BringBackTheBlizzard

There was talk of James Marcelin having visa issues at one point. Did that get sorted out?

https://canpl.ca/article/paulus-teases-massive-defensive-signing-for-fc-edmonton

http://www.totalsoccerproject.com/2019/04/oliver-minatel-cavalry-fc-canadian-premier-league/ ... How did you end up signing for Cavalry FC? “I started talking to Tommy (Wheeldon Jr., Cavalry FC head coach) and Martin (Nash, Cavalry FC assistant coach) in late last year,” said Minatel. “I was finishing up my season in Australia, at the time. So, we spoke a lot. The project was very interesting. I was excited. And I really wanted to come over. By the end of the year we had everything sorted. And I’m happy to be here working.” ... Martin Nash was the Fury's assistant coach when Oliver Minatel was there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Minatel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Nash_(soccer)

OK let's do the apertura before teams get to reload a bit in the summer transfer window (we already know FCE are bringing in a Canadian defender at that point, who may or may not be Adam Straith): Forge W6 D2 L2 = 20 Pts FCE W2 D3 L5 = 9 Pts Championship game will be at THF and the opponents will be York 9 as the strength of the GTA's soccer scene comes to the fore in the context of a relatively low budget league in the absence of teams in the immediate Montreal and Vancouver areas.

On the bright side St John's seems to be doing OK in the NBLC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_NBL_Canada_season#Attendance and I think that's the same group that have been reported to be interested in CanPL in ownership terms.

https://in-the-back-of-the.net/2019/04/14/an-unlikely-inspiration/ A New Zealand perspective on CanPL.

At least some friendlies against Dominican teams definitely seem to have happened, so maybe some of the teams have simply kept the results under wraps given they don't really matter? Preseason games can be tough to watch sometimes at all levels, because they are often used to try different formations and test out who can what, so they may not have been keen on bombarding social media with images of less than stellar soccer. The trip was maybe seen as a way to try to get close to midseason form at launch to be able to make a good first impression. Think the only team that still has multiple signings to make is Pacific FC. The rest appear to be at or one away from a full roster, if it's a limit of 20 senior players + 3 U-Sports. The recruiting and tryout phase was probably more the month or so spent in their own cities and they maybe didn't want to be paying airfares and accommodation for guys they don't wind up signing.

It was in the One Soccer press release (see above) that a selection of CanPL and Championship games would be shown live by a national broadcaster, so this isn't necessarily a CanPL vs MLS thing but could turn out to be an example of where the success of the latter in carving out a niche audience from coast-to-coast in numbers high enough to interest national broadcasters is being used to help leverage coverage for the former. Up to 12 games involving MLS teams are part of the package that CSB signed over to Mediapro.

Do you understand that I very much hope CanPL succeeds this summer? Yes or no. If the answer is no, please avoid engaging with my posts in future through the prism of some bizarre MLS vs CanPL narrative that I couldn't care less about.

Given there are about 90 Canadian players playing pro in USSF sanctioned leagues and more playing overseas, it is not the cream of the crop that are being signed by CanPL teams. Since a lot of the recruiting appears to be reasonably local, there are probably a lot of players of a comparable standard in cities like Montreal and Vancouver that have been steering clear because there is no team local to them at the moment. If this level of soccer can sustain high enough crowds, putting a few more teams together shouldn't be all that challenging in lower mainland BC and the Windsor-Quebec corridor. What might be more problematic is the smaller more remote markets that need to draw players in from elsewhere in Canada, if there start to be too many of them.

Hydro pole is a Victoria issue. This is York 9.

Looks like capacity has been downscaled quite a bit from 8000 judging by the size of those bleachers that will presumably sit on the athletic track. The gap between the 18 yard box and the sideline is not to scale unless they have been able to get rid of the long jump pits and widen the grass field considerably.