PDA

View Full Version : Knight: Lessons from lacrosse



denime
11-10-2008, 07:07 AM
Knight: Lessons from lacrosse


Running into former Canadian United Soccer League head honcho Gerry Gentile the other night has got me hugely pumped.


He admitted – as reported here and on the FAN590 radio's The Soccer Show (http://www.fan590.com/onair/soccer/media.jsp?content=20081107_005754_7128) on Thursday – that he never really believed an eight-team pro soccer league was the way Canada should go.


In a clear and brilliant memo – not yet ready for publication, but we're working on it – he has now laid out a vision (not new, but so well put!) for a completely different approach – a national amateur league. ...


Read more (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081108.WBsoccerblog20081108142409/WBStory/WBsoccerblog/)

Fort York Redcoat
11-10-2008, 08:22 AM
As long as they account for low attendances. This nation isn't ready to support lower league soccer en masse. I support the initiative and hope to see a smoother infrastructure not laden with multiple levels of bureaucracy.

CoachGT
11-10-2008, 08:33 AM
I've worked for tier two junior hockey teams for years. Some teams, like the Aurora Tigers over the last few years, have won national championships and still draw between 200 and 500 people per night. Only a handful of lower level junior hockey teams actually draw fans. But a tier two team has an operating budget of between $100k and $250k. Soccer doesn't have the same expenses - no ice rentals, no $2k for equipment for each player, not including the $100-200 per stick. A league of this nature should be able to survive. In a lot of cases, the owners break even or lose some, gaining a tax write-off. Owning teams plays to the ego.

I believe there to be more than enough spponsorship to make something like this work, but the effort has to be put in, and most leagues/teams really don't understand how to appease sponsors (for a good example of working your sponsors, watch most auto racing, especially NASCAR).

And even without sponsorship, there are probably a few people who would consider owning a team just for the sake of doing so. Much like hockey, there are people with money who actually do love soccer. I think this is a workable idea, one that could easily take off if approached properly.