FC Edmonton - 2022 Season Thread

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Think we should maybe bear in mind that the Fath brothers are rumoured to have lost into the tens of millions on this club and kept it going for around a decade. If there's any fingerpointing to be done a good starting point would be all the people in Edmonton who pledged to support the club in a CanPL context if they were brought back and then failed to actually do so.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[Unnamed Trialist]

I agree with Paulus. 

We have a serious deficit of stadiums in Canada and that is halting our growth. If Laval had a facility for 8000, or if they'd built a similar venue in the Fraser Valley, we'd be there, they'd have teams ready to go. Saskatoon has to deal with a major investment, and not a lot of political will. 

This news out of Edmonton is worrisome, as I personally believe if one group of owners can bail out, others might consider it. And the league cannot be in custody of teams, that is not how it is supposed to work. 

The other team I think is a lot less stable in terms of mid-long-term ownership is At Ottawa. Because all evidence and experience of similar ventures shows these projects of branch teams do not hold up that well. Sure, I see they are investing well in Mexico with At San Luis, so that is encouraging, but I still think if things get iffy at Atléti they could reconsider.

 

[TheDoon]

Completely agree with Paulus.  The only way to try and grow a team in Edmonton is to find/build a new stadium. Even with that I don’t know that it will survive as hockey seems to be the only sport people care about on a regular basis. 
 

if they want to attract fans, a new owner is going to have to invest a lot of money into creating a mini but true football experience. As a general example, a closed in stadium with a roof all around ( so that it stays warmer and keeps the casual fan coming on a rainy night) is desperately needed. This thing apparently cost approximately 13.5M USD. 
 

The big question is, where could one build such a stadium for relatively cheap land costs yet in an area that is full of the demographic that you want (young population, high disposable income, etc). Adjacent to an LRT line would also be a huge benefit but that will also drive up the cost.
 

 

 

[Cheeta]

2 hours ago, Nick P said:

The new owners will have to build that base from scratch and they're going to have to put a lot more effort than Fath did to build it

I think the Faths get a loud round of applause for all they've put into this project over the last decade.  Circumstances beyond their control, even pre-pandemic, might have shown them they were in over their heads but they still footed the bills year after year.

Don't doubt new ownership comes in fairly quickly as I expect the league will be flexible with terms, that may be the easiest part.  Job #1 for the newbies has to be venue.  And how more symbolic can you get about a fresh start than improving your address?  Maybe some local is sitting on some suitable land and just looking into development schemes?  THAT would be too lucky but you never know..   

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

33 minutes ago, Cheeta said:

...Don't doubt new ownership comes in fairly quickly as I expect the league will be flexible with terms, that may be the easiest part...

If the Oilers Entertainment Group group were interested but the league turned them away as has been reported, you may be making a big assumption on the flexible bit.

[Ansem]

What if the league gets Alphonso Davies to be part of a group and be the face of that ownership?

is this what it would take for a Edmonton club to draw from the onset 

[Stoppage Time]

4 hours ago, TheDoon said:

The big question is, where could one build such a stadium for relatively cheap land costs yet in an area that is full of the demographic that you want (young population, high disposable income, etc). Adjacent to an LRT line would also be a huge benefit but that will also drive up the cost.
 

 

 

Could Clarke stadium be rebuilt with the establishment of and expansion to both the sideline and behind the goal grandstands?  Could a roof be added one grandstand at a time? Could capacity be increased to, say, 10,000?  Would the city go for a joint venture with a new owner? Perhaps a new stadium on that site could be built  in stages with the current grandstands replaced or expanded over a year or two

Clarke is very close to Stadium LRT station, on a large Edmonton LRT system. What I do not know is the present demographic distribution of the population in Edmonton and how that would play into establishing a fanbase. Perhaps it is a combination of Field of Dreams' "If you build it, they will come" and reality's "If FCE wins, they will come". It is true that the on-field squad has not been very promising for many years and that has been a barrier to increased attendance for sure.

[TheDoon]

19 minutes ago, Stoppage Time said:

Could Clarke stadium be rebuilt with the establishment of and expansion to both the sideline and behind the goal grandstands?  Could a roof be added one grandstand at a time? Could capacity be increased to, say, 10,000?  Would the city go for a joint venture with a new owner? Perhaps a new stadium on that site could be built  in stages with the current grandstands replaced or expanded over a year or two

Clarke is very close to Stadium LRT station, on a large Edmonton LRT system. What I do not know is the present demographic distribution of the population in Edmonton and how that would play into establishing a fanbase. Perhaps it is a combination of Field of Dreams' "If you build it, they will come" and reality's "If FCE wins, they will come". It is true that the on-field squad has not been very promising for many years and that has been a barrier to increased attendance for sure.

Clarkes location to me, is the major problem. Yes it is adjacent to the LRT but it is a really rundown area of town. Additionally the Stadium is not owned by the club and therefore they need to share with the local Football clubs so there is no ability to do whatever they want from a rebuild perspective. I’m sure FCe has been ok with this due to the likely low costs they have to face compared to owning a stadium but the drawbacks are there.
 

If I were with the club, I’d be speaking with Local developers and trying to find opportunities to partner, leverage their land with a multipurpose development.  That would also require proving a tangible return on this investment over a set period of time.  I wonder if there’s a community ownership model that could work where multiple parties can invest into a shared vision and them reap the potential risk benefits of that growth together.  

Edmonton has a number of major redevelopment projects both privately owned or  city owned. Would be great to have a developer consider tweaking these to include an attraction like a soccer specific stadium. Even better if there was a way to make it accessible to the growing community soccer demand. 
 

 

[yothat2]

5 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

If the Oilers Entertainment Group group were interested but the league turned them away as has been reported, you may be making a big assumption on the flexible bit.

I think fitting an arena in the ice district or the space close the Rogers will help the Katz group sell units in phase 2 of the ice district  

 

Is the Telus field still an possibility?! 

[CDNFootballer]

Fath bowing out and the club getting new owners is a positive in the end. Don't see the club moving to another market. Hopefully new owners don't get any stupid idea of the club playing in the commiebowl as that would be a disaster.

Re 10 year commitments by clubs for the league - This doesn't mean a club/owner can't get out of the league in certain situations just as in some other pro league's.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

10 hours ago, yothat2 said:

I think fitting an arena in the ice district or the space close the Rogers will help the Katz group sell units in phase 2 of the ice district  

 

Is the Telus field still an possibility?! 

I'm assuming from this tweet from Jeff Paulus that ship has sailed:

and from this reply that the Rexall Place thing isn't likely either:

Steven Sandor makes a reasonable enough point with this:

If the cold hard reality is that there is no viable alternative to Clarke Field as is and if the most likely suspects like OEG and Alphonso Davies are not galloping to the rescue, FCE is going to be a tough sell. The league needs to keep them going for now to keep numbers at eight, but if/when a Fraser Valley team enters in 2023 the rational thing to do might simply be to contract by one and stick at eight. If the league can operate without a team in the entire province of Quebec for the first four seasons, they can get by without an Edmonton one.

This tweet from Steven Sandor is sobering:

but I think WC 2026 is likely to be enough to keep the show on the road for now and he is being a bit overly dramatic with that, but this angle is worrying:

9 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

...Re 10 year commitments by clubs for the league - This doesn't mean a club/owner can't get out of the league in certain situations just as in some other pro league's.

because if true it means there effectively is no long-term commitment involved just as it has become increasingly clear since launch that there is no independent club model in place. If Dean Shillington and Bob Young are true believers to the extent that they are both willing to finance multiple teams through the remainder of a challenging opening decade, the show goes on but eventually they will need to have a second Halifax unfolding with an expansion club to sustain belief in the viability of the business model and fuel future growth.

[Aird25]

I have to think Clarke is in a better location than several other CPL stadiums, Starlight included. It’s right beside Commonwealth and right on an lrt line. It should work there. 

[Ansem]

7 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

if the most likely suspects like OEG and Alphonso Davies are not galloping to the rescue

Manuel Vath said he'd dig in the Alphonso Davies rumour.  I mean, who else but him could get OEG on board as the money while him being the face?

Also, I think he'll try to do something - loves his city that much and I doubt he'd let por football die in his hometown 

 

[Ansem]

I think it's really for the best that the Fath are out

Northern Tribune has now learned that multiple other club owners stepped in to pay FC Edmonton’s staff and player expenditures starting midway through last season’s summertime bubble. Fath – who had invested millions into the club since he launched it as an NASL franchise in 2010 – told the league that he would be unable to fund the CPL side just prior to the start of the bubble itself.

[Ansem]

16 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

 

While rumours of player non-payment have also cropped up of late, these appear to be false: the transition between player and staff salary payments from The Fath Group to league and club ownership appears to have been fairly seamless, and none of our sources from inside Edmonton or out knew of any specific non-payment issues.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^found this sequence of tweets interesting on the alleged annual budget for a CanPL club and the scale of the travel expenses relative to salaries as Steven Sandor's most likely source for the info is the Faths and FCE. Scary if accurate on travel. That's higher than I would have expected.

The Alphonso Davies thing that was doing the rounds seems farfetched given his age, current location and the scale of finance needed to keep FCE afloat in the short to medium term. This club is highly unlikely to break even any time soon so losing people who had been willing to take the hit for a decade is not good.

[Stoppage Time]

4 hours ago, Aird25 said:

I have to think Clarke is in a better location than several other CPL stadiums, Starlight included. It’s right beside Commonwealth and right on an lrt line. It should work there. 

Yes, I agree. After all, Commonwealth works for the Elks at that location. In addition, there are no more than 14 home games plus any playoffs involved, so it is not really a hardship for fans to get there. Improve the stadium incrementally, improve the team on the field, and increase community advertising are the "simple" things to do - yes there are always some barriers.

 

[grasshopper1917]

I lived in Edmonton for 2 years and my apartment was roughly a 5-10 min walk to Commonwealth/Clarke. Yes it is right on a LRT line and very easy to get to. However the reality is no one wants to be out there. The Oilers moved out of there because they knew the location is brutal.  

When I lived there (it may have changed some) the neighborhood consisted of pawn shops, shady taverns and some fast food joints - however I didn't mind it too much cause my rent was 450$ a month. 

The reality is a downtown soccer pitch would be much more beneficial. 

Some people pointing to the Elks making it work. Well the CFL club is an Edmonton institution and no they are not drawing all that great. Almost every game is now less then half of capacity. Another big thing that used to boost CFL attendance is bard downtown would hire busses to take people to the games. Before the game you would literally see fleets of busses there. 

So in closing Commonwealth is accessible by LRT. However no-one really wants to be in that neighborhood - especially after dark.

[Ansem]

3 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

^^^found this sequence of tweets interesting on the alleged annual budget for a CanPL club and the scale of the travel expenses relative to salaries as Steven Sandor's most likely source for the info is the Faths and FCE. Scary if accurate on travel. That's higher than I would have expected.

The Alphonso Davies thing that was doing the rounds seems farfetched given his age, current location and the scale of finance needed to keep FCE afloat in the short to medium term. This club is highly unlikely to break even any time soon so losing people who had been willing to take the hit for a decade is not good.

Davies doesn't need to be a minority partner. Although I'm sure he'd do PR at a discount, just pay the man to help promote the club.

A few Instagram pics here and there with the Edmonton jersey and local ads from him and "voila".*

*Move the damn club downtown 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Ansem

[DoyleG]

56 minutes ago, Ansem said:

Davies doesn't need to be a minority partner. Although I'm sure he'd do PR at a discount, just pay the man to help promote the club.

A few Instagram pics here and there with the Edmonton jersey and local ads from him and "voila".*

*Move the damn club downtown 

There's no room downtown with the ICE Complex now fanning out.

[Ansem]

1 minute ago, DoyleG said:

There's no room downtown with the ICE Complex now fanning out.

Close too or near transit in a better area then

[An Observer]

Given the OEG and Davies rumour, Davies should ping McDavid and Gretzky to come on as minority owners if in name only.  Nothing would sell better to the average sports fan more than those 3 onboard.  Or maybe Draisaitl as he knows soccer being from Germany (and would be very familiar with Bayern so can appreciate Davies accomplishments more than most)

[yothat2]

Steven Sandor is so dramatic ... CEBL owns the majority of franchises. 

 

Going to the team Canada and Elks games ... Commonwealth and Clarke are in such a terrible location. There should be restaurants n hotels in that area