2019 Cavalry FC season thread

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by shermanator

I can understand why fans in Victoria, Edmonton, Winnipeg, York and Halifax would stay away from CPL games for the rest of the year. It's a two club race and the other five are nowhere close to the same standard.

I'd prefer stadiums to be full but I get why attendances are starting to sag in certain markets.

I think if you're going to have the two seasons be different lengths making the fall one shorter makes sense. The fall games are probably the toughest sell, so if they're meaningful that improves the chances a bit.

[TheIronMaiden]

Pretty soon games will be head to head with NHL games. I know that a lot of futball fans don't care about hockey and vice versa but having the season opener for the Flames the same day as the next home Saturday game won't help attendance.

FWIW you could go to both.

[shermanator]

Another good article on the supporters scene in Calgary. Nicki is awesome, she and her family have done some really great banners (like the Gong Show banner for the Impact game).

https://canpl.ca/article/footy-fan-t...across-calgary

[shermanator]

FC Edmonton lose 1-0 to Pacific. Think you can pretty much write them off now.

[Reggie Dunlop]

FC Edmonton is no good.

[jayswin]

Where are you guys who occasionally post attendance getting your stats from? I can't find anything for CPL.

[browna]

As far as the two seasons, as I think I said before, my guess is the league figured there would be a lot of univeristy players playing which would have to go back late August. Or other transfers they may be available after the spring season or in the Fall, in or out...in both cases, that would be unfair to top of the table teams who lost players along the way, that they had all season if there was only 1 season.


In th PCL back when Cannons were here, they split season so late season call ups to major league teams didn’t sewer the strong farm team’s standing they had built up over 5 prior months when calling all the top prospects up for a late mlb season look.

Or, for the CPL, to split the season up so that teams (and game attendance)weren’t all but out of the race come late June, with 4 months still to go, and would potentially allow teams to reload for a second shot and keep fan interest up.

But I do agree, playing into late October and having the final in late October, is too long. Weather has a good chance of being very nasty, injuries, conflict with other sports hurts attendance, and in general, weather change takes a lot of the talent and skill out of games when the elements become a big factor.

Not sure why the season is so long in first place. Could’ve had seasons of 12 and 12 and be almost done by end of Sept. I guess because players had no other options to play anywhere past a certain point in time anyways? Ie transfers to mls or obviously USports is cut off before the CPL season could properly end, so they play more games just because? Or they want to have the guarantee of wages for players last longer, for purposes of recruitment of players?

I’m sure there will be tweaks in season 2 to a bunch of things for a new league, including the schedule.

[jayswin]

I've noticed some posters post attendance from Cavalry games from time to time. I'm a huge attendance nerd does anyone know where to find accurate CPL attendance figures?

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by jayswin

I've noticed some posters post attendance from Cavalry games from time to time. I'm a huge attendance nerd does anyone know where to find accurate CPL attendance figures?

soccerway.com is where I go for everything soccer and they have the attendance figures up as soon as the league reports them. Wikipedia has accurate numbers right from the league as well (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_C...son#Attendance). I think all figures are tickets distributed but that's fairly standard.

kenn.com is a pretty good source for attendance stats. Not much CPL wise for them but it does paint a good picture of attendance in this country historically, from NASL through A-League, USL, NASL II, MLS, etc. You can see how poor the Calgary Storm / Mustangs were during the last attempt at pro soccer.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Where are you guys who occasionally post attendance getting your stats from? I can't find anything for CPL.

Canpl website has them. There's a couple of twitter users who post weekly numbers that get posted to reddit as well.

As far as accuracy goes, the frequency by which Calgary's attendance figures end in 50 or 00 indicates there's some pretty significant rounding going on.

[MillerTime GFG]

Not Cavalry related, but former Foothills PDL player Will Akio has been named to the preliminary South Sudan AFCON roster. Pretty cool...from playing in the Calgary nation's cup for South Sudan to potentially playing for actual South Sudan.

Great player. Pain in the arse to defend.

[shermanator]

Article from CBC talking about Spruce Meadows' long term plan, including a 12,000-seat soccer stadium and field house.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...unty-1.5287416

[Resolute 14]

The claim they can put 2000 more seats into ATCO Field is interesting too. Because the only place I can see that is by replacing the 400 section lawn chairs with another bleacher.

Despite what the article says, that would bring capacity to around 7500, which is a good fit for this league, I think.

[nik-]

it's a shame they're going to double down on that location

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by nik-

it's a shame they're going to double down on that location

As much as I want a more central location, it's just not going to happen with this ownership group. The amount of risk they take on in building a new ground is much less at the venue they own outside of the city than anywhere in the city. A large part of the reason the Southern's own a soccer team is in order to make Spruce Meadows as a whole more sustainable, bringing in additional revenue outside of equestrian. They aren't in this for the love of the game.

Personally, I would love a stadium on that big plot of empty land at Westbrook Mall but I just don't think a centrally located stadium is happening.

Until I get my billions anyways...

[TheIronMaiden]

As someone whose family lives outside of Calgary the location of Spruce Meadows is fine, you can just skirt around the city no problem.

The experience of having a few at the pub and shuttling is actually tons of fun. It gets everyone in the mood to be rowdy.

The stadium itself is soaked in character, it is a genuinely nice place to show up and hour early and city in the shade.

[Jimmy Stang]

I have been critical of the location in the past, as I feel that it does make it difficult for a large chunk of the population. Including, not surprisingly, myself!

But... I'm willing to give that a pass because there is a well-financed ownership group that is backing professional soccer in (or near!) this city. The City of Calgary, the Flames, etc. aren't involved (for better or worse), so this is what we've got. I'm thankful for the venue, even if it takes me 45-effin' minutes to get there.

As a Tuscany resident, it has definitely limited my ability to go as many games. But on the other hand, maybe someone in the south has been able to go more. Although I hate to use the term: "it is what it is".

The club has been adapting and needs to continue to adapt ("supporter culture relations", pricing is a big one, etc.) but the venue is one thing that I can't really moan about anymore. And without question, I would rather drive 45 minutes to Spruce Meadows than 15 minutes to McMahon, even if that means that I won't be able to attend as many matches.

In short, the location still sucks for many people, but that isn't going to change. But the VENUE is great, and we are lucky to have it.

[CroFlames]

Some professional floodlights would be nice though, you gotta admit.

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

The club has been adapting and needs to continue to adapt ("supporter culture relations", pricing is a big one, etc.) but the venue is one thing that I can't really moan about anymore. And without question, I would rather drive 45 minutes to Spruce Meadows than 15 minutes to McMahon, even if that means that I won't be able to attend as many matches.

I don't want to get peoples hopes up too much, but my understanding is that ticket prices are coming down for next season...

[fleuryisgod]

I'll be at this Saturday's game and am hoping to hit up Rose and Crown and then take the bus from there. My question is can we just grab the bus or does it fill up? Also what time does the bus leave at to get to the game? Thanks!