2024 Cavalry FC and CPL thread

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Slava

I’d take Aparicio here and move Camargo for sure! But to me, this is where Cavalry has really dwarfed other clubs in the CPL; they develop players and move them to bigger and better things. If you were a player wanting that type of move, I’d think you would start to take notice of that. Maybe this is evidence of that.

If I was a CPL player I'd absolutely want to play for the Cavs. Aside from the best stadium atmosphere (close with Halifax I admit), they are legitimately the premiere development machine of the league.

[Ozy_Flame]

Signed from Melbourne Victory, forward Leyton Brooks!

https://twitter.com/user/status/1739707764161618278

[shermanator]

Guessing Brooks is the replacement for Joe Mason, so even getting a goal will be an improvement. The last depth player we signed from the A-League turned out to be decent.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

I like new blood. Will have to find some highlights of him

[shermanator]

Lots of info from the commissioner in this article. Attendances up 20%, sponsorship, merch and concessions revenue all up from 2022. Two new clubs expected for 2025. York's sale was the highest of any club in the league, I'm assuming that includes expansion since it's the only club that's actually changed ownership.

Owners have lost around $125 million since the league was formed. League will likely move to West and East divisions (booooo) over time to help alleviate travel costs. League is also negotiating a CBA with the players union.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10191676/...-league-teams/

[Locke]

Originally Posted by shermanator

Lots of info from the commissioner in this article. Attendances up 20%, sponsorship, merch and concessions revenue all up from 2022. Two new clubs expected for 2025. York's sale was the highest of any club in the league, I'm assuming that includes expansion since it's the only club that's actually changed ownership.

Owners have lost around $125 million since the league was formed. League will likely move to West and East divisions (booooo) over time to help alleviate travel costs. League is also negotiating a CBA with the players union.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10191676/...-league-teams/

Those ne'erdowell layabout clowns should get sponsored by an airline!

[Ozy_Flame]

I don't mind the West/East division, as long as it still enables a tour through the East in a given season. It also helps develop regional rivalries. After going to the Forge/Cavs final, it's still weird to have a Calgary/Hamilton rivalry. Even the fans at Tim Hortons Field aren't entirely sure what to make of it (and that was both sides, by the way).

If the two new expansion teams are one in the West and one in the East, I think that would bode well for the league.

Vancouver
Pacific
Cavs
Valour
New team

Forge
York
Wanderers
ATO
New team

[Muta]

Crossing fingers for Kelowna and Quebec City in 2025! Another Edmonton team would be fine with me too in Kelowna's place.

[Howie_16]

Originally Posted by shermanator

Lots of info from the commissioner in this article. Attendances up 20%, sponsorship, merch and concessions revenue all up from 2022. Two new clubs expected for 2025. York's sale was the highest of any club in the league, I'm assuming that includes expansion since it's the only club that's actually changed ownership.

Owners have lost around $125 million since the league was formed. League will likely move to West and East divisions (booooo) over time to help alleviate travel costs. League is also negotiating a CBA with the players union.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10191676/...-league-teams/

No surprise here. I also think that this is why the CPL & CSB have always chosen to recognize a playoff champion over a table winner even though the majority of the football world does the latter.

[Ozy_Flame]

In case anyone cares, Udoka Chima signed with Worthing FC, National League South (6th level).

We will begin to know the fate of a few players in the coming weeks because of their contract expiry status this weekend.

[Jimmy Stang]

I'm not a fan of east/west divisions, though I suppose I understand it given the size of this country. But seeing the same 3-4 opponents the majority of the time will get stale really quickly, which will negatively impact the supporter experience. "But rivalries!" is nonsense. The team is only 8 (maybe 10 eventually) teams. We see each team plenty of times, and I don't want to see any more of Valour or Vancouver each year at the expense of Halifax and Ottawa.

I hope that they don't go ahead with divisions. Or maybe I should say - I hope that they aren't so financially desperate to need to go to divisions. It would be a huge mistake.

[Matty81]

I don't mind it as long as it's just an imbalanced schedule rather than not playing the teams in the other conference at all. Can't see it saving a ton of money though? you still need to pay for hotels, food, etc, just get a slightly cheaper airfare. I guess for the teams in the east they can probably train or bus home after their games but the western teams still have massive travel especially if Winnipeg gets forced on them, can't imagine anybody wants them in their conference.

I'd be so happy to see Kelowna get a team here, but I hope whoever is setting it up is in it for the long haul. The stadium is the most important thing as there is nothing here at all suitable right now, and you will absolutely need a roof in the summer when it's 35-40 degrees every day in July-August or people simply won't go.

Think it will take a big marketing effort and 4-5 seasons to build up to 3-4k attendance a game. It's the fastest growing city in Canada in the last census and the demographic has shifted dramatically with a lot of newcomers to Canada and transplants from Vancouver changing the flavor a ton in the last 5 years, but there are still a lot of 80s CDN families here who are locked in on hockey and CFL and have that scorn of soccer TSN and the HNIC crew created in that era relative to most other places in Canada.

Could see it drawing closer to 2k in the first season, and they'll need to run a couple coaches from Vernon and Penticton a game to make sure they are drawing from the full 400k-ish in the valley rather than just the 250k in Kelowna. Okanagan branding rather than Kelowna would make sense.

[Thunderball]

Divisions could be fine as long as there is significant inter conference play. I also suspect this needs to wait until there are 12 teams.

West: Pacific, VFC, Kelowna (or Sask), Cavs, Edmonton, Valour
East: Forge, York, Ottawa, Halifax, Quebec, Montreal (or GTA/Kitchener)

Figure everyone plays each other twice (home and away) in their conference (5x4) and everyone in the other conference once (home and away) (5x2), you get a 30 game season (versus 28 now).

Could work, and be enough variety that it isn’t stale. Doing it with 8 could be a death by boredom for the league. 10 might not be enough either.

[Matty81]

Is there any talk of Edmonton actually getting their #### together, getting a stadium sorted and getting back in the league? Or Saskatoon? Seems like their stadium project is completely DOA. Here in Kelowna there are rumors on the ground in the soccer community that the city and ownership group have been in talks for a while on building a stadium and some stories in local media on the preferred site, but nothing concrete or any updates in a while. I think the ownership group is trying to get the city to pay for a lot of it.

[shermanator]

i think after the embarrassment that was the Saskatoon situation the league will keep things quiet until a club is actually ready to go. Saskatoon was never really all that serious and was more of a real estate play. One of the owners who were driving things got cold feet, the other got rights, it got messy and all along there was no serious plan to build a stadium. It's a shame because I think they'd be a great success along the lines of Halifax.

It will be a long time before Edmonton is considered again. Not only do you need a suitable stadium that does not exist, but you'd need to pump a lot of money into the club in order to make people forget about the disaster that was FC Edmonton. The city has rejected pro club after pro club. I think you need at least 5 years away before anything is even remotely considered and I don't know how anyone can look at the history of the game in that city and think that they could do any differently.

With most markets until there is a stadium sorted out there will not be a club, and as with most sports in this country those with the means to build a stadium don't want to spend their own money doing it. So we'll see who's actually serious about this sport and who is all talk.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Diego Gutierrez is confirmed now!
Nice to see some signings coming in as I imagine they’re starting camp in a few weeks time

[Arsenal14]

Originally Posted by M*A*S*H 4077

Diego Gutierrez is confirmed now!
Nice to see some signings coming in as I imagine they’re starting camp in a few weeks time

Nice add. Still some signings to go but our starting 11 should be strong again.

Bevan
Daley-Camargo-Gutierrez-Shome-Musse
Kamdem-Klomp-Kobza-Aird
Carducci

Need another GK and more defensive cover.

[Matty81]

Seems like a great signing. Watching them play last year at the end of the season, not near as much as many of you guys, it seemed to me like they need one more dynamic attacking wide man with some acceleration to complement Akio and they should have a very strong team again - just felt like they didn't have quite enough of a cutting edge out wide? Edit... forgot about Musse, my bad. Will be interesting to see how the Klomp story plays out though as that would be a big hole to fill.

[Muta]

Really like this signing. I would think the Cavs will be faves to win the league, barring a massive collapse somehow. The wildcard here is Klomp, whom I hope we still have by the time the Champions Cup matches take place next month.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Arsenal14

Nice add. Still some signings to go but our starting 11 should be strong again.

Bevan
Daley-Camargo-Gutierrez-Shome-Musse
Kamdem-Klomp-Kobza-Aird
Carducci

Need another GK and more defensive cover.

You forgot Brooks!