Metro Vancouver CPL Club

[SoccMan]

36 minutes ago, Macksam said:

Struggling to get 1000 paid? 

There he is, there’s the BBTB we all know and love.

To be honest that’s what they are getting, I’ve been almost every York9 home game and unfortunately not many in the stands , the location of the stadium is great , subway is right there even better than BMO to get to by subway actually. But no mainstream media nothing from what I’ve seen. However, the owner needs to give this time , did they really expect instant success in the stands ? They need to be in this for the long run it’s going to take time.

[Macksam]

1 hour ago, SoccMan said:

To be honest that’s what they are getting, I’ve been almost every York9 home game and unfortunately not many in the stands , the location of the stadium is great , subway is right there even better than BMO to get to by subway actually. But no mainstream media nothing from what I’ve seen. However, the owner needs to give this time , did they really expect instant success in the stands ? They need to be in this for the long run it’s going to take time.

I go to the games to.

The argument can be made that a number like that is showing up but minus a few instances of giveaways, Montreal and the Forge home opener, tickets have been bought, whether that be from individuals or group purchases like soccer clubs. However, BBTB loves to push an agenda. 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Macksam

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

13 hours ago, SoccMan said:

....did they really expect instant success in the stands ? ...

I seriously doubt that they installed the far side set of bleachers expecting them to sit empty almost every game because they were selling season tickets for them as well as for the main stand. There was also an interview with Carmine Isacco not long after the Impact game that made it sound like they were expecting youth soccer to get behind it in a big way with 6000 being the number being mentioned a lot.

Beyond that a lot of people genuinely did seem to believe that the By Canadians for Canadians slogan was going to resonate. Pointing out on here that most soccer people in the GTA would prefer to watch Sebastian Giovinco rather than the next Andrea Lombardo didn't go down very well, but it was very much the reality they were going to face.

Winding things back to Vancouver and the subject matter of the thread, the big question is whether it would be different going up against the Whitecaps. Although Pacific have struggled a bit on crowds at times I suspect it would have been worse in Surrey.

Edited September 11, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[ironcub14]

1 hour ago, SoccMan said:

To be honest that’s what they are getting, I’ve been almost every York9 home game and unfortunately not many in the stands , the location of the stadium is great , subway is right there even better than BMO to get to by subway actually. But no mainstream media nothing from what I’ve seen. However, the owner needs to give this time , did they really expect instant success in the stands ? They need to be in this for the long run it’s going to take time.

I know the York Lions Stadium is literally a minute walk away from the subway, and it's easy to get to with the 400 or the 401 or even the 407 for those with the $, but it just seems that there aren't that many people willing to take the subway from other parts of the GTA to come watch Y9. An average Y9 fan has very little connection to York University on a typical weekend, even if they were alumni, it's just not the part of GTA an average soccer fan is going to go to on a weekend. What's more important is being close to a city centre, a downtown, where there are a lot of restaurants and attractions within reasonable distance, so that there are lots of options for both pre-games and post-games.

I only brought up Y9 to draw parallels to what would be ideal stadium locations for a Fraser Valley/Metro Van CPL club, as it is the Metro Van CPL thread. Y9FC's experiences should help provide input into future expansion clubs, and I definitely urge CPL fans to look at major city centres as the priority for a future club. I'm assuming that is Burnaby/Metrotown/Swangard and Surrey/Whalley.

Edited September 10, 2019 by ironcub14

[CDNFootballer]

Surrey in Bridgeview (which they were just talking about in the local news today as how its being developed and won't be known as auto wrecking central) would have been a good location but that ship seems to have sailed.

Burnaby at Swangard is just too close to the Caps direct market and would fail imo.

Langley Events Centre (not exhibition ozzie) will be a fine location and with a good ownership group can be successful. It's a good second option to Surrey and is far enough out of the Caps direct market and like Langford there has been and is a lot of development in the area so they will likely be accomodating to a CPL club.

Soon as its announced I'll be first in line with friends and family to purchase seasons tickets!

Edited September 10, 2019 by CDNFootballer

[Watchmen]

Am I thinking of a different location?  There is nothing around the Langley Events Center.  It's houses and fields and a church and a high school, with a few strip malls not far away.  Honestly, what am I missing from this equation that you think it's a good location, beyond the fact it seems to be the only place maybe willing to build anything?

[nolbertos]

13 hours ago, Watchmen said:

Am I thinking of a different location?  There is nothing around the Langley Events Center.  It's houses and fields and a church and a high school, with a few strip malls not far away.  Honestly, what am I missing from this equation that you think it's a good location, beyond the fact it seems to be the only place maybe willing to build anything?

I was gonna mention that there isn’t much to do around that area, or within walking distance.  The mall, movie theatre, bars and Red Robins are about a 10-15 minute drive north of Hwy 1, walking distance probably 25-30 minutes as its not really pedestrian friendly.  I’m assuming that by having a serious tenant there might encourage more transit around that area or commercial shops.  When McCallum got elected he pretty much shutdown all stadium projects around Surrey and would prefer towers and residential areas.  Township of Langley welcomed the CPL with open arms.

Edited September 11, 2019 by nolbertos

[Unnamed Trialist]

14 minutes ago, nolbertos said:

I was gonna mention that there isn’t much to do around that area, or within walking distance.  The mall, movie theatre, bars and Red Robins are about a 10-15 minute drive north of Hwy 1, walking distance probably 25-30 minutes as its not really pedestrian friendly.  I’m assuming that by having a serious tenant there might encourage more transit around that area or commercial shops.  When McCallum got elected he pretty much shutdown all stadium projects around Surrey and would prefer towers and residential areas.  Township of Langley welcomed the CPL with open arms.

You say this in the past tense: so when was this?

[nolbertos]

2 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

You say this in the past tense: so when was this?

I’m saying this unofficially based on Glasscity’s quote.  Plus in the Langley Advance times, has quoted about alot of sports events happening in the LEC. The work on the field has been hush, hush as it wasn’t quoted in the papers but I’m assuming that the CanPL proposal group wants to keep everything hush, hush for now

[Unnamed Trialist]

I am not sure that "hush hush" is a good corroborating source. 

[CDNFootballer]

21 hours ago, Watchmen said:

Am I thinking of a different location?  There is nothing around the Langley Events Center.  It's houses and fields and a church and a high school, with a few strip malls not far away.  Honestly, what am I missing from this equation that you think it's a good location, beyond the fact it seems to be the only place maybe willing to build anything?

Maybe I didn't make it clear in one of my previous posts but I think Surrey would have been the number one choice, but if your looking for a second location for a CPL club in the fraser valley/metro Vancouver then Langley is a good choice.

There's quite a few places to eat and some bars about 5 minutes down the road if your looking for a pregame meal and pint like I usually have before going to a Vancouver Giants game at the LEC. Ample parking with the 5300 seat arena already there and it just needs seating and some facilities added with the field, pads, and a concession building already in place. Minutes from the freeway so easy access from north Surrey, Abbotsford/Mission, Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows, Poco and East Coquitlam areas (and of course Langley itself). Langley will surely be happy to have them at the LEC as well.

Why does it matter whats directly a few minutes from the stadium surrounding it? If its a good facility, and they should be able to put up a similar one to Westhills/Spruce Meadows/HFX and the area is acessable by the surrounding areas like LEC is, and the club have a fiscally desireable deal for the stadium, a good ownership group can be successful with a CPL club there.

 

 

 

[CDNFootballer]

7 hours ago, nolbertos said:

I was gonna mention that there isn’t much to do around that area, or within walking distance.  The mall, movie theatre, bars and Red Robins are about a 10-15 minute drive north of Hwy 1, walking distance probably 25-30 minutes as its not really pedestrian friendly.  I’m assuming that by having a serious tenant there might encourage more transit around that area or commercial shops.  When McCallum got elected he pretty much shutdown all stadium projects around Surrey and would prefer towers and residential areas.  Township of Langley welcomed the CPL with open arms.

Your right on walking distance but its only a 5-6 minute short drive down the road to the restaurants/bars. In 10 minutes your already over the bridge in Ridge Meadows and 15 minutes down the freeway and your in Surrey already, ready to get off the freeway in the Guilford area. Maybe I drive too fast but I'm just keeping up with everyone else, does anyone even do the speed limit though:)

Unfortunate that McCallum's in office from the stadium perspective,  previously there had been talk of a 10k outdoor stadium for years.

[Watchmen]

22 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

Your right on walking distance but its only a 5-6 minute short drive down the road to the restaurants/bars. In 10 minutes your already over the bridge in Ridge Meadows and 15 minutes down the freeway and your in Surrey already, ready to get off the freeway in the Guilford area. Maybe I drive too fast but I'm just keeping up with everyone else, does anyone even do the speed limit though:)

Unfortunate that McCallum's in office from the stadium perspective,  previously there had been talk of a 10k outdoor stadium for years.

Not a game days you're not.  I've made the mistake of parking in the wrong spot (not right by the exit) on game days, and had the joy of sitting for 20 min not moving an inch.  I live just over the bridge, on the Ridge Meadows side, and honestly hate the experience of going to Giants games.  I enjoy junior hockey, but I hate that location so much I just don't go much anymore.

[CDNFootballer]

55 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

Not a game days you're not.  I've made the mistake of parking in the wrong spot (not right by the exit) on game days, and had the joy of sitting for 20 min not moving an inch.  I live just over the bridge, on the Ridge Meadows side, and honestly hate the experience of going to Giants games.  I enjoy junior hockey, but I hate that location so much I just don't go much anymore.

Opposite for me, I go more often now that they're in Langley at the LEC. 

When a CPL club finally comes to the area, we should meet up at a game for a beer!

[Watchmen]

52 minutes ago, CDNFootballer said:

Opposite for me, I go more often now that they're in Langley at the LEC. 

When a CPL club finally comes to the area, we should meet up at a game for a beer!

Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree then.

We could, though as I think I've made it pretty clear I'm really not planning on going to games there.  Voyagers Cup games maybe, mostly because I like that competition, but that's probably about it.

[SpursFlu]

I went and snooped around the LEC. There is definitely something going on there. I've seen countless of these multi field turf facilities around the lower mainland and there is no reason to leave huge gaps of space on either side of the field. They also curiously did not construct a large backstop fence along one end of the field with another large gap of space available behind that net. People complaining about nothing to do in the immediate area. There is a large vacant land assembly directly across the street for potential development

[Gopherbashi]

delete

Edited September 18, 2019 by Gopherbashi

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[CDNFootballer]

Expect any announcement on this to be during the Canadian Premier League Finals week. Fingers crossed!

[SpursFlu]

For those of you concerned with the location of the LEC. Amongst many others in the area. Right across the street from where the stadium would be, developers will start building the largest masterplanned community in the province. 2000 homes along with commercial, retail, restaurants, transit hub etc

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/latimer-heights-langley

Edited November 15, 2019 by SpursFlu

[CDNFootballer]

Miller: Fraser Valley Could Support A CPL Expansion Team

https://northerntribune.ca/fraser-valley-colin-miller/

There’s definitely a market and it would be a well supported franchise in my opinion. I’m the colour commentator for TSN for the Whitecaps, and I genuinely believe there is a market in the Fraser Valley. As you can imagine, a lot of people have moved out of Vancouver because of the house prices and so on, so there’s a much younger demographic in the Langley area and in the Abbotsford area where I live, there’s a lot of young families moving out there. I genuinely believe it’s a real hotbed for football.

[SpursFlu]

Yes and Yes. Actually me and my wife are considering moving out that way and she said to me, what about the Whitecaps? And I said by the time we make the move there could be a CPL team and I wouldn't bother going to Whitecaps anymore. Sorry Caps, its not so much you but the MLS and the travel for me to get to games

Edited September 28, 2020 by SpursFlu

[Watchmen]

I remember when MLS was building stadiums in the suburbs.  Because families will come!  Then TFC, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver came along and it was "whoops.  turns out that downtown is where fans are."  And the teams that built in the suburbs to attract families are among the worst for attendance.  Maybe they can build the stadium next to the white elephant arena in Abbotsford that hemmoraged money before losing the hockey team.

[Cheeta]

Don't know.  I think it's sometimes very, very, difficult to compare suburban/residential regions within the same metro area as it is comparing them to suburban/residential regions surrounding other metro areas.  Some are just places where people live, others have more of a community feel. 

A sense of community doesn't necessarily also provide the capacity to support a CPL franchise.  That community has to have the clink, and of course the interest in doing so.  

Well admit, from the outside I do hold the opinion there is room for CPL in the lower mainland. 

Abbotsford?  Only been once and just because we couldn't get a direct into Vancouver.  Not to sound too rude, thought the region beautiful but also thought "What the f'uk am we doing out here?".   And I'm from Winnipeg.  Nuf said.  

P.S.  Abbotsford was also the 1st place where I've been to a restaurant and the facilities read "Ladies", "Gents" and "No Bias".  Blink.  Blink-blink.  You know what?  That totally makes sense. 

  

[SpursFlu]

Things change my friend dt Vancouver is soulless now. Dt Van use to be surrounded by suburbs so people could get in and out really easy. Now basically Vancouver to New West is urbanized and the suburbs are all pushed to the other side of the Fraser. DT Van is basically in Siberia and the area around is occupied by broke life long singles,  transient students and people here for work who will come and go. The geographically center of the Lower Mainland is actually Central City Surrey. A lot of businesses are leaving dt because they can't attract skilled workers with families. I know this first hand. Its not 2010 Vancouver anymore. If it weren't for the Whitecaps I would honestly never set foot West of Boundary rd and I lived in and around dt for 10 years

In fact in January there was research that said something like 40% of Vancouver residence found the city depressing, lonely and lacked any sort of community. That pretty much sums it up. I would hate to know how it feels now

Edited September 29, 2020 by SpursFlu