IAmPappy

Other countries, particularly in Europe, get it done because of community, open market, and soccer obsession. In Europe, a community will form a sporting / athletic club, grow the business, and build their facilities, including stadiums. If they fail, another local community will succeed, because it’s an open market and there are no franchise territorial restrictions. You are not prevented from starting a new club just because there are already two others in your town. And because your community is (mostly) obsessed with soccer, you’re not competing with hockey, baseball, basketball, etc, for the hearts and Euros of your constituents. Imagine Toronto without any territorial restrictions and with a population solely obsessed with hockey? How many NHL teams would be based in Toronto? London has 6 top flight soccer clubs. Madrid and Barcelona have 3 each. All these have their own stadiums, and all (most!) financed, built, and owned by the clubs. No (or very limited) public funding. Meantime, in the US, artificial territorial restrictions, which prevents open market competitive growth, and the very diverse interest in sports, prevents smaller communities from getting critical mass on obtaining any franchise in any sport, and rather than being viewed as a ‘loser’ community, civic leaders willingly donate public funds to multi-millionaires, who just finished screwing over another community by moving they franchise to your town Canada, stick to your principles! No public money for sporting cathedrals. And this coming from an obsessive soccer fan. It’s not about ‘getting it’ when it comes to sports. It’s about elected officials being responsible and accountable with money that’s not really theirs. If a sports owner really values your community, they’ll make the necessary investment, and you’ll thank them with your season’s tickets.

A LOT! It all started out as hushed whispers, then they evolved into rumours, and eventually full-blown speculation about news clubs in Laval, Quebec City, Saskatoon, and lower BC. At one point it was nearly confirmed that Don Cherry would be a coach, or GM, or owner, or something. But the uncertain and completely speculative franchise fee of $9M, along with a completely clueless idea on how CSB actually runs its business, put those speculations to rest. I’m hearing Ottawa might resurrect, unless you have a better rumour.

So, I’ve been thinking hard about what CSA will actually do for 2020. Not necessarily what I like, and not what others like, but what they will actually do to satisfy whatever business constraints they have. Here’s my conclusion: R1: 1 from PLSQ, 1 from L1O, 2-legs in May, 1 winner. R2: 1 from R1, 7 from CPL, 2-legs in June, 4 winners. East/West regional draws only. East = HFX, Forge, Y9, R1. West = Wpg, Cal, Edm, Pac. R3: 4 from R2, plus VAN (West) & TOR (East), 2-legs in July, 3 winners. VAN and TOR draw vs regional opponents this round. R4: 3 from R3, plus MON, 2-legs in Aug, 2 winners. MON avoids the TOR/VAN bracket this round. R5: 2 from R4, 2-legs in Sept, 1 winner. That’s what I believe CSA will actually do. I’ll try to get that into a picture in the next few days.

So, am I nuts for thinking that CSA will absolutely positively want to preserve the 10-date/5-round format from 2019? If I’m CSA, on the assumption that the tournament will grow in the coming years, I would be squeezing, twisting, and contorting the 2020 competition into that mold (10-dates/5-rounds). (Although I really like Ted’s proposal).

Is it too early to be talking about this? I saw some folks discussing format proposals on other threads, so let’s get a dedicated thread started. For what it’s worth, here’s my proposal: Primary working assumption: For consistency, continuity, and financial reasons, CSA will want to continue using 10 dates (2 per month) across five months (May to Sept). That means fitting / stretching available teams into five rounds. Round 1 in May (2-legs): The top three clubs from L1O (work with me here) and top 3 from PLSQ. Six clubs total, three ties, three winners advance. Round 2 in June (2-legs): Three winners from R1, plus all seven CPL clubs. Ten clubs total, 5 ties, 5 winners advance. Round 3 in July (2-legs): Five winners from R2, plus all three MLS clubs. Eight clubs total, 4 ties, 4 winners advance. Round 4 in Aug (2-leg semi-final). Round 5 in Sept (2-leg final). Be gentle with your criticism! Thanks!

Ugg ... sounds like any future CPL owner in Ottawa might just have to work with OSEG ... thanks for the great local insight!

So, I’m just an outsider looking at Google Maps, but any possibility of a popup, at any of the following locations: - Lynda Lane Park or the pitch next to Hillcrest High School. - The land south of 417 across from St Laurent stop. - Soccer Field UQO in Hull, north of Lemieux Island. Just to be clear, I’m not from Ottawa, just looking at Google Maps and asking the naive questions.

I have been enjoying the Ottawa Fury conversation for the last 12-18 months. If you understand how FIFA works, you saw this coming 12 months ago. FIFA has enormous financial interest in reducing cross-border competitions, such as, for example, blocking UEFA’s attempts to establish a Euro Super League. Why does all that matter in tiny irrelevant Ottawa? (No disrespect meant, I love Ottawa, and I say that only from a world football perspective). One word: Precedence. Every exception that FIFA allows erodes it’s own grip on cross-border and international competitions, and hence, revenue. This is much much much bigger than Ottawa. Occasionally, we get the “who cares about FIFA” crowd posting things like, “Ottawa should play wherever they want”, and “this is a democracy”, and “we’ll sue them”. Those are very funny. Some of the other members try to explain how world football is govern, but the bottom line, it’s not like the NHL or CFL or MLB. If you want to run a football club, FIFA dictates, you follow, and you better understand the rules. Research that at your own leisure. Look, I’m a CPL STH, and I hate that Fury are dead. I feel for the fans. But, chin up people! This is a rebirth! Ottawa is too big, too important, and too beautiful to be out of the CPL for long. I say it will be 2022, and will treat 2021 as gravy!

IMHO, most rational post on this thread in the last 12 hours. Thx.

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/canadian-premier-league-expansion-david-clanachan-commissioner Quote: "The commissioner added that the league expects to make an expansion announcement before the end of November." Are there any insiders out there that can validate this? I know that you're out there lurking 😉 . And when I say 'validate', I mean confirmation that he will announce at least one new club for 2020 or 2021, and not confirmation that there is nothing to confirm.

Someone tell me if this has already been discussed ... FIFA regulations for sanctioning a club to play in its own country are (presumably) based on the European model of open pyramid. That is, a club could go back to its own country’s league with minimal financial overhead. FIFA and CONCACAF may be treading lightly with Fury because Fury MAY have a ligitimate case for undo financial harm. That is, CanPL wants and entry fee (I’ve read $8M?), so Fury could flip the argument and say “Great, we’ll play, but FIFA pays the expansion fee, or the blood of our demise is (legally) on your hands.” Conversely, CanPL would not want to wave the fee (why should they?), so they would rather stay clear of this mess and wait until either OSEG finds the cash, or some other group in Ottawa does. I’m thinking there’s a flaw in that argument, but I can’t see it yet ...

Thanks. So, this seems like a no brainer to me: The Roughriders could easily replica the Winnipeg and Hamilton models and put a team in Regina. What am I missing?

I haven’t been following too closely, but I’m curious where things stand on new clubs? Which three-ish markets are front runners for the near-term, say 2020-2021? I’ve heard Laval, SK, and QC. What about in the mid-term, say 2021-2023? I’ve heard Moncton, Ottawa, GTA, and GVA. Is that about right?

So, coming back to that wonky format for the 2019 championship. Lots of people (including me) were perplexed, and we have all read the official explanation, but (as another poster mentioned) it felt icky. What if the organizers started with a longer term vision, where the tournament would always be five rounds, with one round each month from May to September, potentially accommodating up to 32 teams in a straight knockout? This way, they could build a tradition of one round per month, and always block dates accordingly. If that was the plan, they would need to take the available 2019 clubs and reverse engineer then into a five-round tournament to use up the five monthly dates. To me, that seems like the cleanest (and most forward looking) explanation. Am I crazy?

I was struggling with how to react to that post, and you Sir, nailed it. Let’s keep it civil, and for those that can’t handle differing opinions, block him.