Complete Homer

I agree, but it is fair to say that it puts the league at a different sort of risk. Many people are worried about what happens when the Montreal Alouettes owner passes away, which is a legitimate concern when one person's passion seems to be what is keeping a team in business. Not that I am expecting Mr. Young to drop off any time soon, but there is inherent risk to multiple teams in the league being tied to the success of one individual. Glad the bit about Young and KW is out though. Hard to sit on that one when people were skeptical of where the money for 2020 was coming from. I'm excited to hear what sort of solution they are planning for the stadium question

I'm being pedantic, but Red Hat's IPO was in 1999, which is why he was remarkably wealthy before, but he didn't just make 34 billion dollars. He probably still owned a decent chunk of the company but likely just a fraction of that total

The salary figures were all estimates based on Rollins' early reporting (not necessarily saying he was wrong, but figures from 2015/2016 were probably just ballparks), or calculated from Clanachan's 10 year expenditure figure. I doubt we will get a real answer, but the otr chatter seems to reflect that 35k number, which to be honest isn't even that far off of the 40-60k estimate before Whether anything changed is hard to know, but regardless I think we can expect a gradual upward trend if things continue as is. If Calgary sells out (obviously a big if but it sounds like sales are strong so far), my rough figures of the Calgary ticket sale revenue is looking to be somewhere in the 5.5M range*, before we get into any kind of sponsorships, merch, concessions, TV money, etc. Prudently they are probably starting low but I wouldn't think a 1+ million cap is far off if they can come out of the gate strong *Assuming that the average ticket price in each of the "troops", "battalion", and "officers" sections are the average of the top and bottom ticket prices in their bracket.

Concacaf claims they told Canada Soccer months ago that they were not going to give the Fury another year of exceptional standing. Which adds a whole other bizarre twist to this, especially when you remember that Pugh is on the CSA board. Was there a miscommunication between CONCACAF and the CSA? Did the CSA fail to pass along the warning to the Fury, despite Pugh's involvement? If so, was it incompetence or malice? Or did Goudie think CONCACAF was bluffing and is now trying to sell a different story to the media? Hard to say. Sandor is saying he is getting opposite and contradictory stories from multiple sides, which to me either indicates gross incompetence at communication among all parties, or someone is getting creative with the truth

The issue with playing with an unsanctioned team is that the league as a whole loses its sanctioning. Which means that all players within it are banned from participating in international tournaments from that point forward. That is FIFA's (and its regional representstives) "stick" to ensure compliance USL wouldn't sacrifice the future of all those academy kids on MLS affiliates and current internationals for Caribbean teams and the like for Ottawa. They would also lose the D2 sanctioning from USSF that they fought so hard for If I recall correctly, it can also be difficult for players to get signed in a legitimate league after playing in unsanctioned leagues, since it wrecks havoc on their transfer certificates

Fair point

You may be right, but I'm not convinced. I recall Mr. Fath saying he would prefer to fold than go to USL after everything that happened. Especially considering none of these businesses are particularly lucrative

While one part of me finds this hilarious, the other part of me is worried the Fury might fold over this. People rich enough to own sports teams don't like to be dictated to, the only way Goudie was going to switch was on his own terms Whatever you think about the Fury for skipping out on CPL, they would be a loss to Canadian soccer

Whoa. While one part of me finds this hilarious, the other part of me is worried the Fury might fold over this. People rich enough to own sports teams don't like to be dictated to, the only way Goudie was going to switch was on his own terms Whatever you think about the Fury for skipping out on CPL, they would be a loss to Canadian soccer

I was actually referring to Ledgerwood, who has 69 games across 4 seasons at that level of 2. Bundesliga and a longstanding career as a professional in general, as the most extreme example of how ridiculous it was to group those players as PDLers without the context of why they were there To be honest, I forgot Edwini-Bonsu ever had a sniff at 2. Bundesliga...and he isn't even on the team we were talking about I do agree that there is plenty of pie-in-the-sky thinking on this board too, but I disagree that naive optimism is the equal and opposite of vapid negativity Granted, I will admit that his previous behavior colors our interpretation of his actions. Calling anyone who wants a Canadian league a Neo-Nazi tends to leave a bitter taste in their mouths

The issue is the obvious spin. Almost all the signings have USL or NASL (or 2. Bundesliga!) experience The foothills last season were not just a PDL team, it was a team that intentionally sought out pros who were willing to join them in the build up to launching the Cavalry, and walked all over the PDL in the interim. BBTB knows this, he isn't ignorant on the circumstances. Why he chooses to intentionally misrepresent and undermine is beyond me, but it is very transparent

That's one way to spin 3 USL level signings and one up and comer...

I sort of saw this as the next logical step after a few years. But then again, managers' jobs are to win next season, so I can't really expect any kind of clean progression like that Though it's arguable that, when you're throwing together a group of players with no prior chemistry or experience together, veterans who have been in a number of different pro setups might still be the key to short term success

Mostly older veteran players looking for a last contract before moving into coaching. I had suspected that the Canadian content was going to skew young (simply because of the realities of our player pool, if you're not moving past USLish level you're usually retiring young because the low cashflow is unsustainable) and bringing in some guys with solid resumes but well past their prime seemed to be a reasonable way to establish a professional culture among the younger domestic player while being a bit more marketable We still may see some of these sort of signing. If Rollins is on point a guy like O'Dea fits that bill nicely (You can legitimately market "Former Celtic player and TFC Captain, and use him to shape the dressing room). With an N of 2 I shouldn't be extrapolating too much