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Old 02-15-2023, 08:35 PM   #5428
shermanator
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I agree with a lot of your comments browna but as the resident expert on Canadian soccer I need to correct the misinformation in your rants. Own the Podium funding was not "filtered through private enterprise." Was it mismanaged by CSA? I think that's a lot more likely, and I imagine any government inquiry into that could expose this. Also the deal wasn't done in secret. It was out there, but no one cared. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymc...h=6b0c017eb983

As someone who's actually paid attention to this CSA / CSB deal before anyone except the most hardcore of us nerds cared about the deal, let me try any explain what it is.

The CSA / CSB model is an identical structure to the USSF / SUM model. One which worked for decades in the US until a few years ago when the agreement was ended due to the same potential conflicts of interest that are apparent in Canadian soccer today. The difference is that the US men have consistently qualified for World Cups, the US women are consistently contenders for the Women's World Cups, and billionaires in the US like to spend a lot bigger on sports than billionaires in Canada. So the end game is a lot more lucrative for everyone involved in the US when compared to Canada.

CSB controls media rights and sponsorships for Canada Soccer. That's it. They do not get any money from registration fees. They do not get any game day revenue. They do not get any merchandise revenue. They do not own media rights to the World Cup, nor the Olympics, because the sports networks in this country actually pay for that content, and they haven't paid for national team content in decades, except for the last qualifying cycle.

5 years ago when this agreement was signed no one cared, nor was it anything more than a big risk by a few investors, although the potential conflicts of interest were brought up. However the reason why this agreement no longer works today is that no one in their right mind saw Canada making the Men's World Cup in 2022. Back in 2018, the CSA took the guaranteed money (which was significantly higher than they were getting at the time), but they completely failed to scale the deal for when the national team was successful. Fast forward 4 years later suddenly the men's national team has success, people start suddenly realize we have a men's national team and want to support team, sponsors suddenly realize we have a men's national team and want to support team, and suddenly the CSB gets far more sponsorship revenue than ever anticipated. So now they're the bad guys because how dare they get rewarded

For the betterment of the game in this country the original deal needs to be modified. It makes sense to keep the same initial $3-4 million per year agreement, but there has to be some scaling involved so that both the national teams and those investing in the professional game in this country benefit when media rights and sponsorship dollars increase.
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Last edited by shermanator; 02-15-2023 at 08:40 PM.
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