shermanator Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Let's contrast the Northern Tribune story to Steven Sandor's rant on the change of ownership earlier this week. Sandor claims that CPL just took Edmonton for granted and that the move from playing the Cosmos and Rowdies to playing Canadian clubs hurt them. While it has since come out that Fath stopped paying the bills 18 months into FC Edmonton's CPL tenure. Really bad look from Fath and his supporters here. I think it's fair to say that he should be applauded for his investment and yet acknowledge that he fucked up so much along the way. Cheeta, ray and red card 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ansem Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 4 minutes ago, shermanator said: Let's contrast the Northern Tribune story to Steven Sandor's rant on the change of ownership earlier this week. Sandor claims that CPL just took Edmonton for granted and that the move from playing the Cosmos and Rowdies to playing Canadian clubs hurt them. While it has since come out that Fath stopped paying the bills 18 months into FC Edmonton's CPL tenure. Really bad look from Fath and his supporters here. I think it's fair to say that he should be applauded for his investment and yet acknowledge that he fucked up so much along the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Sandor always knows what he is talking about, especially when it's Edmonton-related content. I have zero reason not to believe exactly what he is saying and much more skepticism about what the official league response calls positive interest or whatever. Mango 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ansem Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 (edited) 8 minutes ago, nolando said: Sandor always knows what he is talking about, especially when it's Edmonton-related content. I have zero reason not to believe exactly what he is saying and much more skepticism about what the official league response calls positive interest or whatever. Knowing what he's talking about doesn't mean he isn't being biais which was made obvious on his Twitter feed. Edited January 3, 2022 by Ansem Stanley 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 2 hours ago, yothat2 said: 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 1st. I think Clarke's footprint has potential. Don't think it would take a tonne to echo Spruce Meadows if the will existed. Not literally, but something unique to that location. Proximity to the LRT station while desireable gets otherwise trumped by the location. I don't get it, neighbourhood seems fine to me but I don't live there and if local sentiment is negative it is what it is, justified or no. 2nd. Commenwealth is a dinosaur. It overstayed it's welcome. How Alberta doesn't have the best sporting facilities in this country is beyond me. I know the last few years have been rough but man, there were a lot of years and a lot of petro dollars floating around out there. 3rd. Wouldn't read anything into any rumours about OEG, CPL, and the future of the Eddies. One way or the other. I'm sure OEG would love to be your land lord but that's probably about the extent of their interest. Maybe they've looked at the way the Bombers have turned Valour into a net positive revenue stream but that may not be practical, or worth the effort, in their circumstances. 4th. So during a pandemic the leauge as much as assumed the costs of Edmonton's operations and yet we're still here. Huh. Not ideal for anyone to be sure but that's a bit telling no? I mean if we're talking dollars and cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzie_the_parrot Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 2 hours ago, Cheeta said: ... Maybe they've looked at the way the Bombers have turned Valour into a net positive revenue stream but that may not be practical, ... The accounts point to the Valour having lost money since they were launched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoccMan Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 Build stadiums like this 5000 seat beauty of a stadium in Hungary and just open the gates and watch people show up in Edmonton and anywhere in the CPL. When are we going to start getting owners that dream big and realize that a proper soccer stadium will get fans in the stadium. Once we start building small stadiums like this you watch attendance grow . We need four sided enclosed stadiums with roofs or at the very least enclosed on all four sides . We can’t just rely on the product on the field to entice fans to show up. Intimate smaller stadiums of 5000 to 10000 is what this league needs . Hopefully a new team coming into the league will build something like that and is successful and opens the eyes of present owners and future owners that if you build they will come. Free kick, Nello, MtlMario and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 3 hours ago, SoccMan said: Intimate smaller stadiums of 5000 to 10000 is what this league needs . Preferably closer to 10,000 though as we all hope that in the future 5,000 will be too small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoppage Time Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 4 hours ago, SoccMan said: Build stadiums like this 5000 seat beauty of a stadium in Hungary and just open the gates and watch people show up in Edmonton and anywhere in the CPL. When are we going to start getting owners that dream big and realize that a proper soccer stadium will get fans in the stadium. Once we start building small stadiums like this you watch attendance grow . We need four sided enclosed stadiums with roofs or at the very least enclosed on all four sides . We can’t just rely on the product on the field to entice fans to show up. Intimate smaller stadiums of 5000 to 10000 is what this league needs . Hopefully a new team coming into the league will build something like that and is successful and opens the eyes of present owners and future owners that if you build they will come. Could Clarke Stadium, for example, be renovated to this type of standard with a capacity or around 10,000, or would it be better to start from scratch? Stadiums can develop character when used for awhile. Take Swangard in Burnaby, BC, the former home of the Whitecaps and 86er's before MLS in Vancouver. It held about 5,300 and was a great place to watch soccer except that the track made the field a little distant from the grandstand. During the 2007 U-20 World Cup, about 7000 bleacher seats were added on the east side right up to the field and the place became a phenomenal soccer venue. Small can be made to seem big and character and experience can be created. https://www.burnaby.ca/recreation-and-arts/recreation-facilities/swangard-stadium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ansem Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 5 hours ago, SoccMan said: Build stadiums like this 5000 seat beauty of a stadium in Hungary and just open the gates and watch people show up in Edmonton and anywhere in the CPL. When are we going to start getting owners that dream big and realize that a proper soccer stadium will get fans in the stadium. Once we start building small stadiums like this you watch attendance grow . We need four sided enclosed stadiums with roofs or at the very least enclosed on all four sides . We can’t just rely on the product on the field to entice fans to show up. Intimate smaller stadiums of 5000 to 10000 is what this league needs . Hopefully a new team coming into the league will build something like that and is successful and opens the eyes of present owners and future owners that if you build they will come. Agreed on the 10k... Build it and they'll come SoccMan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ansem Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 18 minutes ago, Stoppage Time said: Could Clarke Stadium, for example, be renovated to this type of standard with a capacity or around 10,000, or would it be better to start from scratch? Stadiums can develop character when used for awhile. Take Swangard in Burnaby, BC, the former home of the Whitecaps and 86er's before MLS in Vancouver. It held about 5,300 and was a great place to watch soccer except that the track made the field a little distant from the grandstand. During the 2007 U-20 World Cup, about 7000 bleacher seats were added on the east side right up to the field and the place became a phenomenal soccer venue. Small can be made to seem big and character and experience can be created. https://www.burnaby.ca/recreation-and-arts/recreation-facilities/swangard-stadium The city won't let them so best to start from scratch. Last time they tried to get upgrades done, Elks and a bunch of high schools sunk their project. Start from scratch somewhere else and control all the revenues Greatest Cockney Rip Off and DoyleG 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 1 hour ago, Stoppage Time said: Could Clarke Stadium, for example, be renovated to this type of standard with a capacity or around 10,000, or would it be better to start from scratch? Stadiums can develop character when used for awhile. Take Swangard in Burnaby, BC, the former home of the Whitecaps and 86er's before MLS in Vancouver. It held about 5,300 and was a great place to watch soccer except that the track made the field a little distant from the grandstand. During the 2007 U-20 World Cup, about 7000 bleacher seats were added on the east side right up to the field and the place became a phenomenal soccer venue. Small can be made to seem big and character and experience can be created. https://www.burnaby.ca/recreation-and-arts/recreation-facilities/swangard-stadium Capacity was 5700 at the end of the Whitecaps tenure there. Great place to watch a game but the amenities were crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SthMelbRed Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 1 hour ago, Stanley said: Capacity was 5700 at the end of the Whitecaps tenure there. Great place to watch a game but the amenities were crap. On a beautiful summer's evening, there's no better place to watch a football match then Swangard. Once you're inside and the match is on, you forget about the fact that there are no pubs or restaurants around for a pre- or post-game pint. The track isn't even that big of a deal. Unnamed Trialist and nolando 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanley Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 52 minutes ago, SthMelbRed said: On a beautiful summer's evening, there's no better place to watch a football match then Swangard. Once you're inside and the match is on, you forget about the fact that there are no pubs or restaurants around for a pre- or post-game pint. The track isn't even that big of a deal. The track never bothered me, but neither did the track at old empire during the NASL days where if you were in a corner of one of the ends you'd be so far away. I never cared about no pubs or restaurants nearby (not my thing), the beer garden was fine. It was things like biting into a smokie that was still frozen in the middle because they were rushing cooking it on a small BBQ that was crap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SthMelbRed Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 1 hour ago, Stanley said: The track never bothered me, but neither did the track at old empire during the NASL days where if you were in a corner of one of the ends you'd be so far away. I never cared about no pubs or restaurants nearby (not my thing), the beer garden was fine. It was things like biting into a smokie that was still frozen in the middle because they were rushing cooking it on a small BBQ that was crap! As a teenager, I worked for the City of Burnaby cooking on those BBQs, and I never served an undercooked sausage or burger! I can't speak to the quality of the product after I moved on to run the beer tent. knibby and Pottsy3 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 5 hours ago, SthMelbRed said: As a teenager, I worked for the City of Burnaby cooking on those BBQs, and I never served an undercooked sausage or burger! I can't speak to the quality of the product after I moved on to run the beer tent. Things are not the same since you left Burnaby, for sure. But Swangard: it really should not have been a good venue but it was, or at least fairly good. I admit I ran a track meets there, so I felt comfortable there (I also ran at Empire). The main stand, when full, had a decent feel and the roof made the crowd noise better. The Southside was usually a small % of total gate (rarely was it "full", with fans lining the entire endline plus those rickety stands), but still led the charge. It could be extremely off colour. Not having fans on two sides was a waste, based on the dumb reasoning from Burnaby Parks Board I imagine still gets tossed around (not to block the view of the trees, or something silly). The Caps got very good home advantage from playing there in fact. I think the players liked it. Location is still very good for Greater Vancouver. If they'd just put proper stands for a few hundred on both ends and along the opposite side, even if 10 rows high for 50 m across the middle, and raised a bit to see over the track, it would still be a good venue for a CPL team. CDNFootballer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red card Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 21 hours ago, SoccMan said: Build stadiums like this 5000 seat beauty of a stadium in Hungary and just open the gates and watch people show up in Edmonton and anywhere in the CPL. When are we going to start getting owners that dream big and realize that a proper soccer stadium will get fans in the stadium. Once we start building small stadiums like this you watch attendance grow . We need four sided enclosed stadiums with roofs or at the very least enclosed on all four sides . We can’t just rely on the product on the field to entice fans to show up. Intimate smaller stadiums of 5000 to 10000 is what this league needs . Hopefully a new team coming into the league will build something like that and is successful and opens the eyes of present owners and future owners that if you build they will come. This might be a stadium too far for the Canadian mindset and budgets. But looking at this top 5 US lower division stadium video is probably more reachable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDNFootballer Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 NASL's San Antonio Scorpions Stadium would be a good model for CPL, multi phase expansion possible starting in the low 6K for seating and moving up to 18K+ in phase 4 when more seating is needed : https://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/scorpions/article/Scorpions-finally-have-their-8-000-seat-field-of-4429684.php narduch, knibby and nolando 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzie_the_parrot Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Haven't listened yet but a lot of FCE content apparently: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDNFootballer Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 Faths want to keep foot in FC Edmonton after relinquishing ownership The founders of FC Edmonton announced the transition of operations to the Canadian Premier League on New Year’s Eve, but will still maintain a small role in the club after a new ownership group is announced Tom and Dave Fath have been instrumental in the growth of pro soccer in the city and were founding members of both the North American Soccer League and the CPL, having established FC Edmonton in 2009. “A number of years ago, we thought strategically we would be better off to bring in some other partners,” Tom said Tuesday. “We’ve been quietly looking for other partners for a number of years, but we still want to be part of it a little bit. “We’ve been contributing to soccer for a long time and we hadn’t found anyone before this last year. As part of that strategic plan, we decided to go this route to move through that transition and we do have a local group that is working closely with us, along the lines of that they would be taking over as managing partners, but we would still have a small interest in it.” https://edmontonsun.com/sports/soccer/fc-edmonton/faths-want-to-keep-foot-in-fc-edmonton-after-relinquishing-ownership Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red card Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 On 1/2/2022 at 11:32 PM, nolando said: Sandor always knows what he is talking about, especially when it's Edmonton-related content. I have zero reason not to believe exactly what he is saying and much more skepticism about what the official league response calls positive interest or whatever. I like that Sandor is probably the most direct speaking member of the Canadian soccer media. But Sandor has worked for the Faths in the past. He's open about this but he has a tendency to paint the NASL days as halcyon times for the Edmonton club. He anguishes over the money & time Fath spent to build broadcast capabilities for CPL matches. But he doesn't question that maybe Fath was still thinking in NASL terms as no other CPL club blew their money on tv production. He also tends to favour catering to the casual market when that has never proven to be sustainable in Canada and not the template that has led to TFC's success. Ivan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shermanator Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 (edited) Fath creating his own production company to broadcast NASL matches is actually a good example of the mistakes made along the way. He put a significant amount of money to be able to broadcast FC Edmonton home games, and managed to secure a regional TV deal with CityTV. Sounds great right? But the final product was an SD broadcast of games. Not so bad if you were streaming the game or watching highlights on your phone, but completely inadequate for a modern viewing experience on a 50"+ TV. In the end, no one watched the games and the opportunity to further build the local and regional audience failed completely. Just like how he spent significant money marketing the club ahead of their 2011 launch, only to play at Foote Field; a stadium with Canadian football lines, yellow end zones and stands 20 yards from the pitch. Lots of effort put into drawing people in, but a terrible game day experience once you got there. In both examples, a lot of money burnt on what turned out to be a substandard product. Edited January 8, 2022 by shermanator Stanley 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yothat2 Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 It's crucial Edmonton survives. It would be pretty hard to convince an investor in 5-10 years to time to try this market again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yothat2 Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 Saw this on cpl Reddit Fced has followed the following Edmonton-Nicholas Hamilton (York), Julian Ulbricht (York), Jair Córdova (ex-Cavs), Fugo Segawa (ex-York), Zach Ellis-Hayden (OKC) can definitely see Zach Ellis Hayden being the latest USL player to come to the cpl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDNFootballer Posted January 9, 2022 Share Posted January 9, 2022 4 hours ago, shermanator said: Fath creating his own production company to broadcast NASL matches is actually a good example of the mistakes made along the way. He put a significant amount of money to be able to broadcast FC Edmonton home games, and managed to secure a regional TV deal with CityTV. Sounds great right? But the final product was an SD broadcast of games. Not so bad if you were streaming the game or watching highlights on your phone, but completely inadequate for a modern viewing experience on a 50"+ TV. In the end, no one watched the games and the opportunity to further build the local and regional audience failed completely. Just like how he spent significant money marketing the club ahead of their 2011 launch, only to play at Foote Field; a stadium with Canadian football lines, yellow end zones and stands 20 yards from the pitch. Lots of effort put into drawing people in, but a terrible game day experience once you got there. In both examples, a lot of money burnt on what turned out to be a substandard product. Your correct on the launch in 2011, he was quite ignorant about running a pro soccer team and also spent too much on player salaries the first year (about 1 million) before tamping down on that. His heart was in the right place wanting to pay a good wage for the players but he soon realized it wasn't feasable for the club. As for the broadcasting, NASL requirements meant he and all the clubs had to upgrade to HD and multi camera setups around 2016 when the league had deals with Bein Sports, CBS, and another network now called Eleven Sports. This was supposed to be a positive at that time for FCE as they said they would rent out the mobile setup when not using it for NASL matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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