Jump to content

Ottawa CPL Club


Recommended Posts

Some interesting opinions on them being too good for a domestic league. 

Money and performance aren't linear. The club are more of a generic family / entertainment vehicle / "product" than anything performance related. The more likely result is they struggle in CPL as well.

The best thing that could happen would be another Ottawa group jumps in and usurps them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rocket Robin said:

Ottawa Fury took a five hour bus trip to Toronto tonight.  They beat TFC II 4-3 (usually no big deal as TFC are the last place team but as the MLS team is not playing this weekend because of the international break,  they dropped six MLS-calibre starters....

Nick Hagglund, Jason Hernandez, Ashton Morgan in the backline.

Jon Bakero and Ryan Telfer in the midfield and Jordan Hamilton at forward.  

A crowd of 207 from the USL website  (school is back in so no children were here).  TFC had one of their supporter groups show up tonight who left at 65 minutes so they could stand in the parking lot behind the iron fencing and the south end goal and chant.  Fury had supporters too like family and friends of local players David Monsalve and Adonijah Reid... also possibly from locals Nana Attakora and Chris Mannella.  

Some of their goals...wow....Cristian Portilla scored directly from a cornerkick.  (I don't remember seeing that in person since I saw Diego Maradona {yes the famous one and not his namesake nephew} score in a special exhibition game for Toronto Italia).   Kevin Oliveira took a 30 yard freekick from the left that had Thomas Meilleur-Giguere in a crowd in the box head in a 6 yarder right down the middle.  How did the ball find him with more than a dozen players standing two yards from each other?   And Adonijah Reid scored the winner at 76 minutes on a header  after captain Carl Haworth ran down the wing and centered a cross.  

One more chance to see them at Lamport Stadium in three weeks probably without the MLS players loaded on to TFC II.  

Now five hours to get back to Ottawa and prepare for tomorrow night's exhibition game against Montreal Impact.  

    

Was an own goal off Bjournethon. I imagine TFC II will be fielding more reserve players the next time Ottawa visits. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, jedinathan said:

Who in Edmonton was mentioning this? The only sub-mil cap I've heard mentioned was by York9 and Pacific FC. 

I've linked this previously on page 2 of this thread:

FC Edmonton supporters were the ones discussing (albeit somewhat skeptically) a rumour of $500k being the cap on reddit along with the idea that the cap is around half of the Ottawa Fury's current player salary budget (that came from a reddit user called LCRV_Adam) in response to FuryFanatic stating they were not the eighth CanPL team. That was the first inkling I had that the reason Ottawa might steer clear was the cap being too low rather than too high as it ran completely counter to what usually gets discussed on this subforum.

It only took a few days after that for Ottawa to officially confirm they were staying in USL and a stream of tweets to emerge from somebody known to have close contacts to the Fury front office who broke the move from the NASL to USL that echoed the idea of the cap being $500k and elaborated further on it with further concerns related to accommodation arrangements for players and the lack of a TV deal and a travel related sponsor. The salary cap angle then appeared to be further backed up by a tweet from a journalist with Le Droit the francophone daily newspaper in Ottawa.

Edited by BringBackTheBlizzard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not being from Ottawa, I have not had any strong feelings about the Fury, good or bad. However, based solely on the fact that they're clearly trying to kneecap the momentum of the new league by feeding self-serving drivel denigrating the CPL to their Twitter mouthpiece, I'm really hoping that a rival Ottawa group steps up and makes a go of it in CPL. Should that come to pass, I can't see the Fury surviving long-term.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, SthMelbRed said:

Not being from Ottawa, I have not had any strong feelings about the Fury, good or bad. However, based solely on the fact that they're clearly trying to kneecap the momentum of the new league by feeding self-serving drivel denigrating the CPL to their Twitter mouthpiece, I'm really hoping that a rival Ottawa group steps up and makes a go of it in CPL. Should that come to pass, I can't see the Fury surviving long-term.

The only thing they have going for them is the stadium lease. Not that it's an ideal stadium, but there is nowhere else suitable. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, SthMelbRed said:

Not being from Ottawa, I have not had any strong feelings about the Fury, good or bad. However, based solely on the fact that they're clearly trying to kneecap the momentum of the new league by feeding self-serving drivel denigrating the CPL to their Twitter mouthpiece, I'm really hoping that a rival Ottawa group steps up and makes a go of it in CPL. Should that come to pass, I can't see the Fury surviving long-term.

That is exactly what the CPL should do.   Instead of building a Canadian League and most likely being the dominant club and Canadian Champion, they have chosen to be cannon-fodder and prop-up a second tier American league.  

Try for a new ownership group for 2020.  They can enter with Saskatoon & Quebec City.   The Fury closed the door.  Keep it closed.  Find a new ownership group.  They made their choice.  The thousands of Valour fans in attendance in Winnipeg won't miss them or even know who the Ottawa Fury are.  It will make no difference.

OR - both sides need to find a very fast compromise.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can understand all the fury on here over this (sorry, couldn't resist), but I think you should avoid assuming that Ottawa are the main culprit until there is more information. The salary budget for the heavily Canadian roster that Ottawa have put together over the last year or so appears to be in line with what was being quoted for player salaries in CanPL in the mainstream media only a few months ago, so they may have valid grounds to feel that they have been the victim of a bait and switch.

If the alleged 500k salary cap is valid or at the very least has an element of truth to it, then the information that remains to be revealed is who decided to scale things back on what the league business plan is going to be and why? The obvious possibility is that people involved with at least some of the seven franchises have been spooked by the low membership sales for York 9 and Pacific FC, but that's only speculation obviously.

Worth noting in that regard, however, that the main owner of Pacific 9 felt the need to publicly state that he wanted a cap of below $1 million, which implied that it was a topic still being debated internally, and that a figure of $750k was suggested even more recently as being likely from a Facebook page connected in some way to York 9 shortly before the league meeting that was going to explain the roster rules and procedures to the staff involved.

Edited by BringBackTheBlizzard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, ChrisinOrleans said:

I mentioned earlier that the translation is awful. Likewise, translation =/= content. The video they did for "got game?" wasn't even translated. That's pretty uninviting. 

Ah. Someone else had mentioned they didn't have a French site, and I must have mixed the two replies as you've been very Franco-focused. I also did notice (and mention) the French site was not up to date.

Sadly, my own grasp of the French language is so poor that I have to rely on google chrome for my translations. The league definitely should not be doing that, and I agree they need some French-original articles, with French content producers. Of course, I believe the same of L1O & the reverse of PLSQ (English-original articles with English content-producers, damn hard to follow a league in another language).

17 hours ago, ChrisinOrleans said:

Very much so. I mentioned on these forums a while back that I think each game should have an aboriginal ceremony of some kind. Kind of like how they walk onto the pitch holding the hands of a kids local team, maybe make it a team from a local aboriginal band or nation. That being said, it would be a logistical nightmare to do all aboriginal languages, but Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut shouldn't be too hard to pin down, and they're the most common. 

Ah. I'll admit I skipped a bunch of pages, so must have missed the aboriginal ceremony suggestion. I think that would be a neat add to the beginning, I just have to wonder on the logistics (and potential cost) of making it happen.

My son will be starting lessons in Anishinaabemowan (Ojibway) when he heads to school, as it is offered during elementary in my area. First Nations should be a major target market, especially given their growth rate. Hopefully these translations (and original content) will also be coming along in the future.

Ideally, there shouldn't be an English site, a French site, an [insert language here] site. There should be one site, with all posts available in their original tongue as they come. Sadly, multilingualism is not as well-adopted as would be ideal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd guess it's a bit of a moving target because the deposits are being viewed as a proxy for the season ticket base. If you need paid attendance of 5-6k to break even with a $1.5-2m salary budget, I can see why Pacific FC are getting nervous with only 200 deposits. They probably thought they'd be in the Fraser Valley with numbers close to Hamilton.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

I can understand all the fury on here over this (sorry, couldn't resist), but I think you should avoid assuming that Ottawa are the main culprit until there is more information. The salary budget for the heavily Canadian roster that Ottawa have put together over the last year or so appears to be in line with what was being quoted for player salaries in CanPL in the mainstream media only a few months ago, so they may have valid grounds to feel that they have been the victim of a bait and switch.

I'm not making any assumptions on who or what is to blame for negotiations to break down between the CPL and the Fury. However, I think it's pretty clear that the Fury are trying to absolve themselves of any blame through feeding ridiculous drivel to their useful idiot on Twitter. They're deliberately trying to destroy confidence in the new league, jeopardising the whole enterprise, for purely selfish reasons. For that, I would hope that the door remains closed on that organisation in future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

That angle could explain why $500k and $750k have both rated a mention of late.

I don't know how it is structured overall, but I meant wrt to money that it might not be only player salaries that are the sticking point moving forward here. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, admin said:

It's not just the player's salary that should be considered here.......

It isn't only the Fury situation I'm talking about, I mean didn't the other owners  have an idea about salaries, sponsors, travel costs, etc. before deciding to join the league? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, admin said:

I don't know how it is structured overall, but I meant wrt to money that it might not be only player salaries that are the sticking point moving forward here. 

Jamie, are you implying that existing front office personnel at the Ottawa Fury would scotch joining CanPL because they would have to take a personal pay cut?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Benjamin Massey said:

Jamie, are you implying that existing front office personnel at the Ottawa Fury would scotch joining CanPL because they would have to take a personal pay cut?

I don't know.   I am really not digging into anything beyond these conversations. 

I don't generally talk to people about much that doesn't revolve around national teams.   I don't want to be a source for information, so that when something does come up that matters relevant to what I am trying to do wrt to the national teams people will actually tell me. 

Don't really derive much pleasure from 'knowing' things or 'revealing' them. When you do get to see behind the curtain, it's almost always mostly paperwork than anything intriguing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Watchmen said:

A lot of the focus has been on the roster/salary cap, and I'm not saying that's not a factor.  But I also wonder how much of the negotiation is the CPL saying "it costs X amount to buy in to the league" and Ottawa saying "We've been paying Canadian players for years who would have been with Unattached FC without us.  We've been building a brand and supporting Canadian soccer in this country for years, and we shouldn't have to pay X to buy in because we've already been paying our dues."  And if that's the case, I'd find it hard to argue against them.

It's more than likely a combination of things. My guess is they'd have to go through the same roster building process as every other inaugural club. Which probably feels unfair to them considering they have been around for years pouring money into a team. They probably feel like they should be given some preference/leeway and CPL was trying to set a level playing field for all teams.

Then add on the fact that they just jumped from a defunct league a year ago and CPL is a brand new unproven league so they were probably reluctant to switch leagues again so quickly.

The process for joining as an expansion club might actually be better suited for them I dunno.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

I've linked this previously on page 2 of this thread:

FC Edmonton supporters were the ones discussing (albeit somewhat skeptically) a rumour of $500k being the cap on reddit along with the idea that the cap is around half of the Ottawa Fury's current player salary budget (that came from a reddit user called LCRV_Adam) in response to FuryFanatic stating they were not the eighth CanPL team. That was the first inkling I had that the reason Ottawa might steer clear was the cap being too low rather than too high as it ran completely counter to what usually gets discussed on this subforum.

It only took a few days after that for Ottawa to officially confirm they were staying in USL and a stream of tweets to emerge from somebody known to have close contacts to the Fury front office who broke the move from the NASL to USL that echoed the idea of the cap being $500k and elaborated further on it with further concerns related to accommodation arrangements for players and the lack of a TV deal and a travel related sponsor. The salary cap angle then appeared to be further backed up by a tweet from a journalist with Le Droit the francophone daily newspaper in Ottawa.

Appreciated. Adam's the cohost on the Loyal Co of the River Valley pod with me. 
Ya I wouldn't take that as anything more than the rumours that were being tossed around by some of the Fury people rather than news. 

 

For the record, I'm not convinced that the salary cap will be around 500k. I think it will be (at the lowest end) closer to the 750K mark, and optimistically I think it'll still be closer to the 1 Mil mark. 

EDIT: I do think the average USL salary is making this whole conversation murky. What I do know is that Ottawa is NOT spending the average salary, and is much higher right now. I've heard closer to what they were spending when they went to the NASL final. I think people might be hearing "its too low!" from Ottawa people, and assuming that Ottawa is spending what is out there for USL roster salaries. 

Edited by jedinathan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Watchmen said:

A lot of the focus has been on the roster/salary cap, and I'm not saying that's not a factor.  But I also wonder how much of the negotiation is the CPL saying "it costs X amount to buy in to the league" and Ottawa saying "We've been paying Canadian players for years who would have been with Unattached FC without us.  We've been building a brand and supporting Canadian soccer in this country for years, and we shouldn't have to pay X to buy in because we've already been paying our dues."  And if that's the case, I'd find it hard to argue against them.

But they would also be buying into CSB which would be a revenue stream for them going forward. The other owners can't be expected to hand over revenue to Ottawa if they haven't invested into CSB. Which brings up my question from a couple of pages back...could a team belong to CPL without being a member of CSB?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, jedinathan said:

For the record, I'm not convinced that the salary cap will be around 500k. I think it will be (at the lowest end) closer to the 750K mark, and optimistically I think it'll still be closer to the 1 Mil mark. 

This is what I believe as well. We had $1.5M for the longest while, then we had the Pacfic FC owner say he'd like to see a "less than $1million" cap. 

"Less than $1million" is not a phrase I'd use to describe $500K. I'd equate it to "just under $1million" ie somewhere in $750K-$1M range.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, zen said:

LOOL. Only MLS calibre starter in there maybe is Nick Hagglund, and he is a disaster.

Having watched the highlights, all 4 goalsthat were conceded by TFC II can be laid at the feet of TFC II players rather than any of the 1st team roster players (or at the hands in the case of the goal scored directly off the corner, as it was a keeper gaffe from a TFC perspective).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

"Less than $1million" is not a phrase I'd use to describe $500K. I'd equate it to "just under $1million" ie somewhere in $750K-$1M range.

...unless that was both players and coaching/front office combined in which case the different numbers being peddled may refer to different things. Time will tell, basically.

Edited by BringBackTheBlizzard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...