2023 Cavalry FC and CPL Thread

[The Big Chill]

At the death!!

[soreshins]

2-1! Pretty much the last kick of the game. Hahaha. Love it!

[jammies]

I was prepared to be "not even mad" after Athletico's epic goal, but this is way way better.

[Slava]

And watching Tommy cup his ear to the crowd was so awesome!

[The Big Chill]

Originally Posted by Slava

And watching Tommy cup his ear to the crowd was so awesome!

That was great! Akio was being a prick too, you love to see it!

[shermanator]

AHAHAHA I turned off the game to read my daughter a book before bed and Akio scores.

YOU'RE WELCOME!

[AndyM]

Bassett sure is a whiner. It looked like he was about to take the ball and go home.

[Howie_16]

#####ing massive W! Better than the Flames winning in Anaheim!!

[Muta]

Akio has been an absolute stud of a mid-season pickup. What an impact player.

[shermanator]

Cavalry just won in Ottawa.

Is this....our year?

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Massive, massive, MASSIVE result

[shermanator]

[Julio]

CPL, not Cavs specific, but it looks like plans for a team in Saskatoon are in jeopardy, as their planned stadium is not going forward.

https://www.ckom.com/2023/09/05/prai...-in-saskatoon/

[shermanator]

It's a shame because Saskatoon drew 3000 people to a friendly between Calgary Foothills and the SK Selects. I do think pro soccer in Saskatoon could be amazing but like any expansion market, you need owners willing to invest their money and a suitable stadium. Saskatoon had neither.

[CroFlames]

That is a shame. I feel like CFL interest is waning, and a potential CPL club could capitalize on that, especially in Saskatoon.

As things ramp up towards 2026, interest in the country will grow.

[ditty]

I remember that when the territory rights for Windsor were awarded to the former commissioner, David Clanachan, he was keen on getting a franchise up and running by 2026. I wonder where things are at with Kelowna and Quebec. For me, Quebec is a huge priority for the league. I think Laval or Quebec city could be a really good market and I think that team would be competitive really fast with all the Francophone players who would want to play there but of course, it comes down to ownership and the stadium.

[Ozy_Flame]

L1O and L1Q are going to be key to soccer development in the country. Quebec City or Laval better get a team before 2026, it just makes too much sense.

[shermanator]

The second there is an ownership group willing to build a suitable stadium and sink the money into getting a team off the ground in Quebec City, it will happen. But like most cities in this country, Quebec City has neither.

Ottawa happened because they had a suitable facility and Atletico Madrid wanted to expand their global network of clubs. Vancouver happened because that's where the group wanted to be in the first place, and they got Langley to build them a stadium.

It's looking more likely that CPL expands in a similar manner to CFL. Which is to say, it seems like there will be a struggle to get past the talking and begging for municipal handouts stage and actually making it a reality.

[Bill Bumface]

I have to assume when you're staring down years of losses as a new owner in the league, and hard to imagine upside given how soccer has traditionally done in Canada, it's tough to get people to empty their pockets and start a team.

With the first wave I'm sure they had all sorts of optimistic projections to get people excited about, but those are now proven to be hypothetical.

The league absolutely needs to ramp up collection of transfer fees, and/or 2026 to take the country by storm.

With the national program in apparent shambles, 2026 is not looking like what it could have been at this point.

[TheIronMaiden]

Not to blame it all on two teams, but FC Edmonton and York represent what a worst case scenario looks like. There have only ever been 6 teams on track to be profitable, which is 2/3s, bearing in mind that it is too early to predict for VFC.