CPL General

[Watchmen]

22 hours ago, Ansem said:

I broke it down for you guys ***

CPL Commissioner Clanachan interview 

https://youtu.be/xQ5oAOq3pJk

 

-Expansion not affected by COVID 19, still talking to potential owners. His focus is on Quebec, the Prairies, Ontario and the East (Atlantic Canada)
 

-HFX Wanderers : Is Halifax the blueprint for future expansion - Now says that 400k to 500k metro area is the sweet spot, work off the pitch was well done to the point that downtown Halifax is CPL territory, everything is about the Wanderers. 

 

 

-Academies? Says that North America has a real problem with academies and have not proven to work. 

• The rational of the league for not going that route is that only 2.9% of the ~600 players developped by MLS academies saw first team real minutes. CPL is looking at other models that would yield better returns. 

• Points out that between 40 to 50 players in CPL inaugural year has played in England League One. 
• Gave the example of Brentford in Championship who's close to promote to Premier League. They stop having academies as they would develop players but couldn't hold on to them since bigger clubs came knocking after doing the heavy lifting of developing them.

Designated Players : Not on the league's radar atbthis time. 

• He views those brought in the old NASL and MLS as "Mercenaries already looking for the next job" and that didn't work out until David Beckham joined MLS and it worked.

Really good breakdown by Ansem of the whole talk.  Just to start picking through it:

- Looks like that Fraser Valley team isn't happening any time soon, given that it's not on the list of candidates Clanachan is talking to.

- If they think 400-500k population is the sweet spot for teams, that gives us a pretty good basis on where expansion are going to be heading.  It also starts to eliminate cities that were at best long shots in the first place.

- I'm not saying they should or shouldn't have academies, but if they're not going to I'm going to be interested to see what they're alternative is.  At the same time, I'll point out that the CPL has benefited greatly from the MLS academies.

- "Designated players didn't work until they did" is maybe not the best way to say you don't want designated players.

Edited April 11, 2020 by Watchmen

[SpursFlu]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

And there's more than enough time to get those players up from the US and isolate them for 2 weeks before the start of their original schedule, but they've still pushed it back.

BC Place is owned by the province.  I'm not at all sure they're eager to open up BC Place for an event. 

I know you want the CPL to start, but given what the health authorities keep repeatedly saying I'm not at all sure how you think they'll be able to get things going for May.  Latest seems to be that they're now expecting a new surge in cases in 2 weeks thanks to all the people who decided to travel during the long weekend.

I just got back from spending 2 hours out and about. There's people everywhere in Vancouver right now

[mtlsab]

This is our latest podcast with David Clanachan:
https://culturesoccer.com/2020/04/11/cs-a-lerable-s2e13-entrevue-avec-david-clanachan/

[top cheese]

2 hours ago, Watchmen said:

Really good breakdown by Ansem of the whole talk.  Just to start picking through it:

- Looks like that Fraser Valley team isn't happening any time soon, given that it's not on the list of candidates Clanachan is talking to.

- If they think 400-500k population is the sweet spot for teams, that gives us a pretty good basis on where expansion are going to be heading.  It also starts to eliminate cities that were at best long shots in the first place.

- I'm not saying they should or shouldn't have academies, but if they're not going to I'm going to be interested to see what they're alternative is.  At the same time, I'll point out that the CPL has benefited greatly from the MLS academies.

- "Designated players didn't work until they did" is maybe not the best way to say you don't want designated players.

I say Quebec has to be a priority for expansion - I can see that QC and Laval/Sherbrooke getting franchises in the near future. 
 

saskatchwan seems to be moving forward with having a team. So one more team likely for the west to even up the league to East/west 

[MtlMario]

Wonder what happened with Bunbury for Laval area team? He was talking since sometime like Dec.2018 that big news was coming but kept postponing the dates. I heard that he was told to be quiet but I'm still very curious if he's still in the game.

[Watchmen]

4 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

I just got back from spending 2 hours out and about. There's people everywhere in Vancouver right now

Yeah, and that's not great.  Hence why they think there's going to be another spike in 2 weeks.

[SpursFlu]

2 hours ago, Watchmen said:

Yeah, and that's not great.  Hence why they think there's going to be another spike in 2 weeks.

10 connecting flights originating from Wuhan everyday in to YVR in December and January. Im suspecting the 90yr olds at the Lynn Valley care home weren't on those flights. Another spike? Is that going to be spike #5 or what are we at now? Oh sorry it was pneumonia back then so let's just keep going with that. Ok.. yah spike #2 coming up. Gottya

Just drove past the burnaby drive thru testing, not a single person using it. Drove past Royal Columbia, empty parking lot. All I see is people in shorts and sun glasses walking around. Lots of frisbee, some spike ball going on. Strollers and dog walkers. Oh the Humanity!

Edited April 12, 2020 by SpursFlu

[Aird25]

Did he really threaten to move the team from Westhills? That would be a ridiculous decision considering how much the city has invested in the stadium and the training centre. I can’t see it happening anytime soon. Does the league even have that much control over individual clubs?

[nfitz]

22 hours ago, Watchmen said:

The CFL has pushed back it's kickoff until at least July.  I'm not sure why CPL would be much different.

I'd think CFL would have a chance functioning on TV revenues alone. I don't think CPL could. So very different.

I don't think there's any chance we'll be seeing anywhere letting crowds into stadiums again this year ... perhaps not even in 2021.

So only sports that could function would be those that can finance based on TV revenue.

[Watchmen]

4 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

10 connecting flights originating from Wuhan everyday in to YVR in December and January. Im suspecting the 90yr olds at the Lynn Valley care home weren't on those flights. Another spike? Is that going to be spike #5 or what are we at now? Oh sorry it was pneumonia back then so let's just keep going with that. Ok.. yah spike #2 coming up. Gottya

Just drove past the burnaby drive thru testing, not a single person using it. Drove past Royal Columbia, empty parking lot. All I see is people in shorts and sun glasses walking around. Lots of frisbee, some spike ball going on. Strollers and dog walkers. Oh the Humanity!

Yeah, the hospitals are slow because they're bracing for any potential uptick.  Elective surgeries have been cancelled.  Royal Columbia is the trauma hospital, and with fewer people on the road these days they've been slower.  But swing by Surrey General, which is where a lot of the worst cases are being transferred because the rooms and ventilation system are set up better.

Honestly, you're coming off as incredibly ignorant and part of the problem here.

[Watchmen]

11 minutes ago, nfitz said:

I'd think CFL would have a chance functioning on TV revenues alone. I don't think CPL could. So very different.

I don't think there's any chance we'll be seeing anywhere letting crowds into stadiums again this year ... perhaps not even in 2021.

So only sports that could function would be those that can finance based on TV revenue.

Sure, maybe.  My response was only to the question that the all-Canadian based league CPL "should be starting in May" when the other all-Canadian based league CFL has said "we aren't starting until July".

[SpursFlu]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

Yeah, the hospitals are slow because they're bracing for any potential uptick.  Elective surgeries have been cancelled.  Royal Columbia is the trauma hospital, and with fewer people on the road these days they've been slower.  But swing by Surrey General, which is where a lot of the worst cases are being transferred because the rooms and ventilation system are set up better.

Honestly, you're coming off as incredibly ignorant and part of the problem here.

We all know what the real problem is. The real problem is we had more questions than answers when this kicked off. And we were all living with this way before we even realized it. And it takes about 5 seconds to figure out why that all is. But you know, people don't want the truth these days. 

Edited April 12, 2020 by SpursFlu

[Mikmacdo]

https://www.si.com/.amp/mlb/2020/04/10/sports-arent-coming-back-soon?__twitter_impression=true

 

☹️

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

16 hours ago, RS said:

Surely that's supposed to say League1 Ontario.

...and ironically given the context many of them went through an MLS academy. They can dress it up how they like but the big problem with running an academy with no pay-to-play component is the expense involved. They can always continue to let TFC, the Impact and Whitecaps do the heavy lifting on that and pick up the scraps, but they are not likely to frame what they are doing in those terms.

16 hours ago, Watchmen said:

- If they think 400-500k population is the sweet spot for teams, that gives us a pretty good basis on where expansion are going to be heading.  It also starts to eliminate cities that were at best long shots in the first place...

Hopefully David Clanachan remembers where he is from (Windsor) and points out to the people that matter that some of the best possibilities for that sweet spot are in southern Ontario, e.g. Windsor, London, K/W and the Niagara region.

[Impactsupporter]

21 hours ago, Watchmen said:

If they think 400-500k population is the sweet spot for teams, that gives us a pretty good basis on where expansion are going to be heading.  It also starts to eliminate cities that were at best long shots in the first place.

After looking at :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population

the areas with 400-500k population left (without a CPL team) are:

Surrey, BC

Mississauga, Ont

Brampton, Ont

Laval, Qc

Kitchener and London, Ont (if you count the metropolitan population, not just the city population)

And after that with:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census_metropolitan_areas_and_agglomerations_in_Canada

MAYBE 

Niagara Region, Ont

Durham Region, Ont

IF any other team is set up in the Maritimes it would have to represent the whole province.

Just a thought.

 

 

[Tigers]

12 hours ago, nfitz said:

I'd think CFL would have a chance functioning on TV revenues alone. I don't think CPL could. So very different.

I'm not so sure.  The TV money basically covers the salary cap. So they'd still need income to cover coaches, staff, travel / accommodation, player payments that aren't part of the cap, rent / debt payments on new stadiums. 

22,000 fans x $20 x 9 games = $3.96 million, almost as much as the TV money (~$5m). 

And I would think that there's a good chance that sponsorship revenue would be down, no fans in - stadium means no eyeballs on all the local sponsors. Maybe increased value to TV sponsors would make up for some? 

But they've said July because of Toronto and Calgary banning sporting events through June 30th. 

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

41 minutes ago, Tigers said:

...22,000 fans x $20 x 9 games = $3.96 million, almost as much as the TV money (~$5m)....

$20 is probably too low on the average ticket price. Things getting highly problematic for the CFL later this year is the most obvious scenario that starts to get a little scary from a CanPL standpoint given the ownership crossovers involved. Check out what issues with the WWE appear to have done to the XFL, for example. Hopefully things will be looking much brighter in another month or so post-peak but right now there's no way to safely rule out worst case scenarios.

[Cheeta]

Just for giggles....the numbers from 2018.  A very healthy showing.  The numbers for 2019, which should be fantastic, will include Valour and should be out any time now.  Well, normally.... 

Also interesting that a little better than half of the teams revenue is generated at the gate and through concession.   So something like $16M?  The CFL, in Winnipeg at least, is still very much a gate driven league. 

https://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2019/04/2018-Winnipeg-Blue-Bombers-Annual-Report.pdf

[Cblake]

Quebec has canceled all cultural , music and sports events until Aug. 31, so while it would not have a direct affect on the CP it would get cause the CFL and MLS issues in regards to playing. As suggested in the article, any league at this point that tries to play any earlier than they really should is being reckless, simple as that. 

[Blackdude]

1 hour ago, Cblake said:

Quebec has canceled all cultural , music and sports events until Aug. 31, so while it would not have a direct affect on the CP it would get cause the CFL and MLS issues in regards to playing. As suggested in the article, any league at this point that tries to play any earlier than they really should is being reckless, simple as that. 

Impact and Alouettes are exempt from that IIRC. Don't ask me why.

[top cheese]

im Sure the leagues will look at all the different scenarios. that could mean playing in empty stadiums, neutral sites, maybe front loading games on the schedule to be home or away. 

[Impactsupporter]

1 hour ago, Blackdude said:

Impact and Alouettes are exempt from that IIRC. Don't ask me why.

They do NOT want to lose the gate, BUT they will not likely get a lot of fans at the game, as it will be too risky and fans would be afraid to catch the virus.

I support the Impact but do not feel comfortable about going to the games this summer. (unless the Quebec government gives the all clear for fans to go back and/or a vaccine is developed)  If they play behind closed doors I could watch it on TV.

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 4/11/2020 at 6:41 PM, RS said:

Surely that's supposed to say League1 Ontario.

Oh my, I just couldn't figure it out and it was sitting in front of me. For sure.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

15 hours ago, Impactsupporter said:

... Surrey, BC

Mississauga, Ont

Brampton, Ont

Laval, Qc ...

Think Y9 will need to show a big uptick in fan interest in the absence of freebies before the outer fringes of MLS markets will be viewed as being in the sweet spot. David Clanachan appears to have said there will be no Vaughan stadium until they outgrow York Lions and that could take a while. The key factor that makes Halifax different from Surrey and Brampton is the presence of strong local media outlets that make CanPL a significant news story.

[MtlMario]

My (and wife's) Cpl app hasn't been working the past 4 days. Anyone else having problems? Sent email waiting for reply. Just curious.