CONCACAF Nations League - Venue Discussions

[apbsmith]

24 minutes ago, gator said:

What hybrid turf did TFC players get injured on?

Sorry, maybe hybrid was wrong word, just run down "cow pasture field" (exact quote). 

@Jahinho Guerro so did the field get upgraded according to this October article? 

https://www.tsn.ca/after-complaints-mlse-moves-to-upgrade-bmo-field-playing-surface-1.1192820

Please note, I love the Toronto games, we have the talent now, want our players playing on solid fields (health/injury& performance/skill)

Edited March 28, 2019 by apbsmith

[Califax]

Just now, apbsmith said:

Sorry, maybe hybrid was wrong word, just run down "cow pasture field" (exact quote). 

@Jahinho Guerro so did the field get upgraded according to this December article? 

https://www.tsn.ca/after-complaints-mlse-moves-to-upgrade-bmo-field-playing-surface-1.1192820

Please note, I love the Toronto games, we have the talent now, want our players playing on solid fields (health/injury& performance/skill)

You're not wrong. The surface was a dumpster fire.  

Hopefully the lack of playoffs and time for the grass to grow alleviates concerns. It's something to watch. If the field is terrible by June, I would make sense to think about playing elsewhere. 

Montreal is my preference for USA. Halifax for Cuba. 

[SpursFlu]

18 minutes ago, Califax said:

Are you trolling?

You pulled 20K on a Friday night for the first game of World Cup Qualifying against a rival after getting Hoilett and Arfield.

It's nice. It's respectable. But it's no so good that artificial turf and 3 time zones should be ignored to make YVR should be a permanent home. 

 

I dont want Vancouver a permanent home. Not even for a second. If you read all the way back to one of my original comments. Based on the magnitude of the game and time of year, i think that game would be great in Vancouver. Im not trolling just poking some fun at my Toronto friends. Its almost as fun as making fun of Americans. 

 

I want to see Davies, David, Hoilett shredding the American defense. I dont want everyone standing around bundled up freezing their ass off 

By the way, i love the idea of playing Cuba at a CPL venue. Halifax would be kickass

Edited March 28, 2019 by SpursFlu

[Califax]

1 minute ago, SpursFlu said:

I dont want Vancouver a permanent home. Not even for a second. If you read all the way back to one of my original comments. Based on the magnitude of the game and time of year, i think that game would be great in Vancouver. Im not trolling just poking some fun at my Toronto friends. Its almost as fun as making fun of Americans. 

By the way, i live the idea of playing Cuba at a CPL venue. Halifax would be kickass

And what about the 'spurs are shit' part? 

 

?

Edited March 28, 2019 by Califax

[SpursFlu]

4 minutes ago, Califax said:

And what about the 'spurs are shit' part? 

 

?

Lol I missed that part. Ill have to scroll back thru

[apbsmith]

24 minutes ago, Califax said:

You're not wrong. The surface was a dumpster fire.  

Hopefully the lack of playoffs and time for the grass to grow alleviates concerns. It's something to watch. If the field is terrible by June, I would make sense to think about playing elsewhere. 

Montreal is my preference for USA. Halifax for Cuba. 

Cheers, glad to know they are attempting to rectify it.

That's why I said I'd like to see 10-15+ games on it before BMO gets the nod.  I was just going off the game I watched last fall where the field did look quite poor. 

It's a beautiful venue and with hosting the WC I'm sure they will figure it out over time. Fingers crossed they've figured it out  and field holds up for the entire year.

Edited March 28, 2019 by apbsmith

[BrennanFan]

31 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

I dont want Vancouver a permanent home. Not even for a second. If you read all the way back to one of my original comments. Based on the magnitude of the game and time of year, i think that game would be great in Vancouver. Im not trolling just poking some fun at my Toronto friends. Its almost as fun as making fun of Americans. 

 

I want to see Davies, David, Hoilett shredding the American defense. I dont want everyone standing around bundled up freezing their ass off 

By the way, i love the idea of playing Cuba at a CPL venue. Halifax would be kickass

There's a good point here.  Perhaps November is too cold in Toronto for the players' liking.  I don't think we would get any kind of cold weather advantage against the Americans and its not like our players are used to the conditions.  Still, I just don't see the players ever opting for a turf field when other options are available.

Too bad the Whitecaps waterfront stadium was never built.

 

[matty]

44 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

I dont want Vancouver a permanent home. Not even for a second. If you read all the way back to one of my original comments. Based on the magnitude of the game and time of year, i think that game would be great in Vancouver. Im not trolling just poking some fun at my Toronto friends. Its almost as fun as making fun of Americans. 

 

I want to see Davies, David, Hoilett shredding the American defense. I dont want everyone standing around bundled up freezing their ass off 

By the way, i love the idea of playing Cuba at a CPL venue. Halifax would be kickass

wasn't bc place widely condemed the last time there was a 50k soccer game held there? was the csa fined for that? lol. also why you want the us to play in the nice warm interiors of bc place as opposed to the natural air the canadian based talent we have is used to?

[Club Linesman]

The weather makes almost zero difference unless we are playing in the NWT and then it would affect our team as much as the opposition. During CCL the last 2 years TFC have won, lost and tied teams from Mexico and Panama during some absolutely horrible shit  weather.  Its not like the opposition rolled over and let us run up a 6-0 score line on them.  Every game was close.

Play the games where we can minimize the support for the opposition OR make enough money to start having some frickin friendlies.  If that is Toronto - great.  If that is BC - great.  If that is Commonwealth - great.  We are moving in the right direction and playing games period should be the goal of the program.  It's hard to qualify for the WC when your team has no cohesion because they have only ever played as a squad a couple of times.

[JohnnyFranchise]

20 minutes ago, BrennanFan said:

There's a good point here.  Perhaps November is too cold in Toronto for the players' liking.  I don't think we would get any kind of cold weather advantage against the Americans and its not like our players are used to the conditions.  Still, I just don't see the players ever opting for a turf field when other options are available.

Thank you for beating me to that comment. Our players are NOT used to playing in cold conditions, last time I checked the lower mainland of BC is the only place where soccer is played outside through the winter (anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). The whole "take advantage of our weather conditions" ploy only worked once, EVER. Time to get that out of the conversation and talk about where our guys on the pitch want to play, not where we think the opposition doesn't. 

[SpursFlu]

So we want to put Alphonso Davies, Jr Hoilett and Jonathan David in sub zero weather just to prove what good old fashion Canadians we are? Can we just put this ridiculous sentiment and approach to rest, once and for all.

[JohnnyFranchise]

5 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

So we want to put Alphonso Davies, Jr Hoilett and Jonathan David in sub zero weather just to prove what good old fashion Canadians we are? Can we just put this ridiculous sentiment and approach to rest, once and for all.

Yes, YES, YESSSSSS!

Edited March 28, 2019 by JohnnyFranchise

[Keegan]

36 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

So we want to put Alphonso Davies, Jr Hoilett and Jonathan David in sub zero weather just to prove what good old fashion Canadians we are? Can we just put this ridiculous sentiment and approach to rest, once and for all.

Yea I mean if we still had Terry Dunfield and League Two players that might be a good idea.  Now?  Not sure telling our stars that the only way they can beat inferior opponents (other than Mex/USA) at HOME is to play in freezing temps.  

I have nightmares thinking about the CSA not knowing how to handle true stars.  These guys aren’t your old CMNT - these guys are going to be big names playing on big clubs, so I think they gotta up our game pamper wise.

Edited March 28, 2019 by Keegan

[RJB]

7 hours ago, BrennanFan said:

We cannot be playing these important games on turf. 

 

As opposed to the unimportant WCQ matches that we played there? 

I enjoy the discussion, and the fun talk of games in Iqaluit, and Newfoundland, etc, but I would be shocked to see a game anywhere that isn't Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal.  Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax: I just don't see this happening any time soon for games of these magnitude.  Perhaps the Cuba game, but even that I'd be shocked.

[xabuep2]

Play both games in Montreal ! Vs Cuba in Saputo and vs USA in the Big O..... Montreal could be intimidating for the USA. 

2009 Montreal Impact vs Saantos Laguna with a crow of  55.571 

2010 Montreal Impact vs Milan around 47.000

2012 Montreal debut vs Chicago 58.000 . Later  vs LA Galaxy 60.860

and the final match of Concacaf Champion league  2015 vs Club America with 60.003 people. 

Do you you think that a match against the USA would be attractive enough to sell most of the tickets in Montreal ? 

[BuzzAndSting]

Canada vs Curacao in Montreal was announced at what? 7K? There was probably 3K there. 

No to Montreal.

[Ansem]

10 minutes ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Canada vs Curacao in Montreal was announced at what? 7K? There was probably 3K there. 

No to Montreal.

The crowd would show up for the USA and it would be a much more hostile crowd to the US than Toronto or Vancouver.

To be fair, the CSA forgot that there was more to Canada than Toronto and Vancouver for years. Got to play around more often now that we have more stadiums if we play smaller nations.

No reasons to not play at Wanderers Grounds, Langford or Spruce Meadows for future games featuring smaller nations.

[JohnnyFranchise]

7 minutes ago, Ansem said:

The crowd would show up for the USA and it would be a much more hostile crowd to the US than Toronto or Vancouver.

?????

[Moldy9]

1 hour ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Canada vs Curacao in Montreal was announced at what? 7K? There was probably 3K there. 

No to Montreal.

Ooh curaçaooo that was a real hot ticket. 

I can see a lot of yanks coming to MTL from NE states for the US game. 

[BuzzAndSting]

14 minutes ago, Moldy9 said:

Ooh curaçaooo that was a real hot ticket.

Hotter than Dominica? Cause Toronto got at least 10K for them.

Seriously, less than 5K for Montreal is terrible. It was almost embarrassing being there. Personally I’d rather every game in Montreal, would mean I’d be able to attend every game, but we need way better support than that.

[matty]

1 hour ago, Ansem said:

The crowd would show up for the USA and it would be a much more hostile crowd to the US than Toronto or Vancouver.

To be fair, the CSA forgot that there was more to Canada than Toronto and Vancouver for years. Got to play around more often now that we have more stadiums if we play smaller nations.

No reasons to not play at Wanderers Grounds, Langford or Spruce Meadows for future games featuring smaller nations.

I disagree it will be more hostile. I think you could have more Americans maybe show up to it with how much shorter the NYC, Philidelphia, and Boston to Montreal commutes are by bus and car. 10k Americans is way more noticeable in a 20k stadium than a 30k or 55k one.

[matty]

16 minutes ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Hotter than Dominica? Cause Toronto got at least 10K for them.

Seriously, less than 5K for Montreal is terrible. It was almost embarrassing being there. Personally I’d rather every game in Montreal, would mean I’d be able to attend every game, but we need way better support than that.

They also drew under 8k for Honduras. Given it was 2010 but still. And they did 6k for the 2017 game

Edited March 29, 2019 by matty

[red card]

6 hours ago, matty said:

so every saying this will be a sellout if at bc place. how is the support for the us on away games? i know mexico had like  20k show up for their game at bc place

It has been on a downward trend in recent years. Not making the WC has hurt and will temper having a lot of Americans in Vancouver. We got the same number to watch FG that US got against Ecuador and just slightly less vs Chile. Also, when they played in BMO on the CSA 100th year, there weren't that many Americans anyway. Plus, they'll get a chance to see them a number of times during the Gold Cup.

Only reasons for Americans to show up in Vancouver is that US Soccer charges more to watch the US team than world champions France. So while attendance has fallen off, revenue has increased on the backs of $50-300 tix. With the lower loonie and cheaper CSA prices, it might be a bit cheaper to watch in Vancouver even with the cost of the drive.

[BuzzAndSting]

4 minutes ago, matty said:

They also drew under 8k for Honduras. Given it was 2010 but still. And they did 6k for the 2017 game

6K according to the CSA. No way there was that many. And Piette probably had a few hundred friends and family.

[matty]

3 minutes ago, red card said:

It has been on a downward trend in recent years. Not making the WC has hurt and will temper having a lot of Americans in Vancouver. We got the same number to watch FG that US got against Ecuador and just slightly less vs Chile. Also, when they played in BMO on the CSA 100th year, there weren't that many Americans anyway. Plus, they'll get a chance to see them a number of times during the Gold Cup.

Only reasons for Americans to show up in Vancouver is that US Soccer charges more to watch the US team than world champions France. So while attendance has fallen off, revenue has increased on the backs of $50-300 tix. With the lower loonie and cheaper CSA prices, it might be a bit cheaper to watch in Vancouver even with the cost of the drive.

Would be cheaper for all 3 major Canadian cities. If Americans don't travel for games (say only 3-5k travel), a 50k plus might not not make sense unless you know for a fact you're gonna get over 30k to show up. The cost of opening up BC Place might not warrant doing so then.