How in the world the CSA cannot monetize this group of players is beyond me. This is Canada's golden generation barring some minor issues. This is all going to wither away after 2026 isn't it?
How in the world the CSA cannot monetize this group of players is beyond me. This is Canada's golden generation barring some minor issues. This is all going to wither away after 2026 isn't it?
If the league can't survive without a team in Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver then there shouldn't be a league. CPL is made to be small and there's no reason the other CFL cities can't average 3-5K or more.
I would also say that without the Canadian MLS teams there wouldn't be a CPL because the three teams helped build a newer generation of football fans along with the latest incarnation of the CMNT. Without that we would have something else like the CSL playing at high school stadiums.
minor league teams in big cities will never thrive.
look at how badly the argos do at attracting fans.
and sure, you have zator as a success story. ended up on quite a mediocre side in poland.
that money funding the CPL would 100% be better off being put towards youth development in this country. you'd have just way way more success in building up soccer in this country that way.
as it is, the CSB deal is propping up the CPL which, frankly, has not been a success.
yep, this money could be laying the groundwork for elite youth development programs in this country that could legit turn us into a power house.
instead it'll prop up the CPL for a decade, a league basically doomed to fail from the start.
and we'll be back to square one by 2030
The WC qualification alone should have been worth a lot of money.....where did it all go?
Not having friendlies is shameful....could be huge gate receipts...and if we can't get Euro teams to come here (Croatia would not come but would be a sell out of Cros if played in Toronto no doubt)...then why don't we go to Europe? South American teams like Brazil and the Argies etc will play in Europe to accomodate their euro based players....
Play ltierally ANYONE....not playing in international dates is shocking....I can only imagine what guys like Davies and David are thinking.
The CPL wouldn't have to be as minor league if the big markets were available to a Canadian domestic league. I'm obviously an MLS fan, hence why I'm here, but I find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that domestic soccer in Canada would look dramatically different (and better) if Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver were available to form a part of it. Who knows, maybe we'd have enough for two proper tiers of professional soccer?
I also don't agree that definitively dumping all of the money going to the CPL into youth development leads to better results. IMO both are very important pieces of the overall picture. I live in a CPL market and have absolutely seen soccer fans being created before my eyes. I also see what has happened with taking our existing development teams (Foothills) and attaching them to a viable option to progress as adults/professionals. I also think it's facilitated expansion of the League 1 semi-pro structure across the country, further bolstering successful development clubs like Foothills FC. Kids were formerly playing for dead-end teams, hoping they'd get noticed to have a shot somewhere. There is a way clearer path now. You crapped on the Zator example, but there have been others that have gotten good looks and moved on globally. We don't need CPL->Bundesliga to call this a success, we just need to find a way to keep kids engaged in meaningful soccer and to see a way for them to make a livelihood from it.
More resources for youth development? Yes please!
As domestic league to provide a path for those kids? Essential as well.
FWIW
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/WakingtheRed/status/1697021309857788227
And where are these youth supposed to find professional opportunities? There are major problems with the CSB deal, but having a professional domestic league is crucial to the player pathway. Indeed, youth development is a major element of CPL, from academies/U21 programs with Pacific, Cavalry, York, and Halifax, mandated U21 minutes, to partnerships with USPORTS and L1C (the latter of which is owned by CSB) allowing loans between the respective leagues and CanPL.
I think we can be critical of the CSB deal, while recognizing the benefits of having a domestic league and that the ideal circumstance for improving footballing standards and developing Canadian football culture is for there to be mutually-beneficial relationships between the 3 MLS clubs and the CPL/L1C. Sad to say, CF Montreal has done a better job in this regard, having their academy team in L1Q, relying on CanPL as an important step in their player pathway and paying dividends with Sirois, Rea, and Pantemis.
Also think of all the players we'd have lost without CPL ... many TFC academy players who were cut now have professional opportunities across the league, McNaughton was going to retire after he was snubbed by TFC II but now via Pacific, he's become an important cog in one of the best teams in the league (shame he couldn't stay with us).
That is why the CSA and CSB are fighting to not have to open the books. If they do get opened, the financial mismanagement will sink the lot of them. The men's team has yet to see any compensation from the WC. I think they are the only ones in the Football world that can screw things up worse than Manning.
Sid goes off on Canada Soccer, and the media… this is great
Check out this tweet at [URL]https://x.com/fan590/status/1697247874239672798?s=61&t=m37cT46Agnuvoekh9VGF_w[/URL]
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
You said it better than me. I agree with your entire post, but this is just spot on.
Reinforcing this again, a kid who grew up in Canada just netted a ~$500k transfer to Ligue 2. If the CPL is fulfilling it's role, it's Canadian domestic teams netting those transfer fees instead of some foreign club that pounces on our young players. That money needs to go back into the engine to keep the thing running (and hopefully provides a path to financial certainty without crap like the CSB mess).
Man, the OneSoccer trio are really being loathsome about Herdman. You should look up their dissection on YouTube. Just dripping in bile.
It's not going to help making their next hire when everyone gets to see how they treated the outgoing coach who brought the most success ever to our men's and women's programs.
Assuming we saw the same clip, I didn't see that at all.
Was it 50/50 right down the middle, of course not. Nothing in the media ever is, but it wasn't as bad as it's being made out to be. The truth is usually down the middle.
KJ's comments earlier this week were pretty spot on though I thought. Sure maybe he's got a bit of an axe to grind given the past with them, but it's not fox news type reporting.
Maybe it's just me though?
Just an opinion piece at the end of the day.
Funny how people (rightfully in many cases) complain about the CSA taking the raw deal from the CSB/OS's parent, because Bell Media wanted to be paid to air CMNT matches and because the OS crew aren't critical enough on air, but no one is asking why the TSN crew aren't critical of the "deal" they offered the CSA and how bad that would've been too.
There's no way you'll see JDG say anything even remotely close to that.
Imagine the uproar for that "WTF is the CSA thinking/doing? They have to pay to air matches?"
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Funny you mention that because one thing they mentioned on the show this week was that it appears things started going sour after it was announced that the CSA was going to be going for an equal deal between the mens and womens programs dollar wise.
This is just me, but seems that money that would've gone to the CMNT, now had to be allocated to the CWNT.
So if you had a $10m budget with a 70/30 split, and you then need to even it off, the men have "lost" it.
Not sure if being completely equal is the right choice in this case since the mens program is where the money is, but if this is the deal they want going forwards so be it.
Have to remember that the CSA is little. They don't have the massive budgets of other federations.