Jump to content

Ottawa CPL Club


Recommended Posts

8 hours ago, DigzTFC said:

I think it's simple and it revolves around money.  I'm assuming the decision was made by the Board of Directors.

Entering the CPL would have been 3 leagues in less than a decade and a franchise fee for each league.

Example:

When the Fury jumped to USL for 2017 the fee had risen to 5 million and apparently NASL clubs jumping were given a 10 year window to pay the fee to ease they're switchover.

As for the CPL fee, its likely to go up yearly as the league grows so Fury instead of paying 1 million this year may be paying 2 million next year etc. They're also going to be out of luck on any founders year one benefits built into CSB if there are any.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, JamboAl said:

Yeah, the owner of the Toronto Wolfpack is the one driving the bus on this.  A club in Ottawa would be a risky venture if only because rugby league is not well understood by most Canadians.  I would definitely buy tickets if it came here.

Eric Perez, the person behind the Ottawa club is no longer involved in the Wolfpack and he was never the money behind the Wolfpack. If OSEG are not the financial backers,  I wonder who is. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Greatest Cockney Rip Off said:

Eric Perez, the person behind the Ottawa club is no longer involved in the Wolfpack and he was never the money behind the Wolfpack. If OSEG are not the financial backers,  I wonder who is. 

Thanks for the insight.  And that's a good question...I really don't know who is fronting this.  I just can't see third division rugby league working on Ottawa.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, DigzTFC said:

Below is the BoD makeup with Pugh as the only one with a soccer background. 

  • Shenkman, Greenberg, Ruddy (Investors/RE Developers)
  • Hunt (CFL, OHL)
  • Pugh (Fury).

You might want to check your facts, before the Fury was ever thought of one of the directors of OSEG was very much involved in football(soccer)  

Bill Shenkman has been a convert for many years and proves it by being a shareholder in English Championship team Millwall

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, mianjo said:

You might want to check your facts, before the Fury was ever thought of one of the directors of OSEG was very much involved in football(soccer)  

Bill Shenkman has been a convert for many years and proves it by being a shareholder in English Championship team Millwall

Didn't know that

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Lansdowne+four/3088378/story.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

When the Fury jumped to USL for 2017 the fee had risen to 5 million and apparently NASL clubs jumping were given a 10 year window to pay the fee to ease they're switchover.

And you do realize that they can sell their USL franchise to recoup that, right? If the cost to enter the league is more than they actually paid to get it, they could actually make a profit on the sale of the franchise rights.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, ted said:

And you do realize that they can sell their USL franchise to recoup that, right? If the cost to enter the league is more than they actually paid to get it, they could actually make a profit on the sale of the franchise rights.

Not a safe assumption when they want to move to another league rather than simply fold up shop. There is known to be an exit fee they have to pay. In retrospect, what is surprising is that the CSA sanctioned the move to USL back in 2017 when they could have told them to wait for CanPL to emerge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Not a safe assumption when they want to move to another league rather than simply fold up shop. There is known to be an exit fee they have to pay. 

That makes no sense.

Lots of franchises have been sold. Why would they pay an "exit fee" for doing something they are entitled to do? It's not like a non-compete clause could be enforceable for as league that is no longer permitted to operate in Canada.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, ted said:

That makes no sense.

Lots of franchises have been sold. Why would they pay an "exit fee" for doing something they are entitled to do? It's not like a non-compete clause could be enforceable for as league that is no longer permitted to operate in Canada.

Honest question. Which USL franchises have been sold (like, sold + relocated). And also, what's the benefit when they don't seem to be at their limit yet. If they are still expanding, what would someone have to gain by purchasing a team from Ottawa to put a team somewhere in the US? Couldn't they just pay the expansion fee? Or would they be buying the club to buy their personnel or the Fury name?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Kent said:

If they are still expanding, what would someone have to gain by purchasing a team from Ottawa to put a team somewhere in the US? Couldn't they just pay the expansion fee? Or would they be buying the club to buy their personnel or the Fury name?

Sorry, cannot recall sales off the top of my head. 

As to why? Because an existing franchise can be cheaper and easier. They can sell it for less than the current expansion price or when there is no expansion spots available. The deal would not have to include any intellectual property (name) or personnel  as both would mean almost nothing to a new market.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Ottawafan74 said:

Why would a league allow a team to sell to an interested group in another city for less than what they could get for an expansion fee?

So that current and potential future owners don’t feel as if they’re locked in with no way out of their investment?

Is the USL not structured the same as other leagues whereby the “league” operates at the will of the owners? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, BuzzAndSting said:

So that current and potential future owners don’t feel as if they’re locked in with no way out of their investment?

Is the USL not structured the same as other leagues whereby the “league” operates at the will of the owners? 

No, USL is quite restrictive and the league is privately owned by Nurock.

USL teams don't own any part of the league.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Well that’s ridiculous. Owners must have some say league operations?!

Teams sign a restrictive franchise agreement and must abide by the terms, Nurock runs the league operations largely as they see fit.

A quote from Kartik K (who has reported on lower level US soccer for many years) on the USL :

"The USL’s approach to its clubs and soccer structure is not only different than the NASL’s, but different than MLS and leagues across the globe."

 

Edited by CDNFootballer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, ted said:

That makes no sense.

Lots of franchises have been sold. Why would they pay an "exit fee" for doing something they are entitled to do? It's not like a non-compete clause could be enforceable for as league that is no longer permitted to operate in Canada.

The exit fee is for a team wanting to leave the league, not sell the team.

USL is very restrictive and what the USL franchise agreement states they can do as a franchisor is also restrictive so there may very well be limitations and/or restrictions on Ottawa Fury selling their franchise rights. Franchise rights are also territorial in USL so not so simple to sell a right for the Ottawa market to someone wanting to have a club in another market. USL owners Nurock would have to agree to the sale and that seems unlikely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

So owners are locked in, without any chance of recouping their fee if they want to sell and they face a financial penalty if they don't keep going regardless of what they want? 

Yeah, that sounds way better than CPL...

 

Fury know where they stand financially in the USL. Nobody knows how the CPL will do at this point. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Judging by what you see on Ticketmaster on single ticket seat availability, things are going well in Halifax, Hamilton and Edmonton, but Winnipeg, Calgary, Victoria and York 9 are still question marks that become increasingly large in that order, so for anybody looking at it rationally rather than with unconditional blind faith, it's still too early to draw firm conclusions on whether CanPL is likely to hang in there on the medium to long term. Season ticket renewal rates will be pivotal even in the cities that have done well in that context for year one.

As things stand at the moment there are both positive and negative early signs available depending on what you choose to focus on. When the most likely eighth franchise appears to be Saskatoon, it's also difficult and also arguably unfair to make comparisons with the USL Championship. The market sizes involved if they expand out to 16 or so by 2026 are going be more like the non-MLS B team cities in USL 1, because of the much smaller total national population involved in Canada relative to the United States.

Edited by BringBackTheBlizzard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always have a hard time getting my mind to a league with more than 12-15 teams.  After that it always feels like grasping at straws to be honest.  Canada just doesn’t have a big population and the 3 MLS teams take the largest and most lucrative markets.

A Canadian Soccer landscape with 13 CPL teams and 3 MLS teams and some regional development leagues always seems like the best case scenario for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...