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York 9 2019 launch/offseason thread


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8 hours ago, Keegan said:

How effective is the York University angle when the league goes from presumably March to October?  That means students are only in school for 3 months of the season and they’re writing exams in April.  I wouldn’t count on it.  How many memberships have the youth clubs brought? Aren’t they giving them away FREE?

I see suggestions being thrown out as to how there might be positives but I’ll believe it when I see it.  I’ve watched a lot of team launches across all sports and levels and this is right up there with the worst, if not the worst.

The only hope, as I see it, is that the league will intervene and impose a set of parameters for promoting the team the 1st season. Like sometime in the fall, or in the immediate build-up in the new year.

They will ask them to design a season tickets campaign, and ask for a minimum of marketing and active work selling tickets. They will set them goals, and require they reach them.

And they will require feedback on it.

If they continue to fail, they should be intervened directly, as I see it: take over their marketing for them (I'm not really sure I am saying this, but there you go, said anyways, direct intervention of a sovereign club by a league).

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So I live in Richmond Hill, and am a York 9 FC member. I've not seen any marketing efforts here, and while I'm not super worried, I do hope the organization is noticing the numbers elsewhere, especially Hamilton and have a big marketing push happening soon. I do think this team can succeed, they just need to put the name out there more. I do think entrenching themselves with the many youth teams here is a good idea.

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I have seen a few tweets from purported York 9 members (ie an already endangered species) who are saying that at the prices advertised there’s no way they’re buying seasons.

So maybe the formula for York is to multiply the number of members by 0.5 for their SSH base estimate... are we sure this isn’t a CPSL team?

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1 hour ago, Keegan said:

I have seen a few tweets from purported York 9 members (ie an already endangered species) who are saying that at the prices advertised there’s no way they’re buying seasons.

So maybe the formula for York is to multiply the number of members by 0.5 for their SSH base estimate... are we sure this isn’t a CPSL team?

Those numbers seem to have been mis-leading.  There are rumours about much cheaper tix for supporter section at least.

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27 minutes ago, zeelaw1555362314 said:

Those numbers seem to have been mis-leading.  There are rumours about much cheaper tix for supporter section at least.

It is, however, a good lesson for those marketing CPL teams...in the absence of concrete information assumptions will be made that can have negative consequences. Now that things are moving a bit more, transparency with fans is a good idea

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I'm from Markham and haven't seen any promotion for the club here yet. Maybe it has been done at the youth club level, which I am not privy to, but in terms of something that joe public might be able to notice, haven't seen a thing. I think you have to be a die hard Canadian soccer supporter to have even heard about the team (the news release on the club was very brief and now feels like a long time ago, post-World Cup and with TFC in the news all the time)

I've spread the word on the club by word of mouth and when I explain the purpose of the Canadian league and the existence of York 9, I often get asked if (a) they are the same thing as TFC2 and/or (b) Are they playing in the same league as TFC2. When I answer "No" to both questions with a somewhat complicated explanation as to why not, it usually just leaves people to be more puzzled. This is a particular challenge that needs to be overcome which the other clubs don't really have to worry about, thankfully.

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2 hours ago, Vince193 said:

So I live in Richmond Hill, and am a York 9 FC member. I've not seen any marketing efforts here, and while I'm not super worried, I do hope the organization is noticing the numbers elsewhere, especially Hamilton and have a big marketing push happening soon. I do think this team can succeed, they just need to put the name out there more. I do think entrenching themselves with the many youth teams here is a good idea.

This hiring should bring some changes in marketing strategies

 

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I'm one of the rare York 9 members (somewhere in the 50's I think) - and at those prices (I am not a student nor am I standing in supporters with my family), there is no way I would pay anywhere near that amount for tickets - my TFC season tickets in Section 220 cost me less than the $399 (?!) being mentioned....why would I possibly pay more for what is clearly a lower-tiered product?! --- there will not be a big demand at $800 for a pair of season tickets to a league that no one will feel is anywhere near the level of MLS and is merely a very grass-roots level type of league.  Look at the Argos struggle as a Canadian league with 100 years of history and being viewed as minor league in a city that considers itself major-league --- if it's not branded with some type of US approval (like MLS which is still minor league to most soccer experts but has some type of cache as the "highest level" of the sport in this part of the world with some players making millions and capable of playing for their national teams) most in the GTA simply aren't buying it....

The games will be played in a very minor league stadium (no roof either if it rains) where you are trying to generate some interest on  a very local level and in my opinion you need to price it accordingly - ST should be no more than $10-15 per for most seats when bought as a ST ($149-$239 tops). I will be shocked if they draw more than a few hundred to games with actual paying fans (not papered with kids or freebies) and who aren't in either end as Students/supporters at the $199 price point.  I would imagine walk-ups of locals paying $25 per seat will be very minimal as there is no foot-traffic to be had on that campus outside of students going to school....

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7 hours ago, deschamp86 said:

According to LinkedIn, he's been there since June, so maybe not?

This guy has been around a while.. I guess they just need to rehash old news (or any news really).  If he’s been there as long as he has and no memberships have even moved what’s going on?  What does his job entail?  

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I understand the criticism, but what can you really expect from one guy in one month? Give this guy a chance to unfold his ideas and put them into place. 

4 hours ago, Team Canada said:

why would I possibly pay more for what is clearly a lower-tiered product?! ---

This is what I've said all along. It's a tough market. I'd keep prices low and increase them season after season if demand goes up. 

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I wanted to say quickly that I do care enough about hoping this team finds success to say that, if you do have good feedback and concerns that you want to provide to the club, as many of you are on this thread, that Ben Z, the VP of Ticket Sales for York 9, he is easily and readily reachable and accessible. His phone number is literally on his Twitter name, and his York 9 work email is on his LinkedIn.

I've already provided some of the concerns that I had before, and got some good feedback from him personally, such as the fact that they at least will be offering the $200 supporter seasons, thank god for that. But there's a lot of other concerns about this team as well, and it's obviously much better that he hears various opinions from as multitude of a number of supporters as possible, and really, the sooner the better, there's really not much to be gained by being patient and playing the waiting game. So yeah, if you have good feedback to provide, I'd definitely suggest passing it on to Ben for sure, it's for sure even more effective than posting it on this forum here when you take it straight to the source.

Though I did in fact tell him before to check out this very thread to make sure he understands what the fans and supporters out there think about the whole project. I do hope he is doing so, and I do hope you all relay your thoughts and opinions to those who need to hear it, because we can't be letting CPL teams not find success in this social media age of 2018 and beyond.

Edited by ironcub14
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2 hours ago, Xavier said:

What would you guys like to see on your kits? I am gonna make a concept for each team.

I previously made this with the leaked black and white version of the logo, something similar but with the green? Or something different? Let me know:

CPL_YorkPres.thumb.png.999dbad338d94c7f4c9e5fe910825b01.png

Oh man, please no Canadian telecom.  :(

 

Looks sick though.

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12 hours ago, Xavier said:

What would you guys like to see on your kits? I am gonna make a concept for each team.

I previously made this with the leaked black and white version of the logo, something similar but with the green? Or something different? Let me know:

CPL_YorkPres.thumb.png.999dbad338d94c7f4c9e5fe910825b01.png

I know this is superficial, but would prefer Inaria, Umbro, or Puma. 

 

As for the design itself, I am still not a big fan of the neon green, so I'd love black and grey being the dominant colour with maybe just subtle hints of the green. 

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On 7/25/2018 at 9:03 PM, Team Canada said:

I'm one of the rare York 9 members (somewhere in the 50's I think) - and at those prices (I am not a student nor am I standing in supporters with my family), there is no way I would pay anywhere near that amount for tickets - my TFC season tickets in Section 220 cost me less than the $399 (?!) being mentioned....why would I possibly pay more for what is clearly a lower-tiered product?! --- there will not be a big demand at $800 for a pair of season tickets to a league that no one will feel is anywhere near the level of MLS and is merely a very grass-roots level type of league.  Look at the Argos struggle as a Canadian league with 100 years of history and being viewed as minor league in a city that considers itself major-league --- if it's not branded with some type of US approval (like MLS which is still minor league to most soccer experts but has some type of cache as the "highest level" of the sport in this part of the world with some players making millions and capable of playing for their national teams) most in the GTA simply aren't buying it....

The games will be played in a very minor league stadium (no roof either if it rains) where you are trying to generate some interest on  a very local level and in my opinion you need to price it accordingly - ST should be no more than $10-15 per for most seats when bought as a ST ($149-$239 tops). I will be shocked if they draw more than a few hundred to games with actual paying fans (not papered with kids or freebies) and who aren't in either end as Students/supporters at the $199 price point.  I would imagine walk-ups of locals paying $25 per seat will be very minimal as there is no foot-traffic to be had on that campus outside of students going to school....

Yeah, putting it in terms of a pair of season tickets is a great wakeup call.  I wasn't exactly happy with $400 for a seat beforehand, but $800 for a pair is just ludicrous.  Like you, anyone I'd want to go with wouldn't enjoy two hours in the supporters section so those $199 tickets are irrelevant to me.

Frankly, it's just not something I'm going to spend $800 on (it seems like the $50 club discount they've been advertising only applies when you become a member, so there's no way for the early birds to save money there).  $500, probably.  $600 would be a stretch, and frankly there'd have to be some kind of "but wait, there's more!" deal attached to it.  $800 though? No way, no how.  I'll let my $50 membership fee and $80 worth of merch from the opening go down as a sunk cost CPL investment before I throw that kind of money at this team.

Edited by Gopherbashi
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6 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

..it's just not something I'm going to spend $800 on...

 

If some of you guys actually do want a standalone CanPL franchise in the years ahead (rather than needing a TFC affiliation in the GTA to subsidize something that is drawing low crowds), the numbers are quite simply not going to work in budgetary terms on the sort of salary caps that are floating around unless 2000 or so people are willing to drop that sort of amount on average on a pair of season tickets to provide the lion's share of a 6000 average crowds and there certainly won't be any call for building a new stadium in York Region unless there is some prospect of it happening on a sustained basis.  Now that we are dealing with reality rather than preferred fantasy scenarios, it's interesting to see who is and isn't on board with the CanPL vision. Think the key to the league's survival will be finding eight markets that are significantly further away from MLS than York U and the City of Vaughan where people appreciate having access to pro soccer because previously there was none. The membership sales trajectories in Hamilton and Winnipeg suggest that reaching 2000 season ticket purchasers in that context is potentially doable, so there are some solid reasons to believe at the moment.

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I don't think the York 9's prices are the problem, though they could benefit from being more competitive with TFC in the market. The problem is that it seems like no one has heard of them

I have a colleague who is reasonably excited for CPL as a soccer fan, and wasn't even aware there was going to be a team in. He knew about Calgary, Halifax, etc, but York managed to slip up under the radar despite living in Toronto. That's a problem 

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