St. John's CPL

[Copes]

So, I'm going to toss out a crazy theory / possibility.

I heard a rumour that there are talks surrounding CPL in St. John's that are more serious than have been alluded to publicly. Complete heresy - someone heard from someone working at St. John's soccer / KGV.

Doesn't surprise me that discussions are happening, however, the rumour I heard was that they could be trying to launch in time for the inaugural season. If they don't make 2019, they definitely want 2020.

KGV is getting new turf installed - that's common knowledge from those who play in the Intermediate Men's League / Challenge Cup.

Paul Beirne has been saying "8 or 9" teams at launch in recent interviews. 

Could St. John's be the "or 9" pending negotiations get ironed out and the turf at the field gets resolved?

[mpg_29]

53 minutes ago, Copes said:

So, I'm going to toss out a crazy theory / possibility.

I heard a rumour that there are talks surrounding CPL in St. John's that are more serious than have been alluded to publicly. Complete heresy - someone heard from someone working at St. John's soccer / KGV.

Doesn't surprise me that discussions are happening, however, the rumour I heard was that they could be trying to launch in time for the inaugural season. If they don't make 2019, they definitely want 2020.

KGV is getting new turf installed - that's common knowledge from those who play in the Intermediate Men's League / Challenge Cup.

Paul Beirne has been saying "8 or 9" teams at launch in recent interviews. 

Could St. John's be the "or 9" pending negotiations get ironed out and the turf at the field gets resolved?

It would need more than new turf though wouldn't it? I'm mean it only has bleachers right now...

[Complete Homer]

1 hour ago, Copes said:

Could St. John's be the "or 9" pending negotiations get ironed out and the turf at the field gets resolved?

The group that was mentioned way back was pretty legit, and we haven't heard anything negative since then, so it remains a possibility 

Only thing that makes me skeptical is that I would suspect something about KGV would come up in council minutes 

[Copes]

9 minutes ago, Complete Homer said:

The group that was mentioned way back was pretty legit, and we haven't heard anything negative since then, so it remains a possibility 

Only thing that makes me skeptical is that I would suspect something about KGV would come up in council minutes 

Yeah fair enough, and good point. Definitely will be keeping an eye out. 

As for KGV's bleachers @mpg_29, they aren't ideal but I suspect that they could function for the first season if necessary? Although I'm not sure what rulings would be. Definitely would be a much lower ticket price.

Parking would also be a challenge. 

Seems like a lot to iron out to be ready for 365 days from now... but 2020 remains a reasonable option I think.

[Complete Homer]

5 minutes ago, Copes said:

Yeah fair enough, and good point. Definitely will be keeping an eye out. 

As for KGV's bleachers @mpg_29, they aren't ideal but I suspect that they could function for the first season if necessary? Although I'm not sure what rulings would be. Definitely would be a much lower ticket price.

Parking would also be a challenge. 

Seems like a lot to iron out to be ready for 365 days from now... but 2020 remains a reasonable option I think.

I actually just did a search... 

Not mention of a team but interesting timing at least

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

1 hour ago, Copes said:

...I heard a rumour that there are talks surrounding CPL in St. John's that are more serious than have been alluded to publicly. Complete heresy - someone heard from someone working at St. John's soccer / KGV...

Other than the parking concerns (legitimate from what I can see on Google Maps but shuttle buses have been the approach used elsewhere) why would it be a surprise that a city with a metro area of over 200,000 with an appropriately-sized SSS and a history of crazily high crowds for amateur soccer games would be on their radar? With the possible exception of Moncton, which would be less favourable in population size and soccer history terms, this would probably be the easiest way for them to get to 8 at short notice in Ottawa or Victoria's absence.

[Keegan]

St John’s would be truly amazing.  Halifax, Victoria, Hamilton and St Johns would be cities most interesting to me just off the fact that they’re big communities who have been left out of the top level scene for a while with the exception of the Ticats in Hamilton. 

The stadium alone would be classic.  How many seats would they need to add? If they get good crowds already you could see this being the CPL version of Portland.  Imagine the Atlantic derby... 

I just learned that it’s the oldest soccer specific stadium in North America and unsurprisingly the largest ever attendance was for the game we qualified to the World Cup.  How amazing would it be to start a team and eclipse that in the opener?  I hear the word “legacy” thrown around a lot when discussing the league well here is a prebuilt one with a supportive community and a history.  This should be a no brainer.

[mpg_29]

48 minutes ago, Complete Homer said:

I actually just did a search... 

Not mention of a team but interesting timing at least

Yeah it's hard to know how much to read into this. The only two things that stand out really is: 1) that when the council initially announced they were going to replace the turf the statement also said there "may be other potential funding partners for this"...but that could mean other levels of government as much as private individuals. and 2) that the project timeline in those bid documents kinda fits neatly with first CPL season: ie project starts in October 2018 and has to be completed by April 30th, 2019.

But it's only for turf and improved drainage. Nothing else.

I guess you could leave the bleachers temporarily but you'd be limited to just selling general admission tickets. Then again on a field/stadium of this size it's all premium seating really...so I'm not really sure how much ticket price variance you would have even with individual seats. It would only really come to down capacity maximization.

My guess if there is a group talking to CPL in St. John's it must be the Edge ownership group as they are the only group that have expressed interest. I think the Edge were a pretty good success this year (by NBL Canada standards) so maybe it further boosted there motivation to join. Though they are also involved in the new hockey team starting this year so I'd be a bit surprised if they went 3 for 3 in just 3 years.

[BuzzAndSting]

St John’s 85ers?!

[garmc]

I thought the Edge guys weren't involved with the ECHL team? They were the ones trying to get a QMJHL team in a rival bid against the ECHL one. Did they join forces or something?

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

....twitter supporters group?

[mpg_29]

31 minutes ago, garmc said:

I thought the Edge guys weren't involved with the ECHL team? They were the ones trying to get a QMJHL team in a rival bid against the ECHL one. Did they join forces or something?

They went to arbitration and ultimately joined forces. 

[lazlo_80]

i mean an East Coast rivalry out of the gates would be pretty spectacular. Do these two cities have many other opportunities to smash heads in other athletics?

[BuzzAndSting]

 

[Zem]

7 hours ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Fath was talking about getting to play games against Halifax, so it seems like he was referring to the thousands of Newfoundlanders and Maritimers who live in Edmonton who might want to see that game, not implying there will be an NL club.

[mpg_29]

50 minutes ago, Zem said:

Fath was talking about getting to play games against Halifax, so it seems like he was referring to the thousands of Newfoundlanders and Maritimers who live in Edmonton who might want to see that game, not implying there will be an NL club.

Yeah but think of the rivalry potentials he could have started with a Newfoundland team by blurting out "Newfies" at his first press conference none the less... That would probably be worth 5 Peter Schaad storytelling videos in terms of hype/marketing.

[HfxCeltic]

A little unrelated, but I’m in St. John’s right now sitting on the Yellow Belly Brewery patio and just saw a bunch of what I think were Leicester City players walk by. Noted the English accents and were fully kitted out in Leicester City training gear (jackets, pants, etc). Anyone know why they would be in St. John’s? 

[SkuseisLoose]

3 hours ago, HfxCeltic said:

A little unrelated, but I’m in St. John’s right now sitting on the Yellow Belly Brewery patio and just saw a bunch of what I think were Leicester City players walk by. Noted the English accents and were fully kitted out in Leicester City training gear (jackets, pants, etc). Anyone know why they would be in St. John’s? 

Could you give a description of what some looked like might be able to identify them.

edit: just thought I’d say this most likely academy or fans because the first team are currently training in Austria during their preseason.

[Obinna]

13 hours ago, HfxCeltic said:

A little unrelated, but I’m in St. John’s right now sitting on the Yellow Belly Brewery patio and just saw a bunch of what I think were Leicester City players walk by. Noted the English accents and were fully kitted out in Leicester City training gear (jackets, pants, etc). Anyone know why they would be in St. John’s? 

There has been some kind of partnership with Leicester City in the past. If I recall correctly their logo can be seen at KGV. Not in the city at the moment so no idea what that's all about though.

Edit: just checked the NLSA site. No mention.

[Obinna]

On 6/7/2018 at 11:05 AM, BuzzAndSting said:

St John’s 85ers?!

I would perfer something like Republic FC with white, green and pink hoops.

Colors of the old Newfoundland flag.

[HfxCeltic]

Definitely seemed liked players as oppose to fans. They were on the younger side, so I’m guessing academy. I was half lit, so didn’t get a great look.

Checked out KGV - solid venue you guys have over here!

[Poutinewithtapatio]

Can a Canadian soccer team finally get a moose on their crest/logo? I think newfounland would be a great choice! I've seen Andrew Zimmer show where he went to Newfoundland and boy do they love moose over there

[top cheese]

Couple things:

1. A moose logo wouldn't fly, to much of a connection to the number of road fatalities in NL. When the Manitoba Moose moved to STJ to become the ICECAPS the moose name was eliminated earlier. 

2. The turf at KGV has been in need of replacement for a decade. its painful to play on

3. There has been some gossip that the co-owners or the EDGE bball and NL ECHL team where interested in adding to there portfolio in sport and that they had inquired about a CPL team. 

4. St Johns is a passionate soccer community but I dont think on a professional level it would be sustainable at the professional level.  The province is in financial trouble combined with low population leads to a smaller then normal fan base. Plus traditionally professional sport teams in NL have had to subsize th travel of away teams. The other thing to understand the flickness of NL Sports fans. They would rather support there own small town beer league teams then professional  franchises. Generally interest starts high then peaks and drops considerably after 3-4 years. Challenge Cup Nationals have been sported well but attendance is usually good for the local team then is small for the remaining sides. The expectation would be that there would be a number of locals in the teams lineup up but realistically NL players are not good enough to play AUS let alone professionally. NL sport like everything is light years behind the rest of Canada. 

[Obinna]

7 hours ago, Poutinewithtapatio said:

Can a Canadian soccer team finally get a moose on their crest/logo? I think newfounland would be a great choice! I've seen Andrew Zimmer show where he went to Newfoundland and boy do they love moose over there

No to moose. Just no.

if an animal is involved in any way gotta be a Newfoundland dog

[Rowesicky]

On 7/25/2018 at 9:05 PM, Poutinewithtapatio said:

Can a Canadian soccer team finally get a moose on their crest/logo? I think newfounland would be a great choice! I've seen Andrew Zimmer show where he went to Newfoundland and boy do they love moose over there

Not a moose, but a Caribou, yes. Well known symbol of the NFLD regiment.