Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
I completely disagree. There is money to be made by allowing a stadium that can host both a CFL and NASL / MLS team in a city the size of Calgary's. I've been playing soccer in Calgary for damn near 25 years and there is most definitely support for another professional sports team, particularly soccer, in Calgary, IF we have the venue to host one. Additionally, we need a proper stadium to attract investors for a soccer franchise - the fact that our city is being overlooked for places like Moncton is a huge detriment to attracting investors and positioning ourselves as a viable soccer market.
Calgary has missed out on the two biggest World Cup events outside of the World Cup itself - The 2007 U-23 World Cup and the 2015 Womens World Cup. I'm not sure how much bigger they get for a single sport other than that.
I believe that "a huge population couldn't give a rats ass" is extremely short-sighted and ignoring Calgary's highly diverse population with a love for a sport that is the most played in the entire world.
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I think you missed the point, and likely my fault. Not looking to debate whether Calgary has a healthy population of soccer fans or not, now in the future. This city may very well have that, and if we do, certainly justifies consideration of delivering those types of facilities to the city.
The point I'm making is, not participating, for example, in a World Cup bid (which I think would be cool) doesn't mean this city isn't world class or embarassing for that matter. It's one type of event. The city doesn't have to be set up to host all types of events to be world class was the point. And sighting inability to host soccer events doesn't really mean anything. Saying something like, the 3rd biggest city in Canada isn't set up to host Olympics, NHL franchise, Soccer events, Concerts, CFL football, etc.... is a problem. But the city doesn't HAVE to have the ability to host everything and anything that might come along to be world class, they need to be able to host a healthy amount.