Ottawa CPL Club

[narduch 1,220]

As expected they are blaming sanctioning.

[SpursFlu 1,368]

All you had to do was say yes

[BrennanFan 2,124]

They made their choice. They tried to play hardball with Concacaf and FIFA, and they lost badly. 

This is what you get when you have non-soccer people running a soccer team.  

[Stouffvillain 220]

A few things,

1) The letter says they are suspending operations for 2020, not folding.  Leaving it open to interpretation that they will play in 2021 or later in a league somewhere. 

2) The Fury are still operating their developmental program.  Why would you do this if you didn't plan on having a first team in the near future?

3) Don't blame others and the constraints of time when you knew for at least a year that this was a very real possibility.

4) There is a lot of chest puffing with regards to development and playing time to Canadians which is exactly what the CPL's aim is.  If the development of the Canadian game is really of such importance to them why stay away from CPL which sole focus is developing Canadian soccer.  Why try to sandbag the CPL on social media before a ball was even kicked?

Overall, this sounds like a "see you later" rather than a "goodbye" letter.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Stouffvillain

[Aird25 550]

Whoever gave them the advice to oppose the sanctioning deserves to lose their job, but its  sad that so many others will pay that price 

[Bison44 4,256]

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 1,220]

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 2,124]

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

[gator 1,910]

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 6,506]

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 835]

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 1,340]

Any livestream for press conference?

[baulderdash77 1,849]

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 6,506]

 

[baulderdash77 1,849]

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

[Viruk42 161]

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 2,536]

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 6,506]

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 2,536]

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 835]

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 33]

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 161]

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 56]

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 220]

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 835]

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.