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Originally Posted by shermanator

For me, neither side come out of this looking great.

The CSA gets no sympathy from me at all given their track record over the last few decades, and their complete inability with how to deal with the exponential interest in the game in this country over the last year. Get rid of them all, especially that used car salesman Bontis.

The players get more sympathy from me than the CSA, but it's not a lot. To pull the plug on this friendly when supporters spent significant sums of money isn't a great look; if they really cared about the supporters who got behind them they would have played the game. It's about money, plain and simple, something these particular players do not lack. I do think their demands are reasonable, but they pissed off a lot of people today with their decision to bail on the game.

As for the CSB deal mentioned, it was a deal struck with the CSA for the commercial interests and broadcast rights to the national teams, as well as the group of owners behind the CPL. It is based on the structure in the US (SUM) where the owners of MLS also own commercial interests and broadcast rights to their national teams. The main difference between the two is simply the amount of revenue coming in; CSB gets but a fraction what SUM gets, and the Canadian players want a similar arrangement that their American counterparts get but there isn't the kind of money available to pull it off.

What people may not realize is that CSB invested 9 figures into the men's professional game and national teams at a time when no one gave a ####. Without them, there is no CPL, no Cavalry, there are no new sponsorships for the national team, and this window's games are being broadcast on a Youtube stream with a handheld camera. The deal's relevance on this World Cup run is minimal to nonexistant, but the relevance towards the long term sustainability of the professional game and national teams is critical. Albeit, they would have still had their deal with Umbro and I could have gotten a customized jersey for $100 which I miss.

I think the saddest thing about this situation is simply that most people just don't care, and the end result of today is that some people who just got into the sport are going to go back to not caring.

Okay, back to your ranting Browna.

Sherm, was this from a Press Release? Tens of millions in Seed Money? Can you cite this, please?