Ottawa CPL Club

[Bison44]

What a load of crap.  He blames it on sanctiioning, when he knew last year he probably wasnt going to get it this fall?  He had a whole year to work something out with the CPL.  At least Pugh took the high road and didnt go after the CPL.  That makes me hopeful there is still something going on behind the scenes.  But jeepers, he probably could have slipped right into the CPL for next season.  So dissapointing....bad for Ottawa, bad for CPL, bad for Canada soccer.  

[narduch]

1 minute ago, Bison44 said:

 At least Pugh took the high road and didnt go after the CPL. 

He doesn't have to.

He has media mouthpieces for that.

[BrennanFan]

The Fury was told about the sanctioning issue when they first began talking with the CPL, years ago. 

[gator]

The sad part for Ottawa fans is they could have quite possibly been celebrating a CPL Championship like I described in the Forge thread, the team having already been established I think would have been favourites to lift the North Star Shield if they had chosen that path, instead it's a day of mourning for Ottawa soccer fans!

[Ansem]

29 minutes ago, Initial B said:

Just posted now..

https://www.ottawafuryfc.com/

Well, Crap.

John Pugh lays all the blame at the feet of politics. I hope Montigliani got what he wanted. Still, there's a lot left unsaid about the financial side of things that brough them to this state. I want to see the money trail. I feel so bad for John since he put so much energy over the years into building the organization, and now OSEG has left him with nothing.

The spinning is unnecessary and I hope there won't be more of it and finger pointing.

Bottom line is that they knew this was coming and this isn't about the Fury or CPL. If Statute 73 isn't consistently enforced by FIFA, wouldn't take long for other jurisdictions to challenge it.

On that basis, it's understandable that this decision was made

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

33 minutes ago, Initial B said:

Just posted now..

https://www.ottawafuryfc.com/

Well, Crap.

John Pugh lays all the blame at the feet of politics. I hope Montigliani got what he wanted. Still, there's a lot left unsaid about the financial side of things that brough them to this state. I want to see the money trail. I feel so bad for John since he put so much energy over the years into building the organization, and now OSEG has left him with nothing.

The politics give them a face saving way out. Agree to an extent about John Pugh but let's not forget OSEG's Landsdowne stadium project in which the Fury were very much second fiddle to the CFL team effectively blocked Eugene Melnyk's MLS bid, which would have been much better from a soccer standpoint.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Big_M]

Any livestream for press conference?

[baulderdash77]

They got sanctioning last year on an explicit 1 year waiver and knew that CONCACAF didn’t want to give them another year.

Why were they pretending that they would get it again this year.  To the surprise of nobody they couldn’t get it.

Last year when they could have joined CPL for cheap they passed and now that CPL has millions per year in corporate sponsor partnerships the price has gone up.   Also surprising nobody.

Why would the other CPL owners who have taken a leap of faith just share millions of dollars of sponsorships and dilute their own revenue without something in return?  Of course they wouldn’t.

OSEG wanted it both ways, played hardball and lost.  Too bad for them but nobody should be surprised.

[Ansem]

 

[baulderdash77]

That’s at least honest.  They can’t get sanctioned for USL, surprising nobody.

[Viruk42]

3 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

 effectively blocked Eugene Melnyk's MLS bid, which would have been much better from a soccer standpoint.

That bid was pie in the sky from the beginning and the situation surrounding the Sens clearly shows that it would not have been a better option. I hate OSEG but I'd take them over Melnyk any day.

[BuzzAndSting]

Pugh's letter does fit a very convenient narrative.

- We wanted to play in the USL while we contemplated all options

- We couldn't get sanctioning so we're suspending operations

- We're going to look at all options

- After monitoring the CPL in season 1 and 2 we think it makes from a soccer standpoint and a business standpoint to join in 2021

[Ansem]

3 minutes ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Pugh's letter does fit a very convenient narrative.

- We wanted to play in the USL while we contemplated all options

- We couldn't get sanctioning so we're suspending operations

- We're going to look at all options

- After monitoring the CPL in season 1 and 2 we think it makes from a soccer standpoint and a business standpoint to join in 2021

The question will be...who will CPL prefer as owners?

OSEG or someone else?

[BuzzAndSting]

What about this... In a heel turn, Pugh and OSEG receive sanctioning from CONCACAF sometime next year and go back to the USL for 2021!!

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

1 minute ago, baulderdash77 said:

They got sanctioning last year on an explicit 1 year waiver....

The sanctionings are always done year by year, so it was nothing like as clear cut as that. Last year they were willing to take it to court and Montagliani clearly wasn't. The question is more why they are not willing to push that again this year and that probably takes things back to the finances and whether it's actually worth the hassle.

[ray]

6 minutes ago, baulderdash77 said:

They got sanctioning last year on an explicit 1 year waiver and knew that CONCACAF didn’t want to give them another year.

Why were they pretending that they would get it again this year.  To the surprise of nobody they couldn’t get it.

Last year when they could have joined CPL for cheap they passed and now that CPL has millions per year in corporate sponsor partnerships the price has gone up.   Also surprising nobody.

Why would the other CPL owners who have taken a leap of faith just share millions of dollars of sponsorships and dilute their own revenue without something in return?  Of course they wouldn’t.

OSEG wanted it both ways, played hardball and lost.  Too bad for them but nobody should be surprised.

Not to mention the hope of expansion in the near future.  If you want to charge new owners a fee commensurate with where the league stands today, you cannot let the Fury in for next to nothing.

[Viruk42]

2 minutes ago, Ansem said:

The question will be...who will CPL prefer as owners?

OSEG or someone else?

I am of the opinion that OSEG is going to try to sell the Fury name, etc, to a different group that is actually interested in the CPL. It would be the best way of cutting their losses without having to go to the CPL themselves, while the brand has some value here (despite the fact that it's a terrible name 🙃 )

[PaulV]

You can't play chicken with someone who ultimately doesn't give a crap. The Fury were OSEG's third team, they were not about to be forced into anything against their will.

It leaves the question as to why when the NASL started to have issues, they eagerly jumped to the USL with little issue, and now when faced with the opportunity to jump again they completely hit the brakes for two years' running? It says something, but I'm not sure what it says. I hope someone will ask that at the news conference.

[Stouffvillain]

12 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

The politics give them a face saving way out. Agree to an extent about John Pugh but let's not forget OSEG's Landsdowne stadium project in which the Fury were very much second fiddle to the CFL team effectively blocked Eugene Melnyk's MLS bid, which would have been much better from a soccer standpoint.

Melnyk may have put a serious bid in for an MLS team but how serious did MLS ever take it? 

MLS got into the markets they wanted in Canada and I don't think Ottawa was ever a target of theirs.  Since TFC entered MLS the smallest markets MLS has gone into have a metro population of over 2 million (Cincinnati, Austin & Sacramento).  Ottawa's is only around 1 million so I don't think Melnyk's bid (or any from Ottawa) would have a shot at getting in MLS.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

1 minute ago, PaulV said:

... It leaves the question as to why when the NASL started to have issues, they eagerly jumped to the USL with little issue, ...

It's not at all clear why the CSA signed off on that when CanPL was very much in the works.

[Ansem]

If true...f them and good riddance

[BrennanFan]

19 minutes ago, Big_M said:

Any livestream for press conference?

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Just now, Stouffvillain said:

Melnyk may have put a serious bid in for an MLS team but how serious did MLS ever take it?

This was back in an era when the expansion fee was only $10 million for TFC and the league had been willing to take a market as small as Salt Lake City a few years earlier. They always talk about competing bids but how many expansion fees have MLS ever turned down if all the pieces are in place?

[Stouffvillain]

5 minutes ago, PaulV said:

You can't play chicken with someone who ultimately doesn't give a crap. The Fury were OSEG's third team, they were not about to be forced into anything against their will.

It leaves the question as to why when the NASL started to have issues, they eagerly jumped to the USL with little issue, and now when faced with the opportunity to jump again they completely hit the brakes for two years' running? It says something, but I'm not sure what it says. I hope someone will ask that at the news conference.

It says that despite what people may think OSEG does care about the Fury and want to run the club.  They just want to run the club on their terms alone.  If they didn't care they would've jumped ship long before now.  

1 minute ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

It's not at all clear why the CSA signed off on that when CanPL was very much in the works.

CSA signed off because while CPL was in the works it wasn't going to be playing in time for Ottawa to go from NASL to CPL. 

[Ansem]