League1 BC 2023

[Kingston]

On 7/28/2023 at 4:17 PM, Watchmen said:

I have found the "Welcome to the Dark Side" Star Wars theme by the club and supporters group to be a bit odd, as it implies that the Whitecaps and the good guys/plucky underdog/rebels. 

Sometimes it's better to let team identities develop organically instead of trying to Force them.

[Watchmen]

Whitecaps defeat Highlanders on penalties.

So, Highlanders win the regular season and next years Voyageurs Cup berth, Whitecaps win the L1 Cup, and Rovers become the first L1 team to advance in the Voyageurs Cup. Not a bad season for L1.

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 8/5/2023 at 11:38 PM, Watchmen said:

Whitecaps defeat Highlanders on penalties.

So, Highlanders win the regular season and next years Voyageurs Cup berth, Whitecaps win the L1 Cup, and Rovers become the first L1 team to advance in the Voyageurs Cup. Not a bad season for L1.

Did you go? I thought 20 bucks was steep, then a friend came in from out of town and I saw him instead.

Overall, considering this is the 2nd season, L1BC seems to be going very well. I wonder if any more teams will join for next season. It would be great to have L1 teams from the existing club base, including an alliance of a few, like in Coquitlam-Port Moody, or East Van-Burnaby.

[Watchmen]

9 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Did you go? I thought 20 bucks was steep, then a friend came in from out of town and I saw him instead.

Overall, considering this is the 2nd season, L1BC seems to be going very well. I wonder if any more teams will join for next season. It would be great to have L1 teams from the existing club base, including an alliance of a few, like in Coquitlam-Port Moody, or East Van-Burnaby.

At the last minute I was unable to attend, but did watch most of it live on YouTube. Not a bad game.

After year 1, I know they got more interest from potential teams and Harbour joined the league. After Rovers win over Valour, I heard interest in potential teams picked up again. So, we'll see what comes of it this off season.

The one concern is something you and I (and numerous others) identified before: apparently Rovers in some of their key games late in the season were not able to field their best side, as university coaches and other local sides didn't want them playing. So there's apparently members of the local soccer "community" more concerned with protecting their own little fiefdoms than with actual player development.

[Unnamed Trialist]

12 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

At the last minute I was unable to attend, but did watch most of it live on YouTube. Not a bad game.

After year 1, I know they got more interest from potential teams and Harbour joined the league. After Rovers win over Valour, I heard interest in potential teams picked up again. So, we'll see what comes of it this off season.

The one concern is something you and I (and numerous others) identified before: apparently Rovers in some of their key games late in the season were not able to field their best side, as university coaches and other local sides didn't want them playing. So there's apparently members of the local soccer "community" more concerned with protecting their own little fiefdoms than with actual player development.

I am not as concerned about the rival clubs and leagues, since the season is so short it is hard to ask for a lot from players.  I am more interested in seeing more clubs in L1BC and a lesser % of the university-based teams. To get to the point where the L1 side is the most important one for the player. Like we seem to be seeing in Ontario for example.

 

[Watchmen]

39 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I am not as concerned about the rival clubs and leagues, since the season is so short it is hard to ask for a lot from players.  I am more interested in seeing more clubs in L1BC and a lesser % of the university-based teams. To get to the point where the L1 side is the most important one for the player. Like we seem to be seeing in Ontario for example.

 

I agree, but my point was that the rival clubs are exerting influence on the league in a manner that I consider to be detrimental to it. It can't become the most important league if rival leagues/clubs/managers are deliberately holding it back because they fear the loss of their own status.

[SthMelbRed]

9 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Did you go? I thought 20 bucks was steep, then a friend came in from out of town and I saw him instead.

Overall, considering this is the 2nd season, L1BC seems to be going very well. I wonder if any more teams will join for next season. It would be great to have L1 teams from the existing club base, including an alliance of a few, like in Coquitlam-Port Moody, or East Van-Burnaby.

What's the ground requirements for the league? If they require a closed facility where you can control ticketing and attendance, then the Tri-cities would be fine with Town Centre, but there isn't anything in North Burnaby/East Van, unless they do something at Empire or Burnaby Lake to enclose one of the pitches.

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, SthMelbRed said:

What's the ground requirements for the league? If they require a closed facility where you can control ticketing and attendance, then the Tri-cities would be fine with Town Centre, but there isn't anything in North Burnaby/East Van, unless they do something at Empire or Burnaby Lake to enclose one of the pitches.

They enclose pitches like at Altitude, then put banners up on the meshing or fencing. That would be a model for most other cases.

For other L1 clubs the pitches are surrounded by tracks, so if you want to sit outside and watch, you are a long ways away (Swangard, Centennial in Victoria). Harbourside in Nanaimo from what I can gather is within a larger facility, you may not have to block anything off.

Percy Perry could work in Coquitlam, where Canada once played an international match U/U-20, vs Scotland, I was told has been upgraded. It has a track, but a decent stand. You could play at SFU, same deal. We are missing stadiums with no track with the fans in close. 

IMO we should be building a stadium around one of the many fields in Vancouver and setting it up for full enclosure,  in anticipation of the 2026 WC, where we will need such facilities. But I assume they'll just use the Whitecaps facility at UBC.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

13 hours ago, Watchmen said:

...I agree, but my point was that the rival clubs are exerting influence on the league in a manner that I consider to be detrimental to it. It can't become the most important league if rival leagues/clubs/managers are deliberately holding it back because they fear the loss of their own status...

Then how do you get those other leagues and clubs on board should be the question. Something seems off about the whole process when clubs like Columbus Clan that have been around since the beginning of time in Canadian soccer terms are not involved and they have to come up with teams with names like Mountain FC and Salmon Run FC or whatever. Would a club with an obvious affiliation to one of the larger post-WWII immigrant communities in lower mainland BC be welcomed into L1BC or are clubs like that being actively sidelined?

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[narduch]

I know a lot of teams rely on University players.

But I think it would be great of they could extend the season.

I wishb we could have a League 1 Championship similar to the Women's 

[SpursFlu]

On 8/10/2023 at 2:06 AM, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Then how do you get those other leagues and clubs on board should be the question. Something seems off about the whole process when clubs like Columbus Clan that have been around since the beginning of time in Canadian soccer terms are not involved and they have to come up with teams with names like Mountain FC and Salmon Run FC or whatever. Would a club with an obvious affiliation to one of the larger post-WWII immigrant communities in lower mainland BC be welcomed into L1BC or are clubs like that being actively sidelined?

 

Historical club but unfortunately not that good nowadays. I think they just moved over to the FVSL

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^usually better not to engage, but what's being left out here is that the FVSL relatively recently started to allow Vancouver teams (including the Whitecaps U-19 team) to enter to try to create an elite winter league for the lower mainland of BC:

https://www.fraservalleysoccer.com/premier/index.php

Given L1BC has such a short season and much greater travel demands for the participants, there are obvious reasons why it would not be clear cut at this point that it is going to emerge as the most important league for the players in that part of the country regardless of what happens elsewhere. Several of the FVSL clubs also have PCSL teams in the summer.

Edited August 12, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Watchmen]

 

[NVsoccer]

https://northerntribune.ca/league1-bc-nautsamawt-fc-depart/

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Will be interesting to see if there is any interest in the call for new entrants given how long it took the BC provincial association to get this league to launch and the alternatives that are readily available. Whether the Nanaimo club will be able to be competitive at this level and sustain their participation is an obvious question mark, so think they will need to have a successful recruiting drive to keep this league stable. Vancouver FC entering a U-23 team and using it as their taxi squad is an obvious solution to keeping things at eight for next season.

[Kingston]

Disappointing to see them go.  I believe new teams will continue to join, however, and, over a period of time, L1BC will become the clear top league for the province.

[Unnamed Trialist]

It seems this is more about UBC changing their policy, which they really do not make explicit.

The model in BC, of using L1 for university teams in their off-seasons, should not be the dominant model going forward. We should be seeing clubs, with roots in a community, making the step up. I am not saying the universities are not welcome, and they have filled in the league spots these couple years, but they are not teams related to full-fledged clubs, with kids coming up through the academy, parents engaged, a base and even some amenities at it, and so on. 

The model does give playing opportunities to a certain age set, I don't deny that. Now, however, UBC players might want to look for a spot on a L1 team in their offseasons. We may see more demand from players than clubs available to give them a roster spot. 

My real question is why the economics work for mid-sized clubs in Ontario, and don't for the mid-sized or even many of the bigger clubs in BC.

[Kingston]

36 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

My real question is why the economics work for mid-sized clubs in Ontario, and don't for the mid-sized or even many of the bigger clubs in BC.

I wonder if it isn't economics but just the fact that so much of BC soccer is concentrated in greater Vancouver? 

Perhaps the Vancouver area teams figure it isn't worth doing if it will basically just be a name switch with all the same teams in a new name league. 

And maybe on the other side, there aren't many teams outside Vancouver at that level.  The only two areas not already represented are Kelowna (235k metro pop) and Abbotsford (209 k).  Then you're down into really small places.  Put those two cities in Ontario and they'd be 9th and 11th by metro pop.  Plus Ontario has a whole bunch more in the >100k range.  You need a certain city size to have enough kids to make a high level club.  And even in Ontario, it took many years to get a sizable number of clubs outside Toronto.

[Unnamed Trialist]

15 minutes ago, Kingston said:

I wonder if it isn't economics but just the fact that so much of BC soccer is concentrated in greater Vancouver? 

Perhaps the Vancouver area teams figure it isn't worth doing if it will basically just be a name switch with all the same teams in a new name league. 

And maybe on the other side, there aren't many teams outside Vancouver at that level.  The only two areas not already represented are Kelowna (235k metro pop) and Abbotsford (209 k).  Then you're down into really small places.  Put those two cities in Ontario and they'd be 9th and 11th by metro pop.  Plus Ontario has a whole bunch more in the >100k range.  You need a certain city size to have enough kids to make a high level club.  And even in Ontario, it took many years to get a sizable number of clubs outside Toronto.

First, there really is no club from the municipality of Vancouver, there is the Whitecaps and then UBC. Not classic clubs.

Then you could probably find at least 6-8 clubs with the structure, equivalent to what you see in Southern Ontario, in any of Burnaby, the Coquitlams, Richmond, Surrey, further out into the Valley.

In some ways, in fact, the University affiliated clubs are taking up their possible catchment areas, potentially making it more difficult for them to join the project. 

The idea of clubs uniting to do a L1 makes sense, as we have seen in other places, and we have heard some rumours in this regard. Or else, instead of a direct union, a new project with a fresh branding and its own structure is created that is not called a union but really is, which could be argued is what we see with Harbourside in Nanaimo and Altitude in North Vancouver.

[Watchmen]

On 11/7/2023 at 1:39 AM, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Vancouver FC entering a U-23 team and using it as their taxi squad is an obvious solution to keeping things at eight for next season.

They're already affiliated with Unity FC, and I don't see them entering a u-23 team.  But logically, Pacific could do the same thing.

[narduch]

I wonder if they will extend the season now

 

 

[Watchmen]

3 minutes ago, narduch said:

I wonder if they will extend the season now

 

 

Hopefully. And a move away from relying on university teams to fill out rosters.

Edited December 1, 2023 by Watchmen

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 12/1/2023 at 6:28 PM, Watchmen said:

Hopefully. And a move away from relying on university teams to fill out rosters.

The risk is if the CSB centralised model has any sensitivity to what is happening on the ground in BC. Meaning how is CSB supposed to work with grassroots clubs when making a bid for a L1 team when they don't really know the territory?

[Kingston]

25 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

The risk is if the CSB centralised model has any sensitivity to what is happening on the ground in BC. Meaning how is CSB supposed to work with grassroots clubs when making a bid for a L1 team when they don't really know the territory?

I guess it will be on the clubs to reach out to the CSB.  I'm sure once the initial contact has been made, the CSB will do what it can to help them through the process.

[Watchmen]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

The risk is if the CSB centralised model has any sensitivity to what is happening on the ground in BC. Meaning how is CSB supposed to work with grassroots clubs when making a bid for a L1 team when they don't really know the territory?

Have heard some discussion that L1 Canada is open to working with existing clubs and academies in BC. Will be interesting to see if that comes about. Would be better for everyone if it did.