Quote:
Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates
Can't see Calgary being close to MLS support, and even have some doubts about Vancouver. We all know how fair-weather the sports fans here can be, so I'm not 100% sure the Whitecaps will keep enough demand in the long run to be a big success. Hope it is though.
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That's definitely true for Calgary.
I've been a soccer fan all of my life. When I was very young, my dad used to take me to Strikers and Kickers games at the old Mewata stadium in the 80s. At that point, they were part of the CSL and I believe even won the championship one year.
Calgary went through a period without a semi-pro/pro team until the early 2000s when the Storm/Mustangs were brought in. The team had some faithful supporters when they were playing well in the PDL, but when they made the jump to the A-League, they began to struggle. That's when the attendance started to drop. I think they were barely hitting 500 fans a game when they moved onto the artificial turf at McMahon. I was close with the captain of the Storm and the team ran out of money, so they couldn't pay their local players.
If some are interested in watching professional soccer, Calgary does have an indoor team called United. It's part of the CMISL. The squad is made up of a lot of former Storm/Mustangs players: Reyes, Jesic, Napuri, and Zuniga. They won the title in 2010. The league itself is looking to expand:
http://www.cmisl.com/