Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderball
Either way, CanPL has a good thing going... they better not ruin it with some stupid rules to be a development league.
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Agreed. Tin hat alert, but hear me out.
To that end, I can’t imagine the Whitecaps were happy losing to a startup club, but with their other PR problems this year, they had bigger fish to fry.
But I can see Joey Saputo livid if he got upstaged in this country by a second tier team such as the Cavs, who were a couple kicks away from legit advancing, with the game play, skill and ability not that far off his Impact side. Hell, if we had Jordan Brown not get hurt between the two legs, he may have scored in the second leg like he did the first. Saputo fired his coach a couple games after they advanced, and they went on to best TFC in the final with the same roster they squeaked by us with. But it could’ve easily been much different.
So, is it inconceivable, that the Saputo and the Impact (and or Whitecaps or TFC), couldve marched to the CSA and/or directly to the CanPL and nicely suggest that rules put in place for next year so that their teams don’t upstage Canada’s “real” and more prominent MLS soccer teams?
If you work in the higher offices for the CanPL, is your next step up job with the CSA (flush with cash, a cushy job in an administrative role, and 7 years away from prestige of a WC) or an MLS team?
I’d say probably....does anyone really think that enough people in the CanPL would thus push back hard against the CSA and/or an MLS team if they were given suggestions to make league changes to make them less powerful then the MLS teams? When, if you agree to makes changes, you’d be doing the MLS team or CSA a favour, that would be remembered when the next position comes up at the CSA?
A rule like this would be a start to help neuter the CanPL teams from assembling a squad that would cause further embarrassment to the three Canadian MLS clubs, their fans, and their perceived standing as the dominant teams in this country, as well as their standing within the top tier MLS.
TV as well, as an example...my guess is the CanPL finals may get more views on CBC then the majority of regular season Impact games on TSN, just because more people have CBC in this country and may stumble across it the next couple Saturday afternoons along with some of the basic advertising CBC is doing for it. It’s a few year off, but if there is surge in general interest league popularity over the years, especially if the Cavs or Valour or Pacific etc are neck and neck with MLS teams each year in the Canadian Championship, and league games are shown more and more on CBC and other networks that everyone can more easily access, that would degrade the brand that three existing MLS teams have set up, if CanPL games are shown more frequently.
It’s aways off from MLS teams being threatened quite like that yet, but as much as they would say it’s good for soccer in this country to have all these teams, it’s not in their best business interest to have teams from this “ secondary” league match up with them stride for stride and beat them in any given CC match each season...now, or in the future...and rules like this would ensure that is less likely to happen.