Today's News,Thursday,Feb.16

[denime]

Mornin`



TFC TV (http://torontofc.neulion.com/tfc/console.jsp)



Toronto Takes Two (http://www.torontofc.ca/news/2012/02/toronto-takes-two)


Rongen's contacts lead Orozco, Huezo to Toronto trial (http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/02/15/rongens-contacts-lead-orozco-huezo-toronto-trial)


Road to pros may ease for university stars (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/opinion/2012/02/route-to-pros-may-ease-for-cis-stars.html)




TFC related blogs ! (http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=29582)




SUNSHINE (http://www.torontosun.com/sunshine-girl)


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[ouderwien]

Morning 'D!

[Oldtimer]

An interesting article published in the Globe & Mail business section, talks about an European Central Bank study that shows that stock market trading goes down during WC matches:


In Chile, for example, trading volumes fell by 99 per cent when the Chilean team played.


The ECB said its study also dispels notions that Americans are not that interested in soccer. According to the report, trading volumes dropped by 24 per cent during World Cup games and fell by 42 per cent when the U.S. team played.


Not so in England. When that country played, trading volumes fell by only 26 per cent.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/keeping-an-eye-on-the-ball-soccer-and-stock-markets/article2338564/

[Oldtimer]

Some interesting news from when the Commish was over to speak to a business crowd in Poutineville:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/commissioner+pleased+with+Impact/6159146/story.html

[Detroit_TFC]

With only 7k ST sold, looks like they'll have big walk ups for the interesting games and next to nothing for the rest.

[ensco]

only 7k ST sold

Interesting. TFC were at 7,200 in pre-season 2007 before Beckham was signed.

[Auzzy]

I guess that's why Saputo is still trolling about for a DP.

[mastermixer]

It's a little odd and disappointing. They got fairly large crowds for USL games didnt they? Wonder why they arent able to capitalize on moving to the MLS

[__wowza]

It's a little odd and disappointing. They got fairly large crowds for USL games didnt they? Wonder why they arent able to capitalize on moving to the MLS

their SS prices are comparable with the rest of the league (if not a little lower) and they were definitely turning out some good sized crowds during their USL era.

maybe they can generate a buzz after the first few games? they really only share the market with the Habs, so WTF montreal!?

[Fort York Redcoat]

Interesting. TFC were at 7,200 in pre-season 2007 before Beckham was signed.

Who would they have to sign for a comparable bump? Zidane? Ribery? Benzema?

[mastermixer]

their SS prices are comparable with the rest of the league (if not a little lower) and they were definitely turning out some good sized crowds during their USL era.

maybe they can generate a buzz after the first few games? they really only share the market with the Habs, so WTF montreal!?

I wonder if it's the fact they are playing in Olympic Stadium the first half of the season has turned people off from buying tickets.

[Kaz]

I'm really shocked by this, I mean this was supposed to be one of the model cities, and everyone expected Montreal to be as successful as the other recent additions. Odd that they can't break the 10k range... anything under 12k really is a bad sign.

[Luanda]

They already have their DP, but will not announce till the end of May, when the said player becomes untied to the club he currently plays for. Probably a player from Italy and someone like Matteo Ferrari, who they have signed with a non DP contract.

[Auzzy]

^ Huh, DP or not DP? Thanks for the info!

[Dv23]

Everyone is poor in Montreal. Simple as that.

[Waggy]

Guess they aren't having the impact on the market they figured they would.



The tickets will sell. They didn't even start advertising them until a week ago or something. Also for anyone who doesn't fallow Paul B on twitter- there are still over 350 season tickets left for TFC this year. In 10 days they moved about 150 of them. 2 years ago 500 season tickets opening up would be snapped up in hours. Glass houses and all that. Whatever. Either way come kickoff there will be fans in the stands, don't worry about how. Esp since the Habs season isn't going past early april

[TorCanSoc]

Article hopes they'll draw more than 58K for Montreal's opener against Chicago. That's impressive if it happens. I didn't know the Big O was that much bigger than Skydome.

[Yohan]

Montreal is even more of a hype city than Toronto is.

Tix sales will pick up eventually, as it seems that first 5 games at the Big O are doing well enough.

[jloome]

Be interesting to see whether Saputo's longstanding use of extreme numbers of comp tickets (particularly paybacks for govt for public investment) have kept the numbers artificially high there.

[Yohan]

More details on Crew sponsorship. 5 yr deal, 10 mil. 2 mil per year. Not too bad

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/columbus_crews_signs_multi-million_dollar_major_sponsor/

[Shway]

^better than what they had before, i think it was the league min 500k

[Oldtimer]

More details on Crew sponsorship. 5 yr deal, 10 mil. 2 mil per year. Not too bad

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/columbus_crews_signs_multi-million_dollar_major_sponsor/

Not too bad, they got a nice cut of the action which keeps them from having to shave their F.O. budget. :D

[Voodooman]

Ching is sent back to Houston for a conditional pick in 2013 MLS Superdraft

[Yohan]

^I think it's excellent marketing for the Crew and the league. It's good to see a local company willing to spend the money and effort to support an MLS team

[BS1327]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/02/16/long-awaited-deal-sends-dynamo-hero-ching-back-home

Ching headed back to Houston.
Montreal receive a conditional 1st round pick in 2013. To me, it seems like Montreal lost out on this deal big time.

[KGH]

Did they though? The only thing that picking ching did was eliminate the option to pick anyone else from houston. Who would they have taken from this list instead:

Costly, Carlo
Cruz, Danny
Freeman, Hunter
Garey, Jason
Newton, Evan (GK)
Robinson, Eddie
Watson, JeVaughn
Weaver, Cam

[Yohan]

Did they though? The only thing that picking ching did was eliminate the option to pick anyone else from houston. Who would they have taken from this list instead:

Costly, Carlo
Cruz, Danny
Freeman, Hunter
Garey, Jason
Newton, Evan (GK)
Robinson, Eddie
Watson, JeVaughn
Weaver, Cam
Marsch picked up mostly depth in the expansion draft. I don't see how Mtl missed out by taking the Ching gamble

[Oldtimer]

Did they though? The only thing that picking ching did was eliminate the option to pick anyone else from houston.

They could have picked up players from one of several teams that didn't get someone picked, not just Houston.

There were some good players on that list. For example JDG from Toronto.

[CSO_BBTB]

I'm really shocked by this, I mean this was supposed to be one of the model cities, and everyone expected Montreal to be as successful as the other recent additions. Odd that they can't break the 10k range... anything under 12k really is a bad sign.

I think the Impact sold a lot of very inexpensive season tickets to youth soccer types and that the issue now may be that people are balking when confronted with the typical MLS pricing structure. The demographics in Montreal are also different from Toronto and Vancouver. French Canadians traditionally have not been soccer fans and in recent decades new arrivals to the country from soccer loving countries have tended to be drawn more to the GTA and lower mainland BC.

[Yohan]

They could have picked up players from one of several teams that didn't get someone picked, not just Houston.

There were some good players on that list. For example JDG from Toronto.
I think I'll agree with Marsch that picking a 30 yr old injury ridden DM with only half a good season in MLS as DP is pretty stupid idea