2022 Voyageurs Cup

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

30 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Nanaimo has pretty decent soccer. Facing VMSL clubs will only improve that

No argument that if you are in the smaller centre there's an incentive to do the travel to get significantly better competition, but it's a lot more difficult to persuade players in the larger city that they need to drive way out into the boonies to facilitate that.

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

There are also teams in Victoria and Kamloops as well and you didn't answer the question of whether a Nanaimo team with locally based players is likely to ever be as good as what the top end of the VMSL has to offer?

Have you ever been involved with running an amateur soccer club? If you are dealing with people who have regular jobs and are in relationships or raising a young family anything beyond an hour driving time starts to be an issue on how big a hole it blows in their weekend and once you are over two hours good luck.

You are going to get the players that are willing/able to do the travel for something like this (hence why University and youth Academy teams are a good fit) but that won't necessarily be the best players that are out there. So ultimately you wind up with PCSL 2.0 and have reinvented the wheel.

I think we are very much looking at differently at what this league should be. I think it should be primarily focused on development, at the kids still progressing up through the system. So the "people with regular jobs" is irrelevant to me. The other leagues are essentially rec leagues, and that's fine - nothing wrong with that. But they're also not developing anyone, which is what L1BC should be focusing on. You're "top end of VMSL" argument falls flat if none of the players are actually progressing on to better things, because it means the VMSL is still a failure. 

But for the record, the Western Lacrosse Association is a similar semi-pro league, with most teams in the lower mainland but still teams over in Victoria and Nanaimo. They also hold down "regular jobs" but make the longer commutes. So my answer ends up being - if L1BC builds itself to be the best league, then yes people will make those longer commutes.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

5 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

I think we are very much looking at differently at what this league should be. I think it should be primarily focused on development, at the kids still progressing up through the system. So the "people with regular jobs" is irrelevant to me...

Elsewhere players like that provide a high level of semi-pro competition that can help develop young players players better than youth clubs do, e.g. where Bundesliga clubs have their U-23 teams playing or NPL in Australia where the youth teams of A League clubs are concerned.