I'm glad someone is stepping up and taking the reigns on soccer in Canada when it was just kind of booted around before. I am worried that this takes away opportunities for the casual fan to get exposed to the sport and get hooked. Hopefully they can partner with the traditional networks for some of the games.
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Carducci has been called to the national team for their friendlies against Barbados and Iceland. Since there are 3 friendlies in 10 days, I bet we see his national team debut.
I'm glad someone is stepping up and taking the reigns on soccer in Canada when it was just kind of booted around before. I am worried that this takes away opportunities for the casual fan to get exposed to the sport and get hooked. Hopefully they can partner with the traditional networks for some of the games.
It's a HUGE catch 22 for Canadian soccer, you're absolutely right. The league is likely getting next to nothing from OneSoccer considering viewership. But the rub is who is watching CPL soccer in Canada with One Soccer?
A few thousand hardcore fans that stream and pay $10 a month for the service on a streaming device. What's your opportunity for casual fan growth with that strategy?
Pretty much only casual ticket buyers who then love it enough to buy a subscription to the streaming service.
That number is likely in the...hundreds? They would be way better off giving free rights to CBC, but they're a fledgling league so they'll likely take any small amount of money they can get. (maybe CBC wouldn't even stream a bunch of games for free).
I personally err on the side of gaining the causal fans at a loss in the early years as that's your expansion of ticket buyers and viewers later, but its not my money so it's easy to say. The league needs growth however.
Last edited by jayswin; 01-03-2020 at 09:40 PM.
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I personally err on the side of gaining the causal fans at a loss in the early years as that's your expansion of ticket buyers and viewers later, but its not my money so it's easy to say. The league needs growth however.
My personal experience would agree.
The combination of casually tuning into Canada games until I was hooked as a fan and then stumbling on some of those players (De Rosario, de Guzman, Morgan) playing for TFC on CBC is the only reason I got into MLS.
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I think the best chance for the CPL to grow the casual viewer is to continue and expand their partnership with CBC. IIRC the games CBC showed this year drew pretty good. TSN and Sportsnet are dropping any soccer content that they have to pay for quickly, and TSN gets MLS for free.
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Anyone hearing any player rumours right now? Seems there's a fair amount of activity being reported for other teams, but Cavalry seems to be running a tight ship.
If Pasquotti, Escalante, and Buscher are not re-signing, I'd hope Tommy is investigating Petrasso and Bustos. Easily the best players at Valour and apparently entertaining offers.
Would also love to hear some updates on Malonga. He'd be great to have back, and I'd hate to watch him poach goals for another CanPL team.
The club has kept things very close to the vest this offseason. I've talked to one player directly about his potential return in 2020, but given that it's not a given whether he stays or goes it would not be fair to the player to discuss it publicly.
There are a couple "reporters" (aka 20 year old bloggers) who are really stirring #### up on Twitter this week with CPL rumours, particularly Valour / Edmonton rumours. Nothing Cavalry related though.
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Anecdotally, the Roughnecks used be a decent sports conversation starter when a bunch of games were on sportsnet. When they went to 100% pay streaming it's like they barely exist in the city with casual fans. Which makes sense as you were either at the game or pay for steaming which is a miniscule percentage of Calgary sports fans.
Attendance isn't horrible, but there's some huge value in having games available or you basically only have the total attendance worth of people following the team. So if there's any decline there, look out.
I wonder if the odd European star player comes to CanPL in the twilight of his career just for a change and to experience Canada a little.
Might be fun for a guy to fill the net like he used to back in his glory days.
I really hope so, but it has to be done carefully.
A former Euro star could be huge for marketing, merchandise, and attendance. However, the league has to balance that off with ensuring teams can afford these players. I’m a big proponent of a 2 designated player system, where each club can have one star Canadian and one star Foreigner outside of the cap. But there is more than a couple teams that need to get their act together first before the league can grow to that.
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From the video, it looks as though Senor Cordova will not be fazed by the pitch conditions at ATCO field! Also looks like their is at least one artificial playing surface in Peru as well, which will help deal with playing away with the Cavs.
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It also looks to me like he was playing mostly as the left side of a front three and was setting up quite a few plays rather than being a poacher. Maybe an Escalante replacement more than a new Malonga?
Also sounds like the CPL did hold an international player draft without announcing anything which is probably where Cordova is coming from. I hate the idea and the lack of transparency. Teams should be responsible for finding and signing their own players, without having the league involved.
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There appears to be two schools of thoughts when it comes to crowning a league champion. The first is the traditional school that rewards the team at the top of the table for being the best team during the entire season. The second would be the "North American" school that values the excitement that comes with a play-off. As the CPL would benefit from having their best clubs be as competitive as they could be, as well as, the attention that can come from play-offs, I've had a go at creating a league format that provides both.
The regular season would continue to be divided into a Spring and Fall season. However, the schedule would be balanced across the two seasons and the same number of matches played. The two seasons would provide the four clubs that would compete in a play-off for the North Star Shield. This play-off would invole two semi-finals with the teams finishing first in the Spring and Fall seasons playing the teams that finished second in the Fall and Spring seasons respectively. While the winners would play in the final for the North Star Shield, the winner of the final wouldn't qualify for the CONCACAF League.
The combined points table would be used to determine the seeding for the Voyageurs Cup. Additionally, the team with the most points would qualify for the CONCACAF League.
Thoughts?
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