CPL Players' Union

[Bison44]

1 minute ago, narduch said:

Nobody will pay attention to the MLS Reserve league. Just like nobody paid attention to TFC II.

Over/under on MLS new reserve league lasting more than 5 years? I'm taking the under.

Nobody paid attention the first time around either.  Surprising he isnt advocating the reserve teams being part of an MLS affiliated league, some sort of partnership etc maybe they could call is USA-1...oh wait...they did that and it didnt work!! Nobody cared! Somehow the failure of the previous iterations of a reserve league doesnt faze him one bit.    

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^still don't seem to grasp that I was advocating finding a way to have all the best young Canadian prospects playing in the new D1 Canadian pro league with absolutely no MLS branding involved rather than having many of them in an MLS U-23 setup or a II team in USL-1 or whatever but I guess they need to find ways to distort that to be able to project their MLS vs CanPL mindset onto me.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Bison44]

MLS farm clubs??  Thats not MLS branding?? Thats not MLS control of the league??  Read what you type and listen to what it sounds like in your head eh??  

HAHA, there is the other well worn trope.  MLS vs CPL.  If you wantyour own league that means your anti MLS....like he is the shining knight to protect MLS from rabid CDN fans.   He doesnt understand that us wanting our own league is not about being against MLS.  And this is at the end of our 3rd season, somebody is not paying attention........

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^incoherent gibberish. I'm confident most people with the best interests of Canadian soccer at heart want both leagues to do well and would prefer to see constructive engagement between the two leagues.

[Bison44]

Gibberish??  Where in anything I said that I dont want MLS to be successful? Talk about incoherent, I think you need to work on your reading skills.  You are the one who consistently brings up the MLS vs CPL mantra.   We can have a canadian league, and it doesnt have to have any ties to MLS.  Our league doesnt have to have and has chose not to have teams that are directly tied to MLS.  That isnt anti MLS.  I want you to read that very slowly..sound out every word and look them up if needed ok??  

[grasshopper1917]

I mean Canadian sports fans are not stupid. If you 're-brand' MLS reserve teams, or farm teams, or 'affiliates' Canadian soccer fan will still view them as a farm or reserve team. For me that would be a sure death. For me the CPL has a chance of success by being outside the corporate structure, listening to their fans and being independent. Sure its a long shot but they have a chance... a farm league for MLS would be certain death.

 

[CDNFootballer]

27 minutes ago, grasshopper1917 said:

I mean Canadian sports fans are not stupid. If you 're-brand' MLS reserve teams, or farm teams, or 'affiliates' Canadian soccer fan will still view them as a farm or reserve team. For me that would be a sure death. For me the CPL has a chance of success by being outside the corporate structure, listening to their fans and being independent. Sure its a long shot but they have a chance... a farm league for MLS would be certain death.

 

100% correct.

D1 Canadian Premier League was/is absolutely correct in not allowing farm/reserve/affiliate teams or one's disguised as them into Canada's Division 1 league period!

Edited December 5, 2021 by CDNFootballer

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

5 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

100% correct.

D1 Canadian Premier League was/is absolutely correct in not allowing farm/reserve/affiliate teams or one's disguised as them into Canada's Division 1 league period!

...unless La Liga is involved because then Atletico Madrid related branding suddenly becomes OK.

Edited December 5, 2021 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

 

[Ansem]

5 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

...unless La Liga is involved because then Atletico Madrid related branding suddenly becomes OK.

La Liga is world class. MLS isn't even close

[RickC]

Before I make an attempt to bringing the discussion back to a players' union, I'll make a couple of off topic comments. Regarding Ozzie, I have a suspicion that he and I (and many of you) are of the same generation that have seen Cdn clubs/leagues crash and burn. The lower risk at establishing pro soccer in Canada is involvement in the American leagues. I think it's clear the US league has been of great help in developing Cdn players.

But, how much help has MLS been in developing what CPL calls the "Cdn soccer economy." Lots in three cities, very little outside of those cities. The CPL has given opportunities not just to players, but to coaching staff, trainers, referees, etc. that go way beyond what MLS would ever do in Canada. This is the higher risk, but potentially higher reward way to boost our game. Regarding attendance, year one was OK in the launch. Year two was zero. Year three greatly impacted by covid. Years four through six are likely make or break, and I'm cautiously optimistic we'll see years seven and on.

Regarding unions, I'm very supportive of the players and what they are publicly stating about their interests in forming their association. At this time, it's not about the $$ but about many other things which the clubs/league should be able to agree with. Now, where's my long underwear for today's match? Gotta get ready!

[K Edgar]

11 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

...unless La Liga is involved because then Atletico Madrid related branding suddenly becomes OK.

If Atletico Madrid wants to add 17 Canadians to their farm system I guess I am ok with that!?!

Edited December 5, 2021 by K Edgar

[Cheeta]

41 minutes ago, K Edgar said:

If Atletico Madrid wants to add 17 Canadians to the farm system I guess I am ok with that!?!

SCORE!

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

But having many of the best young Canadians that emerge through MLS academies playing in CanPL rather than something USSF sanctioned like the new MLS U-23 setup would be a problem even if it was done through affiliate agreements with separately owned CanPL clubs with no MLS branding involved? 

[Cheeta]

I don't know what people expect the 1st collective agreement is going to look like.  But it's going to happen and it has to happen to safeguard the league's image.

I'll have a guess.   All pretty basic stuff.  

Of course the players will still negotiate their individual compensations, they wouldn't have it any other way.  The league minimum should improve.  How much and how fast I've no idea.  However I expect for the strong majority of players, and a clubs overall payroll, this isn't going to matter a jot. 

Defining catagories players fall into, youth, senior, loanee, and what that allows, and doesn't all for, in their individual contracts.  Pretty dry stuff and I expect mostly status quo but clearly defined so there's no risk of tom foolery.  There will certainly be some areas which are going to cause some teams in the leagues stress (how does a loanee's compensation apply to the salary cap/floor for example.  Can teams declining an option still offer a player a new contract at reduced wages, image rights, blah, blah, blah). 

Grievance resolution protocals.   With the employer, fellow employees, and the league.

Per diems.  Home and away.  (This could acually be really tricky, for both sides).

Maybe the big one for the league.  Avenues of revenue for players.  Financial fair play as it were.  In a salary capped league the intention is to protect the owners from themselves so you'd think they could do this at the administrative level but that never works.  If you regulate the avenues at the player contract level that can be helpful.  Impossible to police but on the books all the same.   

Maybe the big one for the union.  Expecting a standardized level of health benefits.  I think the union win it and the league will be happy to let them because it's not a battlefield the league wants to fight on.  And to be fair this has been the practice of certain clubs in the league since day one.  It will just be moving some of the hold outs into line. 

A guess, in broad strokes.  Not exactly a boogeyman is it?

Tough work though, within the union (player pool) there will be conflicting prioities.  It's the same for the owners.  Every team has used to their benefit (as they see it) all this making it up as they go along.  That's going to chance.  Some owners will be happy with it and others not so much.

I think it's worth writing that more of a level playing field is going to come out of this 1st collective agreement.   And for a salary capped league isn't that the point?

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

 

[masster]

Your team is playing in a cup final at home...so you use that opportunity to express your opinion on labour issues?

I swear there is a portion of the Canadian soccer public that would rather be activists, and not supporters!!

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

36 minutes ago, masster said:

Your team is playing in a cup final at home...

Is expressing solidarity with the players on labour conditions really such a bad way to show your active support for the team that is on the field of play?

[SthMelbRed]

4 hours ago, masster said:

Your team is playing in a cup final at home...so you use that opportunity to express your opinion on labour issues?

I swear there is a portion of the Canadian soccer public that would rather be activists, and not supporters!!

Worse than that, they did it in a way that absolutely nobody outside of their small group noticed. What's the use of a protest that doesn't get anybody's attention?

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

 

 

It seems to me that was planned with the broadcast, or someone producing it, since it was one of few shots of the supporters all game. 

[RickC]

We’ve brought yellow and red cards to games but never white ones. I saw them and had no idea what the message was. But, now I do and expect the league does too and that’s all good.

[yellowsweatygorilla]

2 hours ago, SthMelbRed said:

Worse than that, they did it in a way that absolutely nobody outside of their small group noticed. What's the use of a protest that doesn't get anybody's attention?

It was the entire supporters section, I saw it all the way from the other side (as a York fan I stood with the Pacific fans). About 50 Union scarves were also distributed and the fans sung pro union songs like solidarity forever The whole 10 minutes. It may not have been everyone but a lot of people understood the message just fine.

[yellowsweatygorilla]

6 hours ago, masster said:

Your team is playing in a cup final at home...so you use that opportunity to express your opinion on labour issues?

I swear there is a portion of the Canadian soccer public that would rather be activists, and not supporters!!

Supporting your players on and off the pitch is so strange?

 

Thankfully the majority of soccer fans seem to disagree with you with the large number of union scarves in the stands (worn by forge, York, and Pacific fans)

[CDNFootballer]

10 hours ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

Supporting your players on and off the pitch is so strange?

 

Thankfully the majority of soccer fans seem to disagree with you with the large number of union scarves in the stands (worn by forge, York, and Pacific fans)

Your not seriously trying to pretend that the majority of the 7400 plus wore "union scarves" are you, maybe, maybe in the supporters section but not the stadium.

[yellowsweatygorilla]

18 minutes ago, CDNFootballer said:

Your not seriously trying to pretend that the majority of the 7400 plus wore "union scarves" are you, maybe, maybe in the supporters section but not the stadium.

While the supporters section isn't necessarily representative of ALL soccer fans, to ease in which we organized the supporters group solidarity statement with full consensus does indicating something. And I've never come across much criticism of the union drive in the soccer fan community outside of 2 or 3 usual suspects. Are you suggesting that support for the players' unionization effort only exist among SG members?