CPL Season Schedule

[matty]

5 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Suspect there will be a round robin after 28 games for the top three, so they can claim it's not a playoff even though it really is.

god that would be so annoying.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

36 minutes ago, youllneverwalkalone said:

Whatever creativity needs to happen would happen after 24 matches. I would have thought one more round to get to 30 would have made the most sense but I hope we'll see in a couple hours what they've done instead.

Think they've already talked about loading up on local derbies, which implied an imbalanced regular season, but we'll probably find out soon enough what the plan is.

[ted]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

... but we'll probably find out soon enough what the plan is.

Or not.

[Keegan]

CPL opener the same day as TFC play at home.. that’s ambitious, especially considering they’re probably going to open the full stadium for this.

[Rintaran]

4 minutes ago, Keegan said:

CPL opener the same day as TFC play at home.. that’s ambitious, especially considering they’re probably going to open the full stadium for this.

I'm not too worried about this. It's a home opener in Hamilton with a local derby. Going to fill up with folks from York & Hamilton proper, whereas it's just a match for TFC against Portland. Being a league opener and a derby, they have every right to feel confident. Especially with how the TFC team is, uh, trimming down for a long rebuild year.

[baulderdash77]

Toronto York is the obvious inaugural match.  A double header with Calgary/ Edmonton is the next natural opening day match.

[Rintaran]

1 minute ago, baulderdash77 said:

Toronto York is the obvious inaugural match.  A double header with Calgary/ Edmonton is the next natural opening day match.

I can see that being followed by a Coastal match, leaving Winnipeg out in the cold. Seems like a good line-up, possibly even for a triple-header.

[baulderdash77]

Actually I think your right.  Victoria vs Halifax as a Coast to Coast in Victoria would be a great way to cap a triple header.  It truly emphasizes the league as the first sea to sea league in Canada.

[masster]

22 minutes ago, Rintaran said:

I'm not too worried about this. It's a home opener in Hamilton with a local derby. Going to fill up with folks from York & Hamilton proper, whereas it's just a match for TFC against Portland. Being a league opener and a derby, they have every right to feel confident. Especially with how the TFC team is, uh, trimming down for a long rebuild year.

Except a bunch of York people are probably TFC ticket holders as well. I agree with @Keegan. Would have been ideal if this could have been avoided especially for the opener.

[maccaliam]

I love it. It’s interesting how one match announcement has got all of these discussions going. Plus I’m excited as I’m a season ticket holder so I get to be there for game 1!

[Ruffian]

21 minutes ago, masster said:

Except a bunch of York people are probably TFC ticket holders as well. I agree with @Keegan. Would have been ideal if this could have been avoided especially for the opener.

I will be at the TFC game. I would have liked to attend this game too. I hope I can watch it on demand on TSN Direct/Sportsnet NOW/DAZN when i get home from the TFC game!.

[Ansem]

1 hour ago, Keegan said:

CPL opener the same day as TFC play at home.. that’s ambitious, especially considering they’re probably going to open the full stadium for this.

Actually, I think the team you want to avoid the most are the Blue Jays. They play at 3pm at the Rogers Centre that day. By then, the game should be over allowing people to watch the Jays after.

You have better odds at convincing Canadians to watch CPL over TFC than watching a new Soccer League over the Blue Jays.

I'm betting CFL and Jays we're the top 2 schedule conflict they worked hard at avoiding.

I did the same when I made my "mock up" Canada Day CPL schedule

Best to avoid the time slot:

• CFL - Argos @ RoughRiders : 8pm (AST) / 7pm (ET) / 6pm (CT) / 5pm (MT) / 4pm (PT)
• MLB - Royals @ Blue Jays : 2pm (AST) / 1pm (ET) / 12pm (CT) / 11am (MT) / 10am (PT)

*No MLS  games

CANADA DAY

2 Games schedule

HFX Wanderers vs. York 9 FC -->Time : 11am (AST) / 10am (ET) / 9am (CT) / 8am (MT) / 7am (PT)

• No one miss the Blue Jays game nationwide (Opportunity of spotlight on CPL)
• No one miss the CFL Canada Day game nationwide (Opportunity of spotlight on CPL)
• Hard to imagine the league not highlighting a "Toronto" area team

Pacific vs. Cavalry -->Time : 11:30pm (AST) / 10:30pm (ET) / 9:30pm (CT) / 8:30pm (MT) / 7:30pm (PT)

• No one miss the Blue Jays game nationwide (Opportunity of spotlight on CPL)
• No one miss the CFL Canada Day game nationwide (Opportunity of spotlight on CPL)
• Saves Al Classico for a day with no CFL or MLB if possible
• Alberta vs. British Columbia
• Opportunity to draw the mainland TV viewers or/and attract spectators

[Keegan]

On the other hand this may be CPL standing up to being bullied (or they’re sending a warning). They may be sending a message early that they don’t care about MLS schedules and they’re not bothered to go head to head.  

It’s actually kinda nice to know that we can leave the match and walk into a pub to watch our former favourite club and keep the footy vibes going. 

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

13 minutes ago, Keegan said:

On the other hand this may be CPL standing up to being bullied....

...or their yet to be named innovative media partner that will change the way fans consume domestic soccer didn't want to go head to head with TFC? 1 pm is an unusual time to start a game. Think they could have shown more consideration to the portion of the Forge and York 9 fanbase that are also TFC season ticket holders by having an evening kickoff and providing time to travel between the two stadiums to watch both games live.

[Tigers]

Why stop at having two seasons in a single year? Why not 3, or 4, or 5?

We could have a monthly champion! And then at the end of the 7 month season have 7 champions play to have 1 true champion!

/s

Regular season (however it's organized) plus top 4 make semifinals. Anything else seems gimmicky, aside from having just a league winner which is "traditional" but boring.

[Keegan]

10 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

...or their yet to be named innovative media partner that will change the way fans consume domestic soccer didn't want to go head to head with TFC? 1 pm is an unusual time to start a game. Think they could have shown more consideration to the portion of the Forge and York 9 fanbase that are also TFC season ticket holders by having an evening kickoff and providing time to watch both games.

But maybe that’s not the optic they want BBTB.  Maybe this is exactly how they planned it .. Canadian soccer fans will see a full Tim Hortons field for a passionate derby at 1 pm (any York or Forge fans will obviously be skipping TFC for this one).  At 3 pm you switch over to watch TFC v Portland (who have no players a casual fan would want to see) with the typical empty seats exacerbated by the derby. They may want people to skip TFC for this .. really any true football fan is going to a derby 99/100 times - that is a very powerful weapon for the future.

Such a juxtaposition will not be a bad way to start at all. 

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

13 minutes ago, Keegan said:

...Canadian soccer fans will see a full Tim Hortons field for a passionate derby at 1 pm....

Are they not using a limited capacity for Forge games involving only the lower bowl?  When they talk about a full house in the press release that doesn't necessarily mean all 24,000 seats. Also, if they are using somebody like DAZN as their media partner it will put a serious dent into the number of fans that will be watching elsewhere.

[masster]

I am ready to start looking into flights to Hamilton so I can attend a historical match. But in order to so, I need to know when Pacific's first game is so I don't miss that one. Please don't be on the same day!

[Ansem]

25 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

1 pm is an unusual time to start a game.

How are the Blue Jays doing again?

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

No idea, this is a soccer board rather than a baseball one.

[gator]

12 minutes ago, masster said:

I am ready to start looking into flights to Hamilton so I can attend a historical match. But in order to so, I need to know when Pacific's first game is so I don't miss that one. Please don't be on the same day!

That would be great if you could make it to Tha Hammer for this, I know you’ve been here before, there should be cheap flights right in to Hamilton!

[Keegan]

17 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Are they not using a limited capacity for Forge games involving only the lower bowl?  When they talk about a full house in the press release that doesn't necessarily mean all 24,000 seats. Also, if they are using somebody like DAZN as their media partner it will put a serious dent into the number of fans that will be watching elsewhere.

It will almost certainly be more than their standard capacity for this one.  Does common sense need to be spoon fed to you? Hamilton could probably fill the stadium, never mind people who will be coming from York or other parts of Canada to see the opener.  The fact they’re also offering the game as part of a larger deal shows they’re trying to get up to a sold out house for this, I can’t believe I need to explain something so basic.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

It's quite telling actually that they are pushing 3 game flex packs rather than season tickets with this announcement. There's nothing like the Beckham signing that helped TFC back in 2007, so a lot of the soccer community in Hamilton is probably still quite skeptical about the whole thing and will first need to be convinced to give this a try before they will start to take it seriously. It won't be like the Steelers back in 1987, but at the same time I think you need to temper your expectations a bit. Rome wasn't built in a day.

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Keegan said:

On the other hand this may be CPL standing up to being bullied (or they’re sending a warning). They may be sending a message early that they don’t care about MLS schedules and they’re not bothered to go head to head.  

It’s actually kinda nice to know that we can leave the match and walk into a pub to watch our former favourite club and keep the footy vibes going. 

Yes, but it makes little sense to have HFX saying they won't counter program a single youth match in all of Nova Scotia all season to ensure fans can go to their games, and they you butt right up against TFC in a partially overlapping market.

So you can take it both ways, but it is not a question of standing up to anyone: they have Championship and League One and Two matches in England at the time English teams are playing Champions League, and that is not smart don't think for anyone caring about a fan base, as a general rule I think it is counter-productive.

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

2 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

It's quite telling actually that they are pushing 3 game flex packs rather than season tickets with this announcement. There's nothing like the Beckham signing that helped TFC back in 2007, so a lot of the soccer community in Hamilton is probably still quite skeptical about the whole thing and will first need to be convinced to give this a try before they will start to take it seriously. It won't be like the Steelers back in 1987, but at the same time I think you need to temper your expectations a bit. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Or its just general marketing practices.... The closer to an event, the smaller number of tickets are offered in deals. Seasons tickets are really pushed early, then flex packs, then single tickets.

I understand we need to temper expectations, and i agree about many of your points in various threads. But i think as a whole, we are all reading way to much into all this simple marketing.