As a car commuter from Niagara Falls to Hamilton every day, let me say...................... CD's and downloaded podcasts are the only way you will keep your sanity. Unless you're a "puckhead" or pointy ball fanatic.Originally Posted by Fort York Redcoat
Believe me, I've tried them all.
If its in the budget, buy a satellite radio.....channel 85 SXM FC......24/7 soccer, and there's a great show at 5pm just in time for the drive home called Counter Attack with Eric Wynalda.....most of it is dedicated to MLS.....
or you can ask Santa for one seeing as its the time of year.....
Allow me to report results as a human guinea pig for abandoning sports radio. Bought a new car more than three years ago. The radio antenna was in the windshield. First winter with it, a chunk of ice blew off a transport truck and cracked the windshield, so it was replaced. Somehow, the antenna wasn't connected properly and all I could get clearly was FM radio.
The only thing I found really necessary from AM was traffic updates, easily acquired via smart phone apps or the better staffed FM stations in Toronto. Haven't listened to any sports radio in over two years and don't feel like I've missed a thing. On the other hand, I've listened to a far broader range of music and feel like I'm enjoying driving more than ever.
You don't need some cocooned windbag with a corporate agenda to tell you what to think about sports. That said, satellite radio is a useful option. Best sports radio by a mile is the Original Fan, WFAN 660 out of NYC. Clear channel station that you can easily pick up on conventional radio across eastern North America.
Last edited by greatwhitenorf; 11-25-2016 at 11:34 AM.
As much of a wanker Dean Blundell is, I'll give him credit where credit is due, and they rightfully pretty much ignore the CFL. They do spend way too much time talking about how the Jays GM farted and what that means for Edwin Encarnacion, but they do talk about TFC a little bit now, and generally in pretty respectful terms.
he is a wanker.he had a poll what would be more painful to watch a argo or TFC game,saying that i have not listened to a second of his show and will not.
When Blundell was on the Edge, during the Euro and World Cup times he would complain bitterly about football - the usual complaints about diving, the low scores, etc. He does not like the sport, and if he's talking about it now it just means he is feeling heat to do so. As soon as the season is over, and the bandwagon jumpers are gone he will go back to his regular shtick.
He was the reason why I stopped listening to the Edge.
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Soccer has to be the only sport that has so many in the mainstream media that have a hate for it and I'm not just saying hate but it's a crazy big hate like soccer insulted their mother kind of hate it's incredible and there are so many of these soccer haters it seems on mainstream radio and in the general media overall. Here is a quick list of just sports radio guys that fall into the raging hate category. Bob Mckeowan, Blundell, Naylor, Steve Simmons, Andrew Walker , Lance Brown and there are many more it's incredible the hate I can't put the radio on in my car if my 6 year old soccer fanatic nephew is in the car with me and have any of these guys talk crap about the sport he would be traumatized and wonder why they are hating so much in a sport he loves so much lol.
Yea, it does definitely sound like some go out of their way to hate on soccer. I don't know what it stems from. Is it the dislike/distrust of the old world and the need to do everything in a different way? Do they just see themselves as better because they think soccer is for immigrants and poor people?
It is a generational thing through because the new guys love it.
We probably have to put up with the really insane stuff for 10 more years.
As a brief aside to the sports radio discussion, it does remind me of an amusing insult I once heard levelled at an acquaintance with a bit of a big mouth and no follow through; "you're AM raido - all talk no rock".
(for example, see: Johnston, Mo - "The Man With The Plan", Toronto FC press, 2007)
Most of these guys are old school Hockey types. Their whole career is built on hockey consumption and soccer threatens that. To me, that's where it comes from.
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Still, as someone who followed MLS starting in 2005 and went to Toronto Lynx games, the increase in coverage from practically zero to the front page of the news section is amazing to behold.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
I look at the journalists' attitudes as similar to when computers began to enter the workforce in the early/mid 90's.....
With the older/close to retiring generation, most hated them, but a few were willing to learn.
The 40 year old crew had to get used to it, because it was going to become a part of things whether they liked it or not.
And nowadays, we can't imagine what it would be like without it.....
More than anyone in hockey wants to admit.
I deal with marketing people who direct corporate money into sports-related promotions or ads. They can quote all sorts of numbers and stats. What scares hockey people the most is that, since around 1996-97 when soccer finally equalled hockey in registered participants - just over 500,000 each - hockey has struggled to grow in any significant way, bouncing around the 600,000 mark today. Soccer is about to top the 1 million mark.
But they also look within those overall numbers and see that hockey's male participants declined almost 60,000. Only the steady growth of the women's game has kept hockey's numbers moving upward. But it is the male side of hockey that largely drives commercial revenue.
Soccer enjoys a healthy split between male and female participants and this nation's future population growth strategies all point toward soccer becoming even stronger.
So, yes, there is a real dislike of soccer - a true fear and loathing - since it is beginning to impact where important commercial revenues are directed.
And gridiron football? Not a bright future.
Last edited by greatwhitenorf; 11-25-2016 at 05:06 PM.
It is very simple. INSECURITY.
I know he has not always been kind to TFC but even when he has written some negative write up on TFC or MLS it's not really been an anti soccer thing because the guy actually likes soccer, anyways he wrote a column in yesterday's Globe and Mail on the Grey Cup the CFL and the Argos and he more or less states that it's time the CFL stop trying to revitalize the CFL and the Argos in Toronto and give it a break. He writes that by bringing the Argos to BMO it just showed even more how bad the Argo situation is by playing in a stadium where the Argos struggle with attendance while TFC more or less packs them in in the same stadium, which he states is an even worse public relations nightmare for them for people to see, anyways it's a very good read if you find it.
^ they definitely have their cheeerleaders. However, that type of story is now sandwiched between a bumbling commissioner who was cornered about CTE the other day and a pizza pizza promotion giving away GC tickets at fire sale prices.
I don't know what they want to do but the new stadium clearly hasn't solved anything.
Are you talking about Cathal Kelly?
Yes sorry Cathal Kelly forgot to mention who wrote the article in the Globe and Mail I was talking about.
There's a serious discussion to be had here if we can set aside the football vs hockey vs soccer my sport is better than your sport debate.
Recent stats Canada data has participation rates amongst youth at:
Soccer: 25%
Swimming: 24%
Hockey: 22%
The challenge for ALL sports is that participation rates are down. Down for adults. Down for kids.
The rising costs of 10 month "Development" programs such as those offered by SAAC or from tthe OPDL likely aren't to do any favours to that for the soccer cohort.
Quite a few kids drop out of the game when they hit high school. Money is a factor. But so is boredom from playing the game non stop in a system that doesn't embrace multi sport athletes. Let's also add in the reality that part time jobs, boyfriends and girlfriends are an important part of character development.
Looking for "growth" in a baby "bust" generation that isn't as likely to be active as their larger baby boomer precursors, seems like a universal challenge.
Maybe it's time to stop thinking of developing the next Crosby or the next Beckham and figure a way to help the main stays of that generation juggle a well rounded life.
First of all, Cathal Kelley is a lover of his own turn of phrase. We all know this from when he was with the Star. But he even more enjoys a good pile on. The guy prefers to see the bad in sports and writes only about that sort of angle. Its not surprising he would do a bit about the CFL where he says its got no foothold in Toronto.
BUT, more importantly, I reject out of hand his view of what Toronto is. He sees Toronto as cynical hipsters. That is so shallow and, to be frank, lazy journalism.
Me, I see Toronto as open to things but with an understanding that you better bring a decent product that I can enjoy in the midst of my life because I got a lot of choices.
To the media thing - there are younger guys that can't stand soccer either. People in the media who like soccer have indicated as such. Its not a generational thing. This is repeating stuff I've written in here before but here goes why I see this occurs.
There is a crowd of Canadian media people who grew up in smaller towns playing/following hockey and basketball and to a lesser extent baseball who don't see any issues within the sports they grew up with. In Canada, all these sports have strong moral codes of how the game is played, what is accepted and what is not. For some reason, and I still don't get why, when they turn their eyes to soccer they can't get past the diving. This despite that there is acknowledged diving in hockey, bball, football and baseball. But, because these people grew up with those sports, they don't see any issues. There is a deep seated conservatism in much of Canadian sports and its going to take another 30 years to get past that.
I don't see the same problem with how they see soccer in US based media as much. Down there hatred of soccer is more of a virility thing and a patriotism thing. Its seen to be unmanly, vaguely UnAmerican, and not as athletic. Up here, its disliked not because its unmanly, but because it doesn't match a view of who Joe Canadian is. I used to like that guy from the "I AM CANADIAN" ad but the more I see how that has become twisted into a mold that Canadians dare not get out of, the more I can't stand it. We saw this sort of thing at the Vancouver Olympics. "Oh isn't he a great guy, won a medal and chugs a beer!" "Oh look, its Gretzky in a pickup truck" OK, great and all but anything stepping out beyond that stereotype was ruthlessly erased from view.
Now, the Canadian WNT? That is loved with utmost vigour because they all fit the Canadian stereotype of a woman athlete - strong, fiesty, not liking the US and look at those grins. (The paternalism of the CWNT coverage can be sickening at times - just watch and enjoy how they play for God's sake)
But because the MNT has not had any success of note for 30 years, men's soccer in Canada has no local heroes. It should in guys like Will Johnson and Atiba Hutchinson but without success, nobody notices.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 11-26-2016 at 02:58 PM.
In a pay to play environment, specialty coaches have every reason to encourage early specialization. It goes against everything LTPD is about, but it is what we have. The amount of specialty coaching opportunities available for hockey and soccer just boggles the mind. And none of it is cheap.
The whole "the media hate soccer in Canada" bit is overblown.
MLS is a minor league. Canada is a minnow.
When one of those things changes, people will pay attention.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Just enjoy whatever you like and that's it. You don't need others to justify it for you.
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And then there's this bit of accompaniment in the Globe and Mail. Not written by Kelly, but by Sean Gordon.
We live in ahistorical times. Thankfully there is photographic proof of the golden age.
It was 1979, and the downtown of a major Canadian city was choked with fans celebrating the Vancouver Whitecaps’ North American Soccer League triumph in the now-defunct Soccer Bowl.
“Five years before, we were playing in front of friends and family, then it was Giants Stadium and 100,000 people in the streets,” said Bob Lenarduzzi, a Canadian soccer great who played in that 2-1 triumph over the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
They were heady times for the beautiful game in North America, Pele and Franz Beckenbauer were winding down their careers with the New York Cosmos. The Toronto Blizzard and the Montreal Manic were filling stadiums. Everything was great, until suddenly it wasn’t.
“Five years later, we were done,” Lenarduzzi said. “It was lightning in a bottle.” There is contemporary evidence of a soccer resurgence in Canada. This time no one is taking anything for granted.
Hockey and baseball may continue to bestride the pro sports landscape, but Major League Soccer is now on a more or less even footing with the CFL. The Canadian MLS markets – Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal – have surpassed our brand of the gridiron game in terms of attendance and fan enthusiasm.
This weekend’s Grey Cup isn’t exactly a tough ticket, in contrast with last Tuesday’s playoff game between the Montreal Impact and Toronto FC. The Impact had little problem selling all 61,004 seats at the decrepit Olympic Stadium.
It would be shock if Toronto’s BMO Field, also the site of the 104th Grey Cup, isn’t packed for the return leg of the final. It’s not likely pizza shop freebies will be required to make it happen.
The renewed interest and spiking viewership surely has to do with recent successes on the field, but there is a trend line, and it favours association football more than the three-down kind. How did this happen?
It’s the antithesis of an overnight success.
Soccer has been the top participation sport in this country for decades (Canada is the among the world’s top 10 in terms of registered players). The challenge has always been to translate that into support for domestic professional teams and the national sides.
The numbers suggest it’s finally happening.
“I think you’re seeing a new generation of fans develop, it’s a younger crowd, a different crowd than hockey or football,” said Peter Montopoli, the general secretary of Canada Soccer, the sport’s national governing body.
Montopoli argues the roots of what we’re seeing today go back to the 2007 FIFA under-20 World Cup – although he wouldn’t quibble with going back a little farther: the 2002 FIFA under-19 women’s world championship, an event that introduced Canada and the world to Christine Sinclair, perhaps the finest player this country has ever produced. The final, held in Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, featured Canada against the United States and attracted nearly 40,000 fans.
The subsequent bid to hold the U-20 World Cup provided the impetus to build BMO Field (Canada Soccer was a key funding partner). The event, which coincided with TFC’s inaugural MLS season, drew 1.2 million people across Canada.
“Without that tournament there’s no stadium,” Montopoli said. “And I don’t know where MLS would be.”
Toronto became the first Canadian MLS expansion team in 2007 – the same year the league instituted a designated-player rule and David Beckham took his talents to the L.A. Galaxy.
It was the culmination of a five-year plan to revive the league, which lost $350-million in its first 10 years of existence and was propped up by NFL owners Lamar Hunt and Robert Kraft, as well as L.A. Kings owner Phil Anschutz (whose longtime protégé, Tim Leiweke, deserves at least some credit for setting TFC up as a powerhouse).
One of the paradoxes of North American soccer development is there are huge numbers of hardcore fans. The difficulty has been to convince those who grew up on a diet of Serie A, the Premiership or the Bundesliga to support the local team.
“Your first club is your first club, and you’ll never change ... the difference is kids today can identify with clubs and teams from this country,” Montopoli said. “Their reference points are Canadian.”
Lenarduzzi, now president of the Whitecaps, said his club has paid particular attention to cultivating the supporter culture that is in some ways unique to soccer, and spends a lot of time tending to the grassroots.
“In the 70s the rallying cry was that soccer was going to be the sport of the 80s and 90s, that it was just going to keep growing on its own. That was a mistake,” Lenarduzzi said. The key contribution of MLS, he continued, has been its “slow-growth” agenda.
Beyond the success of their first teams, Canada’s pro teams are also churning out a new crop of homegrown prospects.
All three MLS clubs have Canadian-born senior players – most also play in the national side – but more than that their academy systems are paying dividends.
Earlier this month Canada Soccer announced a 30-player roster for its 14-and-under Excel program, all but three are on the books with Canadian pro sides (the others are attached to U.S. teams).
Montopoli is fond of saying the development of soccer has involved a four-pronged strategy: participation (such as youth involvement), professionalization (including at the club level), performance (success) and properties.
“If the teams aren’t successful, you’re not generating the interest. Period,” he said. It’s a similar theme to that put forward by Impact head coach Mauro Biello, who suggested before last week’s game that what drives fan interest, beyond big names and glitzy television, is very simple.
“Fans see very ambitious clubs that are committed to doing everything they can to win,” he said. The case for soccer’s surge is not merely anecdotal.
According to Forbes magazine’s most recent valuations, the average MLS club is worth $185-million (U.S.). TFC is worth more like $245-million.
Lower-division clubs such as FC Edmonton and the Ottawa Fury (run by the same group that owns the CFL’s RedBlacks) don’t operate on quite the same scale, but have built loyal followings and compete in the annual national club competition.
More people are watching soccer on television as well. Canada’s three MLS teams have similar numbers to the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, about 200,000 viewers a game (though the Raptors have more of them).
The audience figures for soccer haven’t yet eclipsed the CFL, whose ratings improved in 2016 but are still lower than 2010. But last week they came close.
According to the overnight Numeris ratings, which are provided by a third party and are not considered final, the viewing audience for last weekend’s CFL’s division finals averaged out at just over 1.2 million, a slight drop over last year.
Last Tuesday’s Impact-TFC tilt had a smaller audience, just over one million; it was nearly double the previous record audience for an MLS playoff game.
On the paid attendance front, MLS gates are increasing while the CFL’s are in steady decline.
This year, the leagues had nearly identical per-game averages (the CFL was slightly above 24,000, MLS was slightly below), but TFC, the Impact and the Whitecaps each out-drew the CFL team in their market.
The two largest crowds for a Canadian sporting event in 2016 were both for soccer – at the Olympic Stadium last week and the 54,798 who watched the men’s World Cup qualifier against Mexico at B.C. Place.
The three Canadian MLS teams turned in the circuit’s largest year-over-year attendance growth and 2016 was a record year for the league, the sixth-largest soccer league in the world by attendance.
Soccer doesn’t yet enjoy the regular television exposure and appointment-viewing that football, hockey and baseball do, but the international calendar, along with the nine-month MLS season, means soccer is seldom far from public view. The past decade has usually featured one or two notable moments a year to keep fans’ attention.
You’ve had Sinclair leading the national women’s team to Olympic medals (bronze in London and Rio, the first podium finishes in a Summer Games team sport in a couple of generations) and a couple of World Cups, and the men’s team playing in international qualifying, or clubs in CONCACAF Champions’ League games – Montreal reached the final in 2015, Vancouver is in the quarter-final stage for 2017.
All that’s missing is the senior men’s team playing in the World Cup for the first time since 1986. After missing out on Russia 2018, Montopoli said they are determined to be in Qatar in 2022.
After that, the aim is to hold the global showcase.
“Canada has hosted every other world soccer event,” he said. “We believe it's our turn."
Last edited by greatwhitenorf; 11-27-2016 at 12:17 AM.
What's the problem many are just pointing that soccer for some reason seems to have a diss appropriate number of soccer haters in the mainstream media, and it's pretty evident to see, and alot of these guys seem to go out of there way to slag the sport any chance they get, this is a soccer related forum is it not, so if we can't talk about this on a soccer forum then where can we , nothing to do with justification.
I don't think it's a good idea to post full articles from papers here. Journalism is struggling enough. If we want people to report on footy, let's at least read the stuff on their websites, and give the articles some hits & advertising pennies.
"With MLS numbers rivalling the CFL, Canadian soccer is entering a new era"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...ticle33057018/
This is a great analogy. My uncle was an engineer and he didn't want to learn CAD, as ridiculous as it seems today.
I have some compassion on the puckheads. Imagine you're a sports journalist covering soccer, not from Indian, Caribbean or British heritage, and five years from now 20/20 cricket takes off in Toronto and you have to write intelligently about that. It would be a challenge. Maybe you would hope it would be short lived. Maybe you would grumble about having to learn the rules.
I have a colleague who is a cricket fan and I struggle to understand that sport even with him explaining it to me! So it's good to understand the puckheads from that perspective. Our day is coming and is almost here. A younger generation of journalists love soccer. A whole two generations have grown up playing the game. Some day soccer will be our #2 sport. MLS will be a top 10 league. That's why MLSE bought in, they knew the demographics and already look like geniuses for having a $10m investment rise to over $200m. That's only the beginning.
Last edited by Oldtimer; 11-27-2016 at 08:19 AM.
thanks man! and I get what you mean about your uncle....a lot of the older guys want to see that this "something new" has a bit of staying power before they "waste their time" learning it.
and I agree with the rest....but if you look at the guys who seem to be the ones who will be the next prominent sports figures in the city/country over the years to come - the Tim & Sid types, etc. - those guys are all over soccer and love it, so I think the sport will be in pretty good shape, media wise for the future.
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