HFX Wanderers launch/2019 offseason thread

[Chris 1976]

Sekunda is 23 and has 83 professional games under his belt which is 83 more than a number of other signings announced.  He is young, technically strong and has the potential to play at a much higher level but just needs the right development platform which is what the CPL is all about.  We don’t want a league full of older players having to drop down a level to where they can get minutes, we need 18-23 years olds that can be developed and sold on after 1/2 seasons. Playing for Canadian youth teams is no guarantee of future success  as individual managers stick to certain types of players who fit their style of play and we hardly have a legacy of success!    This has to be a league that improves the overall technical standard of Canadian football, developing players that are comfortable in possession, can play our and keep possession under pressure, like all the top soccer nations can. If this is just going to be a boys club so old faces can get game minutes the product will be predictable and dire.

I personally hope SH signs a whole team of exciting and technically strong U23s as the on field product will entertain fans. They might not win the league but you will get your monies worth.

[ted]

1 hour ago, Chris 1976 said:

They have only announced one player so far who happens to be a very good young Canadian professional who has had valuable experience in Europe. Trust me more than one player is signed with the club they just haven’t announced them yet but will be soon.  Quality over quantity 

LOL, can I copy and paste this into the PFC thread! We are in the same boat (different ocean).

 

[garmc]

On 12/14/2018 at 2:09 PM, Alex D said:

No, he has the business to run it. Bob is very rich, that's why. 

Nobody asked, but I'd just like to provide an example of why this isn't all that shocking.

 

In MLS's early days, they had 12 teams. Here's their owners:

LA Galaxy, DC United, Colorado Rapids, San Jose Earthquakes, Chicago Fire, NY/NJ MetroStars - Phil Anschutz

FC Dallas, Columbus Crew, KC Wizards - Lamar Hunt

New England Revolution - Robert Kraft

Miami Fusion - Ken Horowitz

Tampa Bay Mutiny - Owned and operated by MLS itself.

 

Yep. At one point Phil Anschutz owned SIX(!!!!) MLS teams, and Lamar Hunt owned another three! They had four owners for 12 teams, and one of the teams was league owned (which is technically true of all the teams, but still)

So, Bob Young owning the Forge, and having a large stake in the Wanderers (and KW when/if they get a team) isn't that insane. Especially when you consider the fact that Bob isn't the one controlling or operating the Wanderers, and that he's hired SEA to do that for him.

Edited December 16, 2018 by garmc

[CanSuffer]

21 minutes ago, garmc said:

So, Bob Young owning the Forge, and having a large stake in the Wanderers (and KW when/if they get a team) isn't that insane. Especially when you consider the fact that Bob isn't the one controlling or operating the Wanderers, and that he's hired SEA to do that for him.

I'm still wondering who's paying for the league itself. Presume it's Bob Young too, but am totally guessing. But someone had to do pay for Paul Bierne and perhaps other expenses. And I mean going back to before Paul was actually hired by the league. Since then we have a commissioner and many other staff hired, a downtown Toronto office, the #GotGame open trials etc etc. Can anyone quote some hard facts (as opposed to speculation) where the money is coming from?

[Ansem]

29 minutes ago, CanSuffer said:

I'm still wondering who's paying for the league itself. Presume it's Bob Young too, but am totally guessing. But someone had to do pay for Paul Bierne and perhaps other expenses. And I mean going back to before Paul was actually hired by the league. Since then we have a commissioner and many other staff hired, a downtown Toronto office, the #GotGame open trials etc etc. Can anyone quote some hard facts (as opposed to speculation) where the money is coming from?

Most clues points to Bob Young. It was the Tigers-Cat group that hired Paul Beirne I think 

[grasshopper1917]

On 12/16/2018 at 5:14 PM, CanSuffer said:

I'm still wondering who's paying for the league itself. Presume it's Bob Young too, but am totally guessing. But someone had to do pay for Paul Bierne and perhaps other expenses. And I mean going back to before Paul was actually hired by the league. Since then we have a commissioner and many other staff hired, a downtown Toronto office, the #GotGame open trials etc etc. Can anyone quote some hard facts (as opposed to speculation) where the money is coming from?

Putin

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

On 12/16/2018 at 10:14 PM, CanSuffer said:

I'm still wondering who's paying for the league itself....

The franchise fee is low seven figures. Seven of those provides plenty of startup capital.

[CanSuffer]

On Tuesday, December 18, 2018 at 2:17 AM, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

The franchise fee is low seven figures. Seven of those provides plenty of startup capital.

More wondering about who paid for the early days of development of the league. While they were doing everything to get ready to be able to ask for a franchise fee. 

Also, presumably there's a franchise fee, but what is your source that confirms this including with an amount ?

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Here's one I saw recently:

https://lfpress.com/sports/soccer/will-london-build-a-downtown-sports-stadium-its-a-possibility

..."There was the franchise fee which is in the millions...

Think I have seen $3 million mentioned, but don't have time hunt down a URL. If so, they have over $20 million in startup capital.

 

[mtlsab]

Hello,

Here is the English version of my interview with André Bona ,drafted by Wanderers:
https://medium.com/@actualitesoccer/andré-bonas-interview-bea3cdd4b52b

[garmc]

At an event Tuesday night, Derek Martin had a Q+A session. He said that they've sold more than 2,000 season tickets so far (which we already knew, and I think he might've undersold it. I think it's over 2,500) and that their estimates place them at around 5,000 tickets to be sold before the season begins. The stadium holds just under 6,500, and they expect 6,000+ at every match.

[Dominic94]

There’s a good chance some teams make money right away and I think it’s been mentioned that the business plan is set up for that.

[hamiltonfan]

9 hours ago, garmc said:

At an event Tuesday night, Derek Martin had a Q+A session. He said that they've sold more than 2,000 season tickets so far (which we already knew, and I think he might've undersold it. I think it's over 2,500) and that their estimates place them at around 5,000 tickets to be sold before the season begins. The stadium holds just under 6,500, and they expect 6,000+ at every match.

Love this! I will be making it out to Halifax Wanders match next summer. Really looking forward to the environment they are creating in Halifax. Great job all!!!

[Keegan]

Hamilton, Winnipeg and Halifax are the early favourites to be the top clubs in the league.

I just hope some players take notice of Halifax and end up signing there.  It’s tough not having local stars.. though I still imagine there will be decent locals like Gaudet and Craig.  It would be amazing if they could get Shaffeburg in loan but tfc is trying to get him HG requirements before signing him.  Maybe it could still be done.. 

They need to sell the city/support to players and they can attract some good players I feel.  Who wouldn’t want to play out there? 

[Chris 1976]

Halifax have other players signed already but have just not announced them yet like all of the other clubs. It’s just being stretched out by the league to keep the interest high. First the older foundational or local player signings to create the community story, create interest, support and season ticket sales. Then next will be an influx of younger Canadian players who might have a background of playing abroad elsewhere these past few years and of course some older internationals who are within budget. 

[Kent]

12 hours ago, garmc said:

At an event Tuesday night, Derek Martin had a Q+A session. He said that they've sold more than 2,000 season tickets so far (which we already knew, and I think he might've undersold it. I think it's over 2,500) and that their estimates place them at around 5,000 tickets to be sold before the season begins. The stadium holds just under 6,500, and they expect 6,000+ at every match.

I'm not sure if you saw my correction message a couple weeks back, but I think the 2,000 mark is actually new information, that is unless the math you did was saying 1,120 members was 60% of their total. I haven't seen a membership number in a while so I don't remember. But my math at the time based on the numbers you provided had it at about 1,600 season tickets sold.

Fantastic to see them continue to convert memberships into season ticket holders. Very promising sales!

[mtlsab]

23 hours ago, mtlsab said:

Hello,

Here is the English version of my interview with André Bona ,drafted by Wanderers:
https://medium.com/@actualitesoccer/andré-bonas-interview-bea3cdd4b52b

If you understand French, here is the original version:
https://medium.com/@actualitesoccer/entrevue-avec-andré-bona-29-11-2018-246e6cbc944

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

15 hours ago, Kent said:

I'm not sure if you saw my correction message a couple weeks back, but I think the 2,000 mark is actually new information, that is unless the math you did was saying 1,120 members was 60% of their total. I haven't seen a membership number in a while so I don't remember. But my math at the time based on the numbers you provided had it at about 1,600 season tickets sold...

What people missed is that the 2.5 tickets on average was only for members contacted rather than on all members. If they were still working their way through the list, it's no surprise they are now at 2000+. I seriously doubt they will get all 1120 to respond so 2500 was never a sure thing as you are always going to have some people whose circumstances have changed since they put down the deposit or who baulk at the ticket prices for an entire season as they know they will miss a lot of games because of work and other commitments and prefer to do it game by game or buy something like a flexipack.

That's a very solid base to build from, but still a lot of work to do to get to 5000+ paid spectators per game and more importantly sustain that level of interest after the initial wave of enthusiasm wears off. The quality of the games will soon be very important on that, so the work being done by Stephen Hart and the other coaches and GMs is every bit as important as what the marketing staff have been doing.

[Kent]

5 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

What people missed is that the 2.5 tickets on average was only for members contacted rather than on all members. If they were still working their way through the list, it's no surprise they are now at 2000+. I seriously doubt they will get all 1120 to respond so 2500 was never a sure thing as you are always going to have some people whose circumstances have changed since they put down the deposit or who baulk at the ticket prices for an entire season as they know they will miss a lot of games because of work and other commitments and prefer to do it game by game or buy something like a flexipack.

That's a very solid base to build from, but still a lot of work to do to get to 5000+ paid spectators per game and more importantly sustain that level of interest after the initial wave of enthusiasm wears off. The quality of the games will soon be very important on that, so the work being done by Stephen Hart and the other coaches and GMs is every bit as important as what the marketing staff have been doing.

The people dropping out that you mention was reflected in my math because their statement was (confusingly) stated that of the 60% of members they have contacted, 95% of them have bought an average of 2.5 tickets. So I presume the missing 5% of people are the people in the situation you mention. People who have decided for one reason or another to not get season tickets at all. If that ratio holds true, it would get them to 2660 season tickets from those initial 1120 members (I have no idea how much this membership number has grown since it was reported).

[Keegan]

23 minutes ago, Kent said:

The people dropping out that you mention was reflected in my math because their statement was (confusingly) stated that of the 60% of members they have contacted, 95% of them have bought an average of 2.5 tickets. So I presume the missing 5% of people are the people in the situation you mention. People who have decided for one reason or another to not get season tickets at all. If that ratio holds true, it would get them to 2660 season tickets from those initial 1120 members (I have no idea how much this membership number has grown since it was reported).

That number may be conservative yet if you haven’t opened season ticket sales to the general public.  When people/businesses/scalpers catch on that this is going to be a packed house and the best summer ticket in Halifax expect that number to grow rapidly.  The exact same thing happened to TFC.. demand creates demand. 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Keegan

[Unnamed Trialist]

12 minutes ago, Keegan said:

That number may be conservative yet if you haven’t opened season ticket sales to the general public.  When people/businesses/scalpers catch on that this is going to be a packed house and the best summer ticket in Halifax expect that number to grow rapidly.  The exact same thing happened to TFC.. demand creates demand. 

Yet you do have to be careful about full houses, as it means, potentially, a bit less comfort in the stands. 

I do not know how much of the stadium in Halifax will have separate seats, but being crammed in, and uncomfortable, in not a good thing. It is always better to know you are going to have a % of seats empty. Or ensure that they seats installed are large enough to allow for a larger human to sit in without pushing up against those beside him or her. Look even at Camp Nou, as someone sitting in various parts of the stadium almost always, there are times I move a couple over, if they are free, to not be sitting beside someone who is a bit big and invades my personal space. 

A full house is, in fact, not ideal, and not just because you lose capacity to grow exceptionally on a good day (say one day 7000 want to go see Wanderers); it is also a formula for making some people physically uncomfortable.

[Keegan]

Very true but I think that the standing room areas should free up some seat space as well. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

15 minutes ago, Keegan said:

Very true but I think that the standing room areas should free up some seat space as well. 

And I am not exactly what you would call fat, just saying. 

There seems to be an odd principle in soccer whereby fans respond to stadium size, it is sort of an unconscious link that has a result in crowd size. 

I have no basis to prove this, but it sort of goes like this: if you have only 7000 interested in Wanderers in Halifax with a stadium whose capacity is 6500, if you had a 10k stadium, you'd have 8500 potential fans. I know this sounds stupid, but I've seen it many times. Or at least I think I have. Perhaps it has to do with consumers wanting to know that there is a generous offer available, and that they can choose the section they want to sit in, and the price, on any given day. Does this sound really dumb?

[Keegan]

Not at all, I’ve noticed that as well.. teams often sort of hover just under capacity.  This probably has to do with a bunch of factors but the biggest one IMO is the percentage of seats that are season seats, which are often times not used for every single match.  Another factor is that clubs reserve a ton of seats for players, staff, opposing teams, sponsors etc. Which are only released literally hours before kickoff when they’re not claimed and often times they’re left unsold because you would have to be a walk up to get them at that point.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Keegan

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

3 hours ago, Kent said:

The people dropping out that you mention was reflected in my math because their statement was (confusingly) stated that of the 60% of members they have contacted, 95% of them have bought an average of 2.5 tickets. So I presume the missing 5% of people are the people in the situation you mention...

Is it safe to assume the other 40% would break in the same 95:5 ratio? There was also the suggestion (I think on Reddit, and which may explain why l interpret this differently) that they were doing a significantly better job of establishing contact through follow-up phone calls than had been happening elsewhere with people who had failed to pick up the phone at the time when their season ticket call had been arranged via email.

Edited December 21, 2018 by BringBackTheBlizzard