Ottawa CPL Club

[lazlo_80]

Just now, Kent said:

I wonder what he means by "The majority of players will be current league one quality or lower". Is he talking League1 Ontario? English League One? Spelling out "One" makes it sound like England, but that's probably at least USL level. Saying "current" makes it sound like L1O because no doubt the implication would be that several L1O players would go to CPL, and that "future" L1O will be weakened as a result (in the immediate term).

I took it to mean league 1 ontario.

[Gopherbashi]

4 minutes ago, Macksam said:

Oh God, I hope that thread isn't true at all and if it is, I can see why Ottawa opted to stay in the USL. The Canadian Premier League is a division 1 league and it would not look good if news got out that a division 3 side wasn't let in because it's salary level was a lot higher than what they wanted.

I miss the days when we didn't have information, because I feel like everything's been on a slow downhill ever since.

[Jason]

I remember when the talk was of a $2 million salary cap.  If it's as low as the evidence seems to be showing, we may end up with a glorified pub league as some of the early detractors have suggested.

[Gian-Luca]

2 minutes ago, Macksam said:

 

Oh God, I hope that thread isn't true at all and if it is, I can see why Ottawa opted to stay in the USL. The Canadian Premier League is a division 1 league and it would not look good if news got out that a division 3 side wasn't let in because it's salary level was a lot higher than what they wanted.

On the other hand, as you say, if the news gets out Ottawa's own fan base & the general sports fan might be more understanding and empathetic on why they chose to stay in the USL. Without this info, it just looks baffling.

Its a shame the CPL didn't get the salary cap level sorted out earlier than they did as this news/decision likely would have been made a lot earlier and it might have given them more time to bring for an 8th time for 2019 (maybe there is still time for that where there are teams with existing suitable venues already in place, it's not like an 8th team is behind the 8 ball in terms of player signings since no-one has signed anyone yet).

[masster]

Where have all of the reporters gone? Some real questions need to be answered.

-were the Fury going to be charged an exit fee by USL?

-despite being an existing team, were they going to be charged and expansion fee to enter CPL?

-would that expansion fee have been them buying into CSB?

-could they have entered CPL without becoming partners in CSB?

-how much of their current roster is under contract for next year?

[mpg_29]

18 minutes ago, lazlo_80 said:

This thread is worth a read and sheds alot of light on the reasoning and frankly, some pretty not-so-great news about CPL as a whole...

https://twitter.com/FuryFanatic/status/1037427311258333184

A lot of interesting points in there. Though I am still confused about the salary cap as I cannot find a clear answer on what the USL salary cap is/what the Fury spends on salaries right now per year. Also having a salary cap on coaching just seems dumb.

I still believe that the bigger problem for CPL is requiring half the roster to be Canadians right from the get go. I know everyone here does not like to hear that but you are really handcuffing the league on quality when you are doing that. It's probably why Ottawa has been poaching them left and right....because there are only so many at this level. For every team you add with this requirement the average teams quality is going to dilute...drastically. Which is probably what the "league one" reference is about.

[Kibby]

1 hour ago, Kent said:

Can I get explicit opinions from Ottawa fans on this. What would you rather:

1. Keep the team together and stay in USL?

 Or

2. Split the team apart, starting over again at a likely lower level, in the CPL?

IF what is said there is true.. 1.  That doesn't bode well for CPL if true

Edited September 5, 2018 by Kibby
meant to say 1... typed 2 by mistake

[Gian-Luca]

2 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

I still believe that the bigger problem for CPL is requiring half the roster to be Canadians right from the get go. I know everyone here does not like to hear that but you are really handcuffing the league on quality when you are doing that. It's probably why Ottawa has been poaching them left and right....because there are only so many at this level. For every team you add with this requirement the average teams quality is going to dilute...drastically. Which is probably what the "league one" reference is about.

The other thing is that it will make it more difficult to get the other Canadian players playing in the USL for American-based teams, of which there are a fair few.

However, I can understand why the CPL is doing that, no sense in going irretrievably broke in year one. They need to make sure to get that salary cap raised each year though as "glorified L1" year after year isn't going to help out the national team program all that much even 8 years from now. I expect that this is part of their long-term plans though.

[Nick P]

 This is a bad decision from Ottawa and the will lose many fans Canada’s Capital should have a team in the CPL

[Unnamed Trialist]

For the life of me I do not understand why so many on this board are just assuming you have to drop the salary cap down to favour the weaker teams. 

Why not put it exactly where it should be (1.5 million seems perfect), and if a team does not want to spend it, so be it. 

Some would argue that a higher cap will mean some teams won't be able to attract players and will be outbid. Welcome to the world of pro sports. In any case, if Pacific FC are talking about concentrating on Vancouver Island stock, they have that all to themselves, and few players are going to move away from home to make  8 grand more in Calgary. The only part of the local player market they could lose is the top player, the premium player--and just who is this from Vancouver Island, currently?

As for York9, because they are near the highest concentration of talent in Canada, they have a wider pool to draw from. Maybe they'll pay less, but they too may find players who want to stay close to home, saving on expenses. 

BBTB said here that the league is only as strong as the weakest link. Don't agree, it is just the opposite: it is as strong as the strongest links. The weakest will fall off, over time, and better options will emerge. The weakest links are easily shed if need be, if they really cannot find a way to compete for players because a rival club is playing 10 grand more a year to someone, which is a pretty low difference.

[FuryFaithful]

If you're not a fury fan kindly fuck off with your woe is me. Sorry we aren't willing to lose what we've built if CPL is going to be ran like a rinky dink league. 

[JamboAl]

3 hours ago, Kent said:

Can I get explicit opinions from Ottawa fans on this. What would you rather:

1. Keep the team together and stay in USL?

 Or

2. Split the team apart, starting over again at a likely lower level, in the CPL?

Not going to win a lot of friends but 1.  

Would have preferred CPL for sure but the MBA side of me says you go with what you know for the past two seasons (USL) versus a lot of unanswered questions (CPL).  That’s the decision OSEG made and if it was my personal money, I might have made the same choice.

[Ansem]

Something doesn't add up

Here he just said that the league hasn't announced budgets nor salaries.

Sounds like the true reason might be that they are asked to commit prior to the final numbers being known?

Not attacking this guy but someone is giving him this information and we don't know the intentions of the source

There you have it guys

If you read the thread from the beginning, you'll noticed he and his his source contradicts themselves. He one moment the league hasn't share anything, the next we are to believe that Fury knows exactly the numbers

Prior to that, he talked in absolute regarding the CPL numbers

What is it?

My advice.

Until CPL itself says what's what, take everything with a grain of salt.

I also recall the guy from FC London who sounded that being in CPL was crazy expensive. Doesn't sound to me like a league that will be League 1 level.

Anyways, just waiting for official CPL news and CSA statement to have the whole picture

The original thread

And his post

http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/articles/canadian-premiere-league/ottawa-vs-everybody-r51/

Edited September 5, 2018 by Ansem

[Rattler280]

12 minutes ago, FuryFaithful said:

If you're not a fury fan kindly fuck off with your woe is me. Sorry we aren't willing to lose what we've built if CPL is going to be ran like a rinky dink league. 

 

Exactly. How can anyone be surprised an established team in an established league doesn't want to slash payroll, gut their team, and throw away everything they've built to join a league that may not exist a couple years down the road. If anyone thinks the CPL will be even close to the quality of the USL in the first few years they are kidding themselves. I want the CPL to flourish, but they're going to have to get to the Fury's level if they should be expecting them to join. I don't hear anyone whining and complaining because Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal aren't joining.

[nolando]

Speaking of optics for the casual footy fan missing Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal was already looking bad. Not even having Ottawa makes it harder and harder to sell regular folk on this being a serious National league.

[FuryFaithful]

Just now, Rattler280 said:

 

Exactly. How can anyone be surprised an established team in an established league doesn't want to slash payroll, gut their team, and throw away everything they've built to join a league that may not exist a couple years down the road. If anyone thinks the CPL will be even close to the quality of the USL in the first few years they are kidding themselves. I want the CPL to flourish, but they're going to have to get to the Fury's level if they should be expecting them to join. I don't hear anyone whining and complaining because Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal aren't joining.

Pretty much, also Duane Rollins you're a bitch bud. 

[CDNFootballer]

3 hours ago, mpg_29 said:

A lot of interesting points in there. Though I am still confused about the salary cap as I cannot find a clear answer on what the USL salary cap is/what the Fury spends on salaries right now per year. Also having a salary cap on coaching just seems dumb.

USL has no salary cap but its franchises player salary budgets are $250-500K usd. There are a very few who spend more apparently like FC Cincinatti (going to MLS next year) and a couple of others (not Ottawa) but the vast majority are in the stated range.

[CDNFootballer]

12 minutes ago, Rattler280 said:

 

Exactly. How can anyone be surprised an established team in an established league doesn't want to slash payroll, gut their team, and throw away everything they've built to join a league that may not exist a couple years down the road. If anyone thinks the CPL will be even close to the quality of the USL in the first few years they are kidding themselves. I want the CPL to flourish, but they're going to have to get to the Fury's level if they should be expecting them to join. I don't hear anyone whining and complaining because Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal aren't joining.

We don't know if they'd need to slash payroll as CPL's Salary cap/budget hasn't been announced yet. For the same reason you don't know the on field quality the CPL will have vs the USL.

Not sure how close you follow USL but recently there's been info released on how they have low pay (some players even being paid hourly) and no healthcare provided.

Edited September 5, 2018 by CDNFootballer

[Macksam]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

BBTB said here that the league is only as strong as the weakest link. Don't agree, it is just the opposite: it is as strong as the strongest links. The weakest will fall off, over time, and better options will emerge. The weakest links are easily shed if need be, if they really cannot find a way to compete for players because a rival club is playing 10 grand more a year to someone, which is a pretty low difference.

This. Not saying make it fully open market from the get go but let their be a range if this is actually a sticking point.

2 minutes ago, CDNFootballer said:

USL has no salary cap but its franchises player salary budgets are $250-500K usd. There are a very few who spend more apparently like FC Cincinatti (going to MLS next year) and a couple of others (not Ottawa) but the vast majority are in the stated range.

Oh, what to believe...I don't know. Like Ansem says, I'll withhold judgement until I see the official word from the CPL.

 

[Gopherbashi]

28 minutes ago, Ansem said:

Something doesn't add up

Here he just said that the league hasn't announced budgets nor salaries.

Sounds like the true reason might be that they are asked to commit prior to the final numbers being known?

Not attacking this guy but someone is giving him this information and we don't know the intentions of the source

There you have it guys

If you read the thread from the beginning, you'll noticed he and his his source contradicts themselves. He one moment the league hasn't share anything, the next we are to believe that Fury knows exactly the numbers

Prior to that, he talked in absolute regarding the CPL numbers

What is it?

My advice.

Until CPL itself says what's what, take everything with a grain of salt.

I also recall the guy from FC London who sounded that being in CPL was crazy expensive. Doesn't sound to me like a league that will be League 1 level.

Anyways, just waiting for official CPL news and CSA statement to have the whole picture

The original thread

And his post

http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/articles/canadian-premiere-league/ottawa-vs-everybody-r51/

I'm on my phone so it's tough to quote specifically, but I think the comment was that the players would be at a League1 level, not the league itself.

[mpg_29]

3 minutes ago, CDNFootballer said:

USL has no salary cap but its franchises player salary budgets are $250-500K usd. There are a very few who spend more apparently like FC Cincinatti (going to MLS next year) and a couple of others (not Ottawa) but the vast majority are in the stated range.

Right but this is where things aren't adding up for me. Even with the lowest rumored CPL salary cap it would still be in the upper range of USL salary budget. So I'm confused when people are saying the reason the Fury aren't joining is because the salary cap is too small. 

Either the Fury are currently well above USL payroll average or there is much more to it than just the salary cap issue when it comes to them joining the CPL...

[CDNFootballer]

5 hours ago, Ansem said:

So you're saying that they want to collect before bailing?

The profits go to the league owner, Nurock, not the franchises in the USL.

[Aird25]

Well this is brutal. At whom do I direct my wrath?

[Zem]

1 minute ago, mpg_29 said:

Right but this is where things aren't adding up for me. Even with the lowest rumored CPL salary cap it would still be in the upper range of USL salary budget. So I'm confused when people are saying the reason the Fury aren't joining is because the salary cap is too small. 

Either the Fury are currently well above USL payroll average or there is much more to it than just the salary cap issue when it comes to them joining the CPL...

The other issue is that Ottawa would have heavy roster turnover if they moved to the CPL, although that's exactly what's happened for the last three years in a row so it wouldn't be anything new.

Frankly Ottawa's going to have to do a fantastic job re-signing players this off-season if that's their only clear excuse for not making the move that a large majority of the fans want and that the future of Canadian soccer needs.

[yellowsweatygorilla]

3 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

For the life of me I do not understand why so many on this board are just assuming you have to drop the salary cap down to favour the weaker teams. 

Why not put it exactly where it should be (1.5 million seems perfect), and if a team does not want to spend it, so be it. 

[...]

BBTB said here that the league is only as strong as the weakest link. Don't agree, it is just the opposite:

I've been saying this in response to this whole Ottawa debacle but also at the start - even brought it up during one of the early focus groups. Be more flexible with the salary cap, and allow teams to spend based on their circumstance. This allows clubs in smaller town clubs to be sustainable. At the same time, if Ottawa wants to spend more let them. Ultimately, parity isn't even a norm across most of the world. Fans of smaller clubs will just have different expectations and objectives.