2024 Voyageurs Cup

[Obinna]

4 minutes ago, Kent said:

I'm really looking forward to all of the quarter finals. Not sure how much I will actually be able to reasonably watch but excited for all of them. Rematches of Cavalry vs Whitecaps and Forge vs Montreal speak for themselves. The TFC vs CS Saint Laurent matchup I'm mostly just interested in because I'm a TFC fan. If Saint Laurent can keep it close then it would be great for a neutral, but if they can't keep it close, it could be pretty missable TV. And even the Ottawa vs Pacific game. With Ottawa absolutely trouncing Valour, and going into the season they were looking really good on paper. I'm curious to see how they do in their next few games to see if they are for real or not.

Yeah some cool story lines. In addition to what you've said, you got the ex-Pacific boys facing their old club with Ottawa. That should be fun. 

[Kingston]

18 minutes ago, Kent said:

The TFC vs CS Saint Laurent matchup I'm mostly just interested in because I'm a TFC fan. 

I'm a TFC fan, too, but I'm having a hard time thinking it will be interesting viewing.  TFC torched Simcoe with a lineup that had nine players rotated from their previous league match and included call ups from TFC II.  I have enjoyed previous Canadian Championship games where we get to see bench guys and call ups that don't normally get minutes.  But in a two leg event there isn't much scope for a stunning upset.

I do look forward to seeing the Saint Laurent fans when they get to host an MLS team, though.

And if the odd, less-interesting series is the cost of all the interesting cross-league match ups, then I'm prepared to pay it.

Now, if Forge could somehow upset Montreal, that would be fun.

[Kingston]

This article from TFC says the total attendance in the first round of the Canadian Championship was 25 088.

https://www.torontofc.ca/news/quarter-finals-set-for-the-2024-telus-canadian-championship

Doing the math from the attendances that have been reported, this implies 4588 for the Halifax game.

[Big_M]

34 minutes ago, Cblake said:

Anyone see anything about tickets for the CS St. Laurent home leg?

$20 general admission in the whole stadium no reserved seats and you can make a donation to help the club with costs

https://www.zeffy.com/fr-CA/ticketing/a2012037-2676-440f-a8aa-7edfa225fb94

[masster]

It is absolutely crazy that Montreal has a match in Nashville on Saturday and then another in Hamilton at 11am Tuesday morning. Simply put, this should not be allowed in a serious tournament!

[Kingston]

48 minutes ago, masster said:

It is absolutely crazy that Montreal has a match in Nashville on Saturday and then another in Hamilton at 11am Tuesday morning. Simply put, this should not be allowed in a serious tournament!

All the teams are in the middle of their seasons and are going to have to play two games some weeks. What do you want them to do?

[masster]

If you have a league game on Saturday, ideally you would play midweek on Wednesday, not 38 hours earlier at 11am on Tuesday morning.

[narduch]

10 minutes ago, Kingston said:

All the teams are in the middle of their seasons and are going to have to play two games some weeks. What do you want them to do?

The semi finals aren't until July.

They should have just scheduled this match on a different day

[Kent]

I really think this is all due to the schedule being delayed in the first place. If Forge and the CPL had known which weeks these games would be played when they came up with their schedule, they wouldn't have initially planned to have a league game on Tuesday and wouldn't have sold thousands of tickets to schools beforehand. They can't cancel or even move that game without causing a big stink, so they had to repurpose that time slot to play this game against Montreal.

Hopefully now that there is a general secretary at the CSA and not all the uncertainty there was at the start of the year, the source of the problem won't happen again.

2 hours ago, masster said:

It is absolutely crazy that Montreal has a match in Nashville on Saturday and then another in Hamilton at 11am Tuesday morning. Simply put, this should not be allowed in a serious tournament!

It's not ideal, but not without precedent. The English Premier League is constantly having short turnaround during the Christmas season. For example, in 2021 some teams played on Sunday December 26th, then again on Tuesday December 28th. That's a shorter break than Montreal is about to get.

[Stanley]

Organizing morning weekday school games is asinine in the first place.

[Kingston]

Looking ahead to the start of the second round tomorrow, in addition to some interesting match ups, I hope we can see a jump in attendance.

Forge will have a solid number, even if it is arrived at in unconventional fashion.  I expect Calvary will also get a solid crowd against the Whitecaps.  Hopefully Ottawa can step up for what should actually be a well fought series even if it is against a fellow CPL team.  And I imagine the fans in Montreal will be happy to support their local Cinderella team.

[Mihairokov]

Thanks to the school kids Forge will be the first non-MLS side to crack a 10K crowd in this competition. These types of crowds certainly skew the lustre around relying on these attendance numbers, though, given how easily they can be crafted. 😉

I'm sure there'll be a good crowd at Claude-Robillard, and if the crowd isn't good it'll at least be fun.

[phil03]

On CS Laurent: While CF Montréal itself obviously cannot go and tell people to support another club a lot of the media adjacent to them and people on social media related to it (reddit, facebook, etc...) have banged the drum for CS Saint Laurent. Combine that with the fact CS Saint Laurent's upset has actually found its way into mainstream french-Canadian media (and with more than just articles about the game too, they have come up with articles about the club behind the scene and some of the players) I'd expect that at least a sizable chunk of the Impact fanbase is going to essentially adopt them for one game.

I imagine it will be quite the experience for everyone involved in CS Saint Laurent too... Most of them have probably already given up on exercising their craft at a professional level but for one night they'll get to feel most of what its like to play for a MLS club!

[Kent]

 

[jonovision]

16 hours ago, Mihairokov said:

Thanks to the school kids Forge will be the first non-MLS side to crack a 10K crowd in this competition. These types of crowds certainly skew the lustre around relying on these attendance numbers, though, given how easily they can be crafted. 😉

I'm sure there'll be a good crowd at Claude-Robillard, and if the crowd isn't good it'll at least be fun.

I mean, the kids are still paying customers. The whole situation is less than ideal but it will be a profitable day for Forge.

[nolando]

31 minutes ago, jonovision said:

I mean, the kids are still paying customers. The whole situation is less than ideal but it will be a profitable day for Forge.

I'm hoping for a good result. A really good chance to make a strong first impression with a lot of potential future paying customers. 

[jonovision]

9 minutes ago, nolando said:

I'm hoping for a good result. A really good chance to make a strong first impression with a lot of potential future paying customers. 

I don't think Forge will win over two legs, but the two legged format makes a single good result more likely. Montreal will know they have the home leg to make up any deficit and will rotate their squad heavily (until I'm proven wrong in 6 minutes).

[Kingston]

Just now, jonovision said:

I don't think Forge will win over two legs, but the two legged format makes a single good result more likely. Montreal will know they have the home leg to make up any deficit and will rotate their squad heavily (until I'm proven wrong in 6 minutes).

Which is another reason these two legged matchups are often more fun.  

In the first year of the CPL, the six MLS-CPL matches had three MLS wins, two draws, and one CPL win.

In all the subsequent years combined, when things were single knock out and squads were less rotated, the record was 13-1 for MLS.

[nolando]

[Watchmen]

2 hours ago, Kingston said:

Which is another reason these two legged matchups are often more fun.  

In the first year of the CPL, the six MLS-CPL matches had three MLS wins, two draws, and one CPL win.

In all the subsequent years combined, when things were single knock out and squads were less rotated, the record was 13-1 for MLS.

I think those CPL over MLS results are more the result of MDS coaching than the format, since he was responsible for 2 losses and a draw for the Whitecaps.

[masster]

Not sure if many have seen this yet...but the it looks like the CSA is producing a bit of a documentary on this years tournament. It definitely deserves more views!!

 

[Kent]

Just checked the OneSoccer schedule. Looks like CS Saint Laurent vs TFC gets the main channel tonight, so Atletico vs Pacific I assume will be on the secondary feed (so not Fubo and not some devices like Roku, unless yours has a homepage that actually refreshes).

[Kingston]

Roughly half way through the tournament, the total attendance is just 52 554.  There are nine games remaining.

The four remaining quarter final games are at the three MLS teams and Pacific.  After that it will depend on which teams make it through to the four semi-final games and the final but I think it would be reasonable to expect an average of 10 000 per game from here on out.  

We have a shot at breaking the record for annual attendance of 156 268 set back in 2019.

 

[Watchmen]

57 minutes ago, Kingston said:

Roughly half way through the tournament, the total attendance is just 52 554.  There are nine games remaining.

The four remaining quarter final games are at the three MLS teams and Pacific.  After that it will depend on which teams make it through to the four semi-final games and the final but I think it would be reasonable to expect an average of 10 000 per game from here on out.  

We have a shot at breaking the record for annual attendance of 156 268 set back in 2019.

 

The Whitecaps have a season ticket base this year of 16k, and the Cavalry game is included in the package. No idea how many additional tickets they'll sell/distribute, but that will be recorded as a high attendance at least.

[Kingston]

3 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

The Whitecaps have a season ticket base this year of 16k, and the Cavalry game is included in the package. No idea how many additional tickets they'll sell/distribute, but that will be recorded as a high attendance at least.

I'm counting on over 10 000 for all the MLS home games (possibly excepting TFC's return match against Saint Laurent).  We could easily see a couple over 20 000 if Toronto and Montreal meet up in the semis.

Either Pacific or Forge will get a solid crowd for any remaining games.  Certainly enough that it wouldn't take an offsetting crowd much above 10 000 to meet the 10 000 average .  Forge might even hit 10 000 on their own.  Calgary would be more middling and Ottawa (surprisingly) might drag things down quite a bit.  (I'm going to assume Saint Laurent won't overcome their deficit to get another shot at a big home crowd.)