Twitter the other night a big Fuck You !!

Edited November 2, 2019 by SoccMan

[RS]

51 minutes ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Please visit sportsnet.ca/soccer and take note of the top story on the site.  Also take note of the leagues listed on the ribbon at the top of the screen.  Sportsnet is NOT a rights holder yet they've covered the league because it's news!

TSN.ca/soccer currently has zero mention of the league's existence.  It's not even on the ribbon at the top of the page.

 

 

 

That's all well and good, but @Watchmen still has a point. TSN led SportsCentre with TFC on Wednesday and buried the World Series, Sportsnet did the exact opposite.

It's great that CPL got coverage on Sportsnet's website but that's not Sportsnet's primary means of communication.

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Please visit sportsnet.ca/soccer and take note of the top story on the site.  Also take note of the leagues listed on the ribbon at the top of the screen.  Sportsnet is NOT a rights holder yet they've covered the league because it's news!

TSN.ca/soccer currently has zero mention of the league's existence.  It's not even on the ribbon at the top of the page.

 

Yup, you're right.  When I'd checked earlier there was no mention of the game.

Of course, we're also in to the final weekend of the CFL season, games are being played and that's not on Sportsnet's front page despite being a league that still draws solid ratings.  Because they don't control the rights to it.  As later mentioned, TSN has a conflict of interest between the CPL and MLS.  That's business.

[dyslexic nam]

3 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

Yup, you're right.  When I'd checked earlier there was no mention of the game.

Of course, we're also in to the final weekend of the CFL season, games are being played and that's not on Sportsnet's front page despite being a league that still draws solid ratings.  Because they don't control the rights to it.  As later mentioned, TSN has a conflict of interest between the CPL and MLS.  That's business.

But doesn’t that exactly support the idea that people were (and have been) advancing - that TSN is explicitly trying to undermine CPL because of its interest in MLS.  I don’t think anyone is silly enough that they don’t know why.  

People were simply arguing that it is bullshit that TSN ignores CPL and that many of us find it unacceptable.  The fact that it is due to their interest in MLS in no way changes the fact that they are intentionally blacklisting our national soccer league.  For people on this site, that should matter.  

[red card]

The NY Times article is an actually from Reuters. So anybody in the Canadian media could have picked it up for a fee or as part of their package with Reuters (if they have one). Though not a typical article TSN's website would carry but something Sportsnet has done in the past.

But did anyone else pick it up? Didn't see in the Globe or Toronto Star websites. Google search says National Post was only Cdn media to carry it.

[Watchmen]

Just now, dyslexic nam said:

But doesn’t that exactly support the idea that people were (and have been) advancing - that TSN is explicitly trying to undermine CPL because of its interest in MLS.  I don’t think anyone is silly enough that they don’t know why.  

People were simply arguing that it is ******** that TSN ignores CPL and that many of us find it unacceptable.  The fact that it is due to their interest in MLS in no way changes the fact that they are intentionally blacklisting our national soccer league.  For people on this site, that should matter.  

I think we're heavily disagreeing on the term "undermine" here.  To me "undermine" would be if they were out their saying the CPL is a waste of time and you shouldn't watch it.  "Undermine" is what ESPN's tv broadcasts have tended to do with the NHL: not report or show anything except when it cast's the league in a bad light (such as fights/infractions resulting in injures). Not reporting on a product that is a direct competitor to what they're showing is a business matter.  And if the CPL didn't know this was a possibility when they signed a deal with One Soccer, that's foolishly naive on their part.

[PaulV]

LOL at Sportsnet for mispelling Calgary's name in the title of the article. Not that it is the first time (or second, or third).

[dyslexic nam]

Just now, Watchmen said:

I think we're heavily disagreeing on the term "undermine" here.  To me "undermine" would be if they were out their saying the CPL is a waste of time and you shouldn't watch it.  "Undermine" is what ESPN's tv broadcasts have tended to do with the NHL: not report or show anything except when it cast's the league in a bad light (such as fights/infractions resulting in injures). Not reporting on a product that is a direct competitor to what they're showing is a business matter.  And if the CPL didn't know this was a possibility when they signed a deal with One Soccer, that's foolishly naive on their part.

I would say not acknowledging the league’s existence in any way is trying to undermine it, but that may be semantics.  At the end of the day, Canada’s largest sports broadcaster (I think it is bigger than sportsnet) pretends that we don’t have a national soccer league.   It goes beyond not writing articles about it - it pretends it doesn’t exist. That seems fairly malicious to me - even if the motive is pure business.  

[Blackdude]

32 minutes ago, PaulV said:

LOL at Sportsnet for mispelling Calgary's name in the title of the article. Not that it is the first time (or second, or third).

To be fair, that's what i feels being a Calgary fan right now. 

[SthMelbRed]

My issue with the way the sports networks are behaving is that they represent their highlights programs as news programming when they are, in effect, infomercials. Oh, how I miss the golden age of CKVU's Sports Page at 11 pm every night in Vancouver. 

[Macksam]

13 hours ago, SoccMan said:

Oh so sorry baseball fans were upset that TSN led with the TFC win that put them in the MLS Cup my heart goes out to them lol suck it up idiots!! I’ve been around a long fucken time and have seen soccer relegated to last few seconds of a sportscast even when it’s been big games. Can remember big games like Canada winning big qualifying games on the road to Canada’s first World Cup appearance in 1986 in Mexico and watching sportscast and having to wait to go through tons of Hockey, Baseball and so on highlights before just before the sportscast finished a few words with no highlights of the big Canada soccer win , so I say to all those ******** on Twitter the other night a big **** You !!

You have a link for this aforementioned freak out? I need a good laugh this morning. 

[dyslexic nam]

Edited for good taste. 

Edited November 3, 2019 by dyslexic nam

[SoccMan]

4 hours ago, Macksam said:

You have a link for this aforementioned freak out? I need a good laugh this morning. 

No lol but maybe CanadianSoccerFan does I was just quoting his post.

[narduch]

Search 'tsn world series' on twitter

[CanadianSoccerFan]

Another TSN conflict of interest is their current business (non) relationship with OneSoccer/Mediapro.  Remember that Onesoccer negotiated with TSN for CONCACAF League rights to show Forge and that deal did not happen.  Then they negotiated for the rights to the USA game and that did not happen.  Now, we're 12 days away from the next USA game and looks like there won't be a deal for that either.  

I have a feeling that part of this is negotiating leverage.  TSN is giving Onesoccer a giant "f*** you, we're not covering your league unless you offer better terms"

[Cheeta]

Or.. MediaPro is leveraging the MNT rights they hold to maximum benefit (for want of a better phrase).   Buy in now for X or buy in later for Y.  Tell you right now, in 2020 covering the MNT at Y dollars is going to be more expensive than anyone ever imagined.  They're going to be a red hot commodity.

Fingers & toes crossed.

[Gian-Luca]

5 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Another TSN conflict of interest is their current business (non) relationship with OneSoccer/Mediapro.  Remember that Onesoccer negotiated with TSN for CONCACAF League rights to show Forge and that deal did not happen.  Then they negotiated for the rights to the USA game and that did not happen.  Now, we're 12 days away from the next USA game and looks like there won't be a deal for that either.  

I have a feeling that part of this is negotiating leverage.  TSN is giving Onesoccer a giant "f*** you, we're not covering your league unless you offer better terms"

That could be it. Even the MLS site itself is covering the CPL, making their broadcast partner's reluctance look even more incongruous:

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/11/02/forge-fc-tops-calvary-fc-first-ever-canadian-premier-league-final

[SoccMan]

2 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

That could be it. Even the MLS site itself is covering the CPL, making their broadcast partner's reluctance look even more incongruous:

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/11/02/forge-fc-tops-calvary-fc-first-ever-canadian-premier-league-final

Well that’s good to see the CPL final get recognition on the MLS website , their website gets decent amounts of people viewing it so it’s great to see this coverage on their website.

[mtlsab]

https://culturesoccer.com/2019/11/04/les-trophees-canpl-de-culture-soccer/

[narduch]

Lost in the news today is the fact that Zator and Didic both got National Team call ups.

[-Hammer-]

On 11/2/2019 at 5:50 PM, Watchmen said:

This is how Sporsnet operates.  This is how ESPN operates.  TSN is not doing anything different from comparable entities.  I don't know why this is still a shock to people.

This is true. For years (probably up until the Argos were bought by MLSE) Sportsnet routinely would either, ignore, demean or have it's radio anchors slag the CFL because they don't own the rights to them. Sadly, the CPL isn't quite big enough that coverage is somewhat mandatory.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

https://northerntribune.ca/don-garber-canadian-premier-league-relationship/

We have a relationship with the three MLS teams in our country and have had open dialogues with them, I haven’t had a relationship with Commissioner Don Garber, but I have been a bit busy starting a league and seven teams also.

David Clanachan

[Ams1984]

4 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

https://northerntribune.ca/don-garber-canadian-premier-league-relationship/

We have a relationship with the three MLS teams in our country and have had open dialogues with them, I haven’t had a relationship with Commissioner Don Garber, but I have been a bit busy starting a league and seven teams also.

David Clanachan

I’m not against a mutually respectful and beneficial arrangement between the two leagues, but I’m just not sure what exactly either can stand to gain from the other... especially from a CPL standpoint; the CPL must avoid -at all costs- any appearance of becoming a ‘minor league’ as it were. The goal has to be something more closely resembling becoming the SPL to MLS’ EPL. 

[Ansem]

1 hour ago, Ams1984 said:

I’m not against a mutually respectful and beneficial arrangement between the two leagues, but I’m just not sure what exactly either can stand to gain from the other... especially from a CPL standpoint; the CPL must avoid -at all costs- any appearance of becoming a ‘minor league’ as it were. The goal has to be something more closely resembling becoming the SPL to MLS’ EPL. 

I actually see CPL as the France "Ligue 1" of CONCACAF. Not as strong as "La Liga" (Liga MX) or "EPL" (MLS) overall but having it's top teams fully capable to compete against their teams like PSG does in CCL while the rest of the league develops good local talent.

That's why once pro/rel arrives, salary cap doesn't make sense on my opinion (or a soft cap with luxury tax) and allowing the 3 MLS clubs to spend however they want (respecting CPL roster rules) is the bare minimum for them even getting into the room to hear us out. (Post 2026)

I have no problem with TFC, Montreal, Vancouver being the Real, Barca and Atletico of CPL while Forge, Cavalry and others strive to be competitive and one day be at level like a Leicester.

That's how I see CPL in the future