York 9 2019 launch/offseason thread

[nolando]

5 minutes ago, KW519 said:

They introduced signings at a launch event tonight. The only source at the moment is the CPL players account on instagram

Ok, thanks....I like the Kyle Porter signing alongside some prospects. He shouldn't need to be a difference maker but I'm hoping a guy like that is average for what the league is expecting ( but not much more). Experienced pro but not marquee by any means 

Edited November 29, 2018 by nolando

[Blackjack15]

3 minutes ago, KW519 said:

They introduced signings at a launch event tonight. The only source at the moment is the CPL players account on instagram

I hope they’re right otherwise that page has lost all credibility, we’ll find out tomorrow if It is indeed 

I think it is true, definitely wouldn’t make up a name like Austin Ricci or Simon Abdeji for nothing! Both playing in L10 with Aurora and Vaughn so it’s makes sense

And The Kyle Porter signing sounds a lot like him on the letter to the fans 

[Ams1984]

18 minutes ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

 

Kyle Porter is a pretty solid player. 

[Jith12]

Wow. Four players in one night. I'm impressed (and incredibly excited!).

[Blackjack15]

 

[Big_M]

So up to know its players who would be backups in the usl championship

[nolando]

7 minutes ago, Big_M said:

So up to know its players who would be backups in the usl championship

On paper, that would be quite a step up for most of these guys, to be fair.

[RS]

2 hours ago, nolando said:

Yes....positively Whitecaps-level excitement from this press release. I can just see the memberships flying off the proverbial shelves as a result. 

All kidding aside, you're going to need a lot of players of this calibre to make a go of it at the projected salary structure, but why not hold back and go big with the first announcement....sort of a Jimmy Brennan level signing, if you will.

No press releases until 12 pm EST on Thursday. League is officially announcing everyone at the same time.

[shamrock]

3 hours ago, Ams1984 said:

Kyle Porter is a pretty solid player. 

Actually, his career has been going downward in recent years. For him, I hope he can get it on track again. 

[Ams1984]

6 hours ago, shamrock said:

Actually, his career has been going downward in recent years. For him, I hope he can get it on track again. 

Agreed, I'm simply expressing my view that he is a solid (neither spectacular nor mediocre) player. I believe he'll do well in this league. He has some CMNT experience, has played in MLS for a few seasons (yes, I know he didn't ultimately stick there) and he's 28 I think, so pretty solid.

[youllneverwalkalone]

I would have thought Kyle Porter would have been a squad player in this league. It looks like he may be penciled in as a starter, which concerns me a bit. That said, I believe most USL contracts expire on Friday, so we may see some of the better Canadians repatriated from there.

[Keegan]

52 minutes ago, youllneverwalkalone said:

I would have thought Kyle Porter would have been a squad player in this league. It looks like he may be penciled in as a starter, which concerns me a bit. That said, I believe most USL contracts expire on Friday, so we may see some of the better Canadians repatriated from there.

Nah, with the quotas mentioned on Canadian players a guy like Porter is definitely closer to starter than squad player IMO.  There won’t be many guys who can say they have MLS/MNT experience and he’s a proven NASL/USL level player.

[shamrock]

Also I think he's been used as a right back lately. 

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

I remember watching Porter play against Fc Edmonton a couple years ago. He was a step ahead of lots of Edmonton’s players. Definitely a mid to high level of USL player. Remember, he played for Tampa, which was one of the big spenders of the USL.

[shamrock]

2 minutes ago, BenFisk'sBiggestFan said:

I remember watching Porter play against Fc Edmonton a couple years ago. He was a step ahead of lots of Edmonton’s players. Definitely a mid to high level of USL player. Remember, he played for Tampa, which was one of the big spenders of the USL.

Yeah but he remained a back-up right back for them. At one point he looked very promising, signing for DC and playing for the MNT, but like I said it's been downward lately with short spells and very few minutes. 

[Rocket Robin]

http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports16/16l1o072.htm

Simon Adjei was a second team L1O all star in 2016. Here's a picture and game report from his time at Aurora...under coach Jim Brennan.    He's wearing #10 on the far left of the team lineup...the tallest guy!  6'4"  

http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports18/18l1o234.htm 

and here's the most recent game report of mine that I found for Austin Ricci playing a super-young TFC III team that night.  

http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports18/18l1o115.htm

and Steven Furlano of Alliance United...from back in June as I'd seem to catch AU games when he was suspended for Yellow cards.   #20 taking a freekick.  

Edited November 29, 2018 by Rocket Robin

[Kent]

58 minutes ago, Rocket Robin said:

http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports16/16l1o072.htm

Simon Adjei was a second team L1O all star in 2016. Here's a picture and game report from his time at Aurora...under coach Jim Brennan.    He's wearing #10 on the far left of the team lineup...the tallest guy!  6'4"  

http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports18/18l1o234.htm 

and here's the most recent game report of mine that I found for Austin Ricci playing a super-young TFC III team that night.  

http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports18/18l1o115.htm

and Steven Furlano of Alliance United...from back in June as I'd seem to catch AU games when he was suspended for Yellow cards.   #20 taking a freekick.  

In the picture of the starters, it looks like Furlano is relieving himself.

Seriously though, thanks for this.

[ironcub14]

Pretty happy with Porter and Furlano, old Fury and TFCII boys, and with the L1O guys as well. I think a lot of people out there are saying that York 9 is going to be filled with a large contingent of L1O players, so I would assume a guy like Porter would be a definite starter for sure, especially when he got to write a nice letter on the website for all of us.

I was happy about the signings, so I took the chance to catch up to the last month on this thread, and I do have to say I was happy to see that a lot of people spoke up about their concerns about the ticket prices here, and I hope you all took the chance to relay that to Ben Z and his team as well. I got the $200 myself, but I think it's a bit crazy that a person has to pay a minimum of $500 per season to get an assigned seat. That's insane. A lot of us here probably are used to paying $250 to $400 for TFC seasons, and we all have assigned seats even in the south side, even if we are standing somewhere else in the section instead. So yes, no matter how you look at it or want to justify it, it's pretty crazy that we have to pay a minimum of $500 per season to get an assigned seat for a temporary field for York 9.

Anyways, I say all this about the prices because I really absolutely want York 9 and CPL to succeed for many many years. CPL is the most important project in Canadian soccer history, bar none, it absolutely must succeed if we want Canadian soccer to elevate itself beyond the MLS/USL/PDL/USSDA landscape we have been this past decade. I criticize out of love, I really hope the York 9 staff lowers their SSH prices as soon as possible, which probably won't happen until the 2020 season but no loss in asking early, and that they continue to elevate their marketing game, and that they continue to find success in coverting memberships into season seats. I'll most definitely be in the supporter section in April.

Edited November 29, 2018 by ironcub14

[ironcub14]

As for the membership numbers going from 260 in mid-October to 1,000+ now, my assumption is this - if the community youth clubs are supposed to be receiving $50 everytime somebody uses their promo code to sign up for a $50 membership deposit on the website, then my guess would be that, perhaps York 9 and the youth clubs have agreed to a system where the youth clubs put forward a list of soccer families that would be interested in a York 9 membership, and that anybody who wants to buy York 9 seasons would just get the $350 price, with the $50 discount already factored in, through their community club or through York 9.

This way, the youth clubs don't pay a single cent, York 9 gets the "memberships" and a list of prospective SSH families, and the youth soccer families get the $350 price with the $50 discount if they do take up the option to buy seasons. There's obviously a big difference between members, who've paid $50, or perhaps even $0, and SSHs, who've paid $200 or $350 or more.

I'm happy we have 1,000 members now, and it's innovative and smart for York 9 to agree to partnerships with all the youth clubs, but I just don't know how many of the soccer families have actually forked out the $350, but I do hope there's a lot. Just statistically speaking though, it's pretty funky how we went from 250 after five months to 1,000 one month after.

Edited November 29, 2018 by ironcub14

[Rocket Robin]

2 hours ago, ironcub14 said:

I'm happy we have 1,000 members now, and it's innovative and smart for York 9 to agree to partnerships with all the youth clubs, but I just don't know how many of the soccer families have actually forked out the $350, but I do hope there's a lot. Just statistically speaking though, it's pretty funky how we went from 250 after five months to 1,000 one month after.

Well sounds like 900 people turned up at their gala last night paying $200 for a meal and intro of a few players.  

There is money in the GTA!  

[Keegan]

1 hour ago, Rocket Robin said:

Well sounds like 900 people turned up at their gala last night paying $200 for a meal and intro of a few players.  

There is money in the GTA!  

No doubt but that’s a crazy number for something where there’s not a lot of “smoke” on social media.  I assume the owners are very well connected and they’re giving memberships free access to that dinner.  Realistically if you only got 1000 members at $50 how did you get 900 people at $250 a pop?  It’s not like there was some charity angle... I’m sure they have corporate tables, law firms etc making up some numbers.

And I mean it’s a cool event if it’s free.. and maybe those deep pocket types decide to commit after.  Good business, which isn’t something we’ve associated with York 9 yet.  Obviously they have a unique strategy to other clubs but it seems to be working 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Keegan

[Gopherbashi]

6 hours ago, ironcub14 said:

As for the membership numbers going from 260 in mid-October to 1,000+ now, my assumption is this - if the community youth clubs are supposed to be receiving $50 everytime somebody uses their promo code to sign up for a $50 membership deposit on the website, then my guess would be that, perhaps York 9 and the youth clubs have agreed to a system where the youth clubs put forward a list of soccer families that would be interested in a York 9 membership, and that anybody who wants to buy York 9 seasons would just get the $350 price, with the $50 discount already factored in, through their community club or through York 9.

This way, the youth clubs don't pay a single cent, York 9 gets the "memberships" and a list of prospective SSH families, and the youth soccer families get the $350 price with the $50 discount if they do take up the option to buy seasons. There's obviously a big difference between members, who've paid $50, or perhaps even $0, and SSHs, who've paid $200 or $350 or more.

I'm happy we have 1,000 members now, and it's innovative and smart for York 9 to agree to partnerships with all the youth clubs, but I just don't know how many of the soccer families have actually forked out the $350, but I do hope there's a lot. Just statistically speaking though, it's pretty funky how we went from 250 after five months to 1,000 one month after.

When I talked to Ben initially, he said the $50 discount ended Aug 31st - so it wouldn't explain the rash of membership numbers if that is accurate.

However - I wonder if the youth clubs could be subtracting that $50 donation from that family's registration fee when they sign up for (indoor) youth soccer.  I have no evidence whatsoever to base this on and only came up with this theory while I was typing, so I'm self-admittedly talking out of my ass on this one.  Importantly with this - you could see the membership numbers being inflated simply because they want the youth soccer discount and aren't necessarily spending the extra money for Y9 tickets.

[rob.notenboom]

1 hour ago, Gopherbashi said:

When I talked to Ben initially, he said the $50 discount ended Aug 31st - so it wouldn't explain the rash of membership numbers if that is accurate.

However - I wonder if the youth clubs could be subtracting that $50 donation from that family's registration fee when they sign up for (indoor) youth soccer.  I have no evidence whatsoever to base this on and only came up with this theory while I was typing, so I'm self-admittedly talking out of my ass on this one.  Importantly with this - you could see the membership numbers being inflated simply because they want the youth soccer discount and aren't necessarily spending the extra money for Y9 tickets.

According to Preben Ganzhorn, that’s not how the club partnership program works (my article): 

https://the11.ca/membership-numbers-are-surging-for-york-9-but-team-still-has-a-ways-to-go/

[ironcub14]

15 hours ago, Rocket Robin said:

Well sounds like 900 people turned up at their gala last night paying $200 for a meal and intro of a few players.  

There is money in the GTA!  

It's a corporate event, guess who paid for the dinners. I don't know very many Toronto Voyageurs who attended the event, to put it another way, unless they were part of Gen IX bringing the noise, kudos to them.

As somebody else put it eloquently upthread, the regular mainstream fans are the ones that will make the games attractive to corporate fans long-run, not the other way around. I'm most definitely skeptical about whether the focus on corporate fans and youth clubs selling memberships is a sustainable strategy long-term, or even medium-term.

As I said, I criticize out of love, and we all should be thinking about all of this more critically if we want this thing to truly succeed.

Edited November 30, 2018 by ironcub14

[Ansem]