CONCACAF Nations League 2022/2023 - General Thread - Group Stage

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

32 minutes ago, Corazon said:

I would pay overpriced tickets everyday to watch our Canadian men play. 

Agreed but only as long as the money is invested wisely and the CSA doesn't spend it buying new suits at Nota Bene Bespoke.

[theaub]

My thoughts

• Ticket prices for this game are absurd.  $35 + $7 general fee + $7 order fee for the cheapest ticket in the house is embarrassing.  I have TFC seasons in 220 and the cost for a pair of my 'A tier' (ie summer nights/CNE etc) tickets is the same price as a single ticket for this game in 220 post-fees.  Shameful
•  Based on point 1, I don't even know why the CSA put the upper east stand up for sale.  Just going to disperse people around because there's zero chance this thing sells out
• Hondurans travel for WCQ, they don't give a crap about Nations League/glorified friendlies (especially mid-week in garbage weather).
• I also don't blame people for holding off on buying tickets because who knows who even shows up for this game.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by theaub

[Floortom]

I think people are way over estimating turnout for both Hondurans and Canadian supporters. These ticket prices are nuts for a Tuesday Nations League match against a non- premium opponent. Anything more than 15k would be a big success and a good indicator of continued momentum.

[Obinna]

8 minutes ago, Floortom said:

I think people are way over estimating turnout for both Hondurans and Canadian supporters. These ticket prices are nuts for a Tuesday Nations League match against a non- premium opponent. Anything more than 15k would be a big success and a good indicator of continued momentum.

^ The fact news around the CSA has been negative may compound this.

[narduch]

How do the prices compare to the Jamaica game last March?

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

10 minutes ago, narduch said:

How do the prices compare to the Jamaica game last March?

Not quite as bad:

That match was Sunday afternoon and the match where we clinched qualification.

Demand was insane. This time it likely won't be quite as high.

- - - -

Only bringing prices down by about $25 is very confident of the CSA especially after a year where everyone has felt the squeeze of inflationary prices. I also feel like the ticketmaster fees are higher this time around.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[jordan]

 

[Shway]

Apparently it might be…

DF - Daijiro Chirino / PEC Zwolle
DF - Ruben Kluivert/ FC Utretch (younger to Justin Kluivert)
DF -Joshua Brenet /FC Twente
GK- Trevor Doorbusch / FC Dordrecht 

They are doing a great job at recruiting, obviously gelling will be key…but I can see them making some noise next WC qualifying. 

Will be a tough test, as their manager (former assistant to JH) will know Canada better than any other team.

[Obinna]

Two potentially talented, but probably raw youngsters who are short on experience.

Daijiro Chirino - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Kluivert

A 28-year-old veteran fullback with 2 Dutch caps back in 2016. Playing with Twente right now, but formerly played with PSV, where it looks like he grew into a starter over multiple seasons. In between seems to be a failed move to Hoffenheim, where he played just 14 games before movign back to Holland

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Brenet

Keeper is a 23 year old playing in lower leagues of Netherlands, likely a non-factor

https://www.transfermarkt.com/trevor-doornbusch/profil/spieler/390814

.........................

Overall, nothing to fear in my opinion. No massive additions that will pose us big problems. We just need to be professional and get the 3 points and get out. 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Obinna

[Kent]

For me the opponent doesn't matter. We potentially have the Gold Cup on the line and maybe even the Copa America (in terms of potentially being eliminated, not clinching) depending on how qualification for that goes. If only they told us now how that will work. On top of that the lesser trophy of Nations League. But yeah, I am curious how the turnout for this game is. I hope the team has gained enough popularity for it to outdraw the 2019 Nations League game against USA, despite it being a Tuesday, and all the other excuses we can come up with. But it is far from a certainty that we will draw that much though. Fingers crossed. I got 6 tickets for the game today.

[Corazon]

3 hours ago, Kent said:

For me the opponent doesn't matter. We potentially have the Gold Cup on the line and maybe even the Copa America (in terms of potentially being eliminated, not clinching) depending on how qualification for that goes. If only they told us now how that will work. On top of that the lesser trophy of Nations League. But yeah, I am curious how the turnout for this game is. I hope the team has gained enough popularity for it to outdraw the 2019 Nations League game against USA, despite it being a Tuesday, and all the other excuses we can come up with. But it is far from a certainty that we will draw that much though. Fingers crossed. I got 6 tickets for the game today.

I would bet that at least 75% of the people attending this upcoming match will have no idea about the bolded part from above.  And that number is probably far higher than 75% for the non-diehards that are sitting on the fence of whether to attend or not.

We’re hoping that 25k-30k Canadians will attend the match based on future implications that maybe only a few thousand attendees will even know about.  I hope we hit 20k but it’s not going to be in any relation to future Gold Cup and Copa America implications unfortunately.  

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

3 hours ago, Obinna said:

No massive additions that will pose us big problems.

I respectfully disagree. Either of Patrick Kluivert's kids ( Justin or Ruben ) could be big for them by I suspect they would switch to Suriname over Curaçao.

[Shway]

15 minutes ago, Corazon said:

I would bet that at least 75% of the people attending this upcoming match will have no idea about the bolded part from above.  And that number is probably far higher than 75% for the non-diehards that are sitting on the fence of whether to attend or not.

We’re hoping that 25k-30k Canadians will attend the match based on future implications that maybe only a few thousand attendees will even know about.  I hope we hit 20k but it’s not going to be in any relation to future Gold Cup and Copa America implications unfortunately.  

Spot on.

The reality is, we still have sooooo many people who love the game of footy, play the game competitively in their later ages and still have no idea of the Canadian game (national and local).

Its years of nothing that have poisoned this. Reason why I think it’s generations with mindsets of “it’s Canada” that need weeding out. While changing/nurturing the next ones.

I said it to my brother, pride will change when the population is majority 3rd or 4th gen Canadians. 

We also need mainstream sports in prime time hours to talk about soccer…but again with time those things change.

[theaub]

I mean anyone who thinks that Gold Cup or Copa America qualification is actually at risk here needs to come join the rest of us in 2023.

I don't blame the general public for not being sold by the 'meaningful' Nations League playoffs, which are (supposedly) just over three months away with no dates or locations confirmed.  Nor do I blame them for not caring about the downside which involves Canada losing to two clearly inferior countries.

If the roster comes out and Davies/David etc are on it then ticket sales will pick up closer to the game. If not...going to be ugly.

Edited February 23, 2023 by theaub

[Rougeisthecolour]

I hope the crowd for the match v Honduras is a decent size. I will be flying in for the game from the prairies and travelling with with my wife and kids aged 11 and 14 this time. Came just with the wife vs. Jamaica last March. I passed on the Vs sale and bought with the Canada Red+White and there were many seats available which should change when it opens to the general public. 

As someone who has to travel to see the CMNT play I would hope that local support is strong. I was surprised with the 8pm local start time. Does the CSA advertise the match locally? I know travelling fans are in the minority but the CSA seem to leave ticket sales too close to the match date. We have known about this game for what 10 months? Would have been nice to have saved some $$$$ from being able to make travel plans earlier. I told my kids to expect to eat a lot of fast food on the trip.

As far as costs go it's expensive to watch world class athletes. For comparison my CMNT tickets cost $479 with $79 in added fees vs. $549 for Raptors tickets a few nights earlier with CA $93.48 going to ticketmaster. The racket that is ticketmaster really needs to be stopped. I have never figured out how fees increase with ticket prices yet the service ticketmaster provides is the same despite ticket costs.

My kids are pretty excited for their 1st CMNT match. 

 

 

[Obinna]

2 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

I respectfully disagree. Either of Patrick Kluivert's kids ( Justin or Ruben ) could be big for them by I suspect they would switch to Suriname over Curaçao.

In the long term yes, Ruben could be a big boost for them. In the short term (as in next month) I am not worried. Now if it was Justin I would be. The kid has bounced around, but he's definitely a Tier 1 player (as Herdman would put it). In a tight game (which this likely will be) a player like that could nick a goal for them and put a dent in our aspirations. They are already eliminated so nothing to lose for them, no pressure. 

[Kent]

38 minutes ago, theaub said:

I mean anyone who thinks that Gold Cup or Copa America qualification is actually at risk here needs to come join the rest of us in 2023.

I don't blame the general public for not being sold by the 'meaningful' Nations League playoffs, which are (supposedly) just over three months away with no dates or locations confirmed.  Nor do I blame them for not caring about the downside which involves Canada losing to two clearly inferior countries.

If the roster comes out and Davies/David etc are on it then ticket sales will pick up closer to the game. If not...going to be ugly.

I think it's very unlikely we don't make it to the Gold Cup, but it isn't completely trivial either. Our last 4 away games have been a 1-0 loss to Costa Rica, a 1-0 loss to Panama, a 2-1 loss to Honduras, and a 2-2 draw against Bahrain. The last time we played away in the Caribbean it was a 0-0 draw against Jamaica. We had some great away performances in World Cup Qualifying, but we have also racked up a fair number of bad away results more recently than those great results. So the Curacao game could be a banana peel game.

As for Honduras, the last time they came to Toronto, we failed to win. You could even say we were maybe a bit fortunate to draw a penalty in that game and it could have been a loss. As we have learned repeatedly as Canada fans, underestimate Honduras at your own risk.

Throw in all the off the field drama with the CSA and it's certainly possible that the worst could happen and we lose both games and are forced into a playoff for a spot in the Gold Cup. We would still be favoured to win that, but with tons of negative momentum at that point, we would definitely be pretty nervous for that if it came to that.

But more than any of that pessimism, I just want to be in the stadium watching our team play, and the fact that the match in question could lock in some stuff down the road just adds to that desire.

[Atlantic]

Looks like it Chong could finally be joining them as well 

 

[Kent]

Canada Red+Gold presale is done. Canada Red+White presale is done. And we are a couple of hours into the Canada Red presale. Unfortunately it looks like when the public sale starts on Monday there will be plenty of seats for Honduran fans to pick from.

[narduch]

There's a TFC season seat holder pre sale going on right now too

[EJsens1]

15 minutes ago, Kent said:

Canada Red+Gold presale is done. Canada Red+White presale is done. And we are a couple of hours into the Canada Red presale. Unfortunately it looks like when the public sale starts on Monday there will be plenty of seats for Honduran fans to pick from.

There’s been barely any advertising for this game as usual. Incompetence at its finest. Announce Davies will be there. Do something. 

[theaub]

Maybe I underestimate the Davies advertising effect but I just...don't think there's a lot of people in Toronto who want to go to this, period.

This is the peak SUM formula of taking a low demand game and gouging the minimal amount of people who want to go to increase revenue.  12K at ~$70 per ticket average is >> 20K at ~$40.

Edited February 23, 2023 by theaub

[CanadaFan123]

5 minutes ago, theaub said:

Maybe I underestimate the Davies advertising effect but I just...don't think there's a lot of people in Toronto who want to go to this, period.

This is the peak SUM formula of taking a low demand game and gouging the minimal amount of people who want to go to increase revenue.  12K at ~$70 per ticket average is >> 20K at ~$40.

8k fewer people to buy merchandise/concessions so I doubt that’s their thinking. 

[theaub]

5 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

8k fewer people to buy merchandise/concessions so I doubt that’s their thinking. 

Lower staffing and security costs as well.  Does the CSA even get a cut of concessions or does that go to the stadium operator?

Based on their past matches they have enough merch available for a crowd of 3,000 people so I don't know if that's a concern for them.

e: also if we're discussing the general concept here remember the below + the fact that the CSA hired a USSF consultant to "modernize" things (ie CanadaRED, R/W, R/G being a pure copy of the USSF Insider membership etc)

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by theaub

[Obinna]

2 minutes ago, theaub said:

Maybe I underestimate the Davies advertising effect but I just...don't think there's a lot of people in Toronto who want to go to this, period.

This is the peak SUM formula of taking a low demand game and gouging the minimal amount of people who want to go to increase revenue.  12K at ~$70 per ticket average is >> 20K at ~$40.

Yeah, this is what I think too.

I also don't think it's necessarily a criticism of Toronto. Consumer price inflation is making it tough for middle class people throughout Canada. In Toronto though, that pain is likely compounded by the negative wealth effect, which is being brought on by declining home prices.

Along with those forces, consider the negativity about Canada Soccer in the media and (hate to say it) the disappointing performance at the World Cup. I've had several people now make comments about how our WC performance was an embarrassment, or poke fun at the fact that "own goal" was our leading goal scorer at the tournament. Frankly, the sentiment around Canadian soccer is negative right now, which likley would have made it hard no matter where we hosted.

I do wonder if we held the game in Montreal would some of this be mitigated, since it's been a loooooong time for them, but that's obviously something we can only ponder.

Anyway, I hope the ticket sales (for Canadian fans) pick up. Good on anyone who is going to this. The guys need our support.