Quote:
Originally Posted by shermanator
To summarize the money issue with Canada Soccer:
- The CSA blew their reserve fund to fund a World Cup qualification during the COVID years.
- The MNT have superstars who expect the national team give them the same first class treatment they get with their big European clubs.
- The WNT see the treatment the MNT gets and demands the same.
- The youth teams see the treatment the MNT and WNT want and demand money for youth camps.
- The CSA get a fixed revenue for media and sponsorship rights. The media rights are worthless anyways as no sports network will pay for them, and sponsorship deals are limited given that they compete with their own players to sign these deals.
- Nike puts no effort into merchandise as it doesn’t sell well enough for them to care. So your merch doesn't sell well.
- The CSA tried to raise fees from youth clubs and the provincial associations forced the CSA president out (thankfully) as a result.
- CONCACAF games don’t draw well, especially if tickets are not cheap.
- There are no opportunities for friendlies against European opponents as they have Euro 2024 qualifying during those windows.
- High profile South American teams are incredibly expensive to fly in, nor do those teams have anything to gain by playing Canada.
- The MNT refused to play the last friendly in Canada, so other national teams are weary to commit to friendlies here.
So, what’s the magical solution?
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Disagree the media rights are worthless now. TSN or Sportsnet would pay for them now. Sportsnet has a deal with Canada Basketball now which I can't imagine bring in more viewers than Canada Soccer.
Canada Soccer took a 10 year deal when they were worthless (because I assume they needed money). They had to know at least at that point they were likely going to have a men's team in the 2026 World Cup which would bring in a bunch of sponsorship money.
They couldn't have predicted Canada would win the woman's Olympics or qualify for the Men's World Cup in 2022. But they made a long term deal with no upside.