2024 Cavalry FC and CPL thread

[Matty81]

Wow Honduran 2nd division for Escalante? Looks like one of the bigger clubs at that level but pretty low level of play, mostly teams with 1-2k stadiums that are comprised of wooden bleacher benches and bumpy mens league level pitches. Wonder if he has some family things pulling him back.

[shermanator]

Holy ####, this is not good. I guess it's time to see if any other broadcaster actually cares about Canadian soccer...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1750631477887258690

https://twitter.com/user/status/1750632094756184249

[PeteMoss]

No idea how anyone can think this is bad. This is huge win for the national teams and I'd guess CBC and likely Rogers/Bell will pick up some CPL games. Getting them out of hinterlands (and to someone who actually pays the rights fees costs) is a big win.

[shermanator]

Well, it's bad if no network actually wants to pay for the rights to Canadian soccer, which has been the case for decades. TSN wouldn't even pay for the rights to Christine Sinclair's last game; they got it for free.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by shermanator

Well, it's bad if no network actually wants to pay for the rights to Canadian soccer, which has been the case for decades. TSN wouldn't even pay for the rights to Christine Sinclair's last game; they got it for free.

Seems like OneSoccer was getting it for free as well by not paying. At least on TSN, Sportsnet or CBC - people might actually watch it and grow support for the CPL instead of being on the most niche pay service known to man.

[Jimmy Stang]

I'm not so sure that this is a good thing. It will effectively kill off OneSoccer, and I highly doubt that we'll be able to get to watch every single CPL match anymore.

I often wondered how MediaPro could afford to have the coverage that they did. I suppose the answer is that they couldn't.

I'd love to be proven wrong, while this may be good for the national teams, I think that it is very bad news for the CPL.

[cheevers]

Yeah I feel like even if it can get to the point where they are just showing highlights (not just bloopers) on Sportsnet or TSN it would huge. The number of people I talk to that have no idea there is professional football in Calgary is disappointing.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

As long as I can watch every Cavalry match on demand I don’t really care who broadcasts it. But somehow I doubt TSN/Sportsnet would show all the matches over baseball, billiards, poker, or whatever other nonsense they show half the time

[Bill Bumface]

I think this is awful news. OneSoccer was taking an absolute bath on the CPL, and I doubt anyone is eager to step up and take their place.

Considering the viewing numbers, sending crews and equipment across the country between Victoria and Halifax is not going to be economical.

IMO, this is a real risk for the league going forward.

[Thunderball]

It’s an existential threat and a possible league killer for sure… but I have some optimism that they must have seen this coming and started making moves. Could be an opportunity to move to a broadcaster with higher viewership. I suspect mediapro’s claim on CSB is baseless and it’s essentially them trying to get out of an investment they didn’t want to pay for anymore.

Next two months will be very instructive.

[Bill Bumface]

It must be an awful time for everyone working there. Poor Kristian Jack is probably wondering what he's done to deserve his recent career path.

[Matty81]

That's potentially a big shift, but gotta think CSB definitely will bundle the rights deal together with the NTs and to find a solution that doesn't leave the league behind, the folks funning CSB also run the league. I can't see the big networks getting involved and airing those local games but someone like Fubo, DAZN or bein will step up I bet. Such a huge market for live sports and content right now. But I could definitely see the production values slipping

Hopefully the silver lining is that Kurt Larson finally loses his job

[Matty81]

They sound like they have something lined up already:

From the league's comms dpt. "By taking back full control of our rights we will immediately have the opportunity to do so with new partners who have the ability to reach larger audiences."

OneSoccer was handy but nobody who wasn't already a fan of the CPL was buying it, be great to get the league onto another platform where potential casual viewers can check it out without downloading some random app and signing up just for that purpose.

[Slava]

Hopefully still on Fubo, which is what I was using anyway.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Slava

Hopefully still on Fubo, which is what I was using anyway.

Unfortunately Fubo was a feed of OneSoccer, with games produced by MediaPro.

With MediaPro out and OneSoccer surely dead, a lot has to happen before we see any games, let alone all of them.

[Slava]

Yeah I guess Fubo is just re-airing coverage from someone else for all their offerings. I was just meaning that I hope whoever ends up airing these games (which I hope is someone!) that it’s on Fubo.

It is something I wish the CRTC would mandate though; we see five or six channels of the same stuff all the time from TSN and Sportsnet. It would be great if they had to air some Canadian leagues and games.

[Matty81]

Probably just comes down to production costs, if there is a way they can crank it out cheaply am sure someone will pick it up, everybody is looking for content but the budget associated with moving expensive filming setups and crews around to cover the games seems pretty steep... I don't have any insight into that world of TV production but for some reason I also feel like their workforce is unionized and not cheap though? May be off base.

[Ozy_Flame]

This is pretty cool. The open trials found two possible players with potential.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1750936031908798739

[shermanator]

Thinking about the whole CSB / OneSoccer debacle a day later, I would think there has to be something in the pipeline in order for CSB to pull the media rights and leave the CPL and the national teams unavailable to everyone altogether. If you aren't getting the money anyways, you might as well put it on a network where it will get more eyeballs.

All of this infighting is really frustrating though. Feels like as soon as the game had a little bit of success in this country everyone was out to get the scraps that were available.

[Bill Bumface]

I'm still worried the outstanding lawsuits are enough to sink the already fragile league finances. Hopefully MediaPro is all bluster. It's just hard to imagine anyone picking up the rights when they are being contested in a lawsuit. The CPL and MediaPro need to settle quickly and move on to get past this.