Audi Pardners! The 2018 MLS Thread

[ursus arctos]

Ah, I thought you were talking about disgruntled ‘Caps supporters who lived in the city.

There seems to be a fair bit of confusion at the moment, with Surrey and Bridgeview (both of which are closer to the city than they are to what I think of as the Fraser Valley) being mentioned.

[ursus arctos]

Cubs’ owner Tom Ricketts is going to own Chicago’s new USL team/real estate development project

[Amor de Cosmos]

There seems to be a fair bit of confusion at the moment, with Surrey and Bridgeview (both of which are closer to the city than they are to what I think of as the Fraser Valley) being mentioned.

Technically that's true. But Surrey is huge (the third largest city in the province by area, and the fastest growing one by population in Canada.) In the East it butts up against Langley. Bridgeview is in it's North East corner across the river from New Westminster. It's definitely industrial/suburban, ie: not Valley. The Langley side is quite different, still a lot of agriculture and God-botherers, much more Valley-ish.

Anyway people are still searching for clues as to where it'll be. "Port City FC" is about all we've got . Surrey has a port, Langley and points East don't. The port's also around the Bridgeview area. There's a Skytrain station nearby too which would be a big bonus.

[Hot Pepsi]

It will likely be designated as D2, and the clubs will definitely be eligible for the Voyageurs Cup.

It's probably good for development for Canada to have it's own D2. There's certainly enough markets for it. But for travel purposes, it would probably make more sense to split it up east-west rather than by country, or maybe even split into four leagues by quadrant. I'm sure Ottawa, for example, would rather travel to Harrisburg (I mean, nobody really *wants* to go to Harrisburg, but for footballing purposes...), for example, or even Tampa, than BC, and the teams in BC would rather go to California than come all the way east. It's better for the fans too.

If we could incorporate Mexico into a North America-wide system, that would be even better, but I think that ship has probably sailed since their system is already well-established and different and the weather situation is so different. It might work in baseball, though.

[ursus arctos]

Given that the model is the CFL (and that there is overlapping ownership and shared grounds), they have a very different vision of what they want to be.

[jefe]

Gold Cup 2019 venues are starting to be announced. LAFC's stadium and Phoenix are official, and it's been leaked that the US will play their first game at Minnesota's coming stadium.

[Hot Pepsi]

Given that the model is the CFL (and that there is overlapping ownership and shared grounds), they have a very different vision of what they want to be.

That doesn’t seem like a comparable situation. The CFL doesn’t really compete with other second or third division professional gridiron leagues because their really aren’t any (though maybe the growth of the game in Europe could change that). An all Canadian soccer league is going to have a lot more competition for talent, obviously.

And it competes for attention with the NFL and college football - insofar as it does - not just by being in Canada, but by having significantly different rules, which make it more entertaining in some ways.

Trying to make soccer different than the international standard isn’t likely to work any better than it has the other million times North Americans thought they could make soccer more exciting by changing the rules.

The CFL plays a lot of games in the summer when there’s no other gridiron happening. But the rest of pro soccer in the US and Canada already does that, so unless they want to turn soccer into a snowsport, that avenue of differentiation isn’t available.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I think the CFL model is a financial one. MLS is expensive. Tickets for Whitecaps games are around the same as for many EPL matches, though the product is much inferior. Kids also pay full price. CFL games, relatively speaking, are a bargain. Fans know that. If you can take the family to a CPL match for a similar price, then the league might just manage to survive

[jefe]

There seems to be a fair bit of confusion at the moment, with Surrey and Bridgeview (both of which are closer to the city than they are to what I think of as the Fraser Valley) being mentioned.

Technically that's true. But Surrey is huge (the third largest city in the province by area, and the fastest growing one by population in Canada.) In the East it butts up against Langley. Bridgeview is in it's North East corner across the river from New Westminster. It's definitely industrial/suburban, ie: not Valley. The Langley side is quite different, still a lot of agriculture and God-botherers, much more Valley-ish.

Anyway people are still searching for clues as to where it'll be. "Port City FC" is about all we've got . Surrey has a port, Langley and points East don't. The port's also around the Bridgeview area. There's a Skytrain station nearby too which would be a big bonus.

Victoria's newspaper says they're 2 weeks away from getting a team of their own.

USOC round 2 was last night, among the higher division casualties were Indy Eleven, both Oklahoma USL teams, and Drogba FC.

Peter Wilt's attempt at a separate 3rd division, the NISA, is now all but dead....cause he's going to be running the USL D3 expansion team in Madison WI next year.

Oscar Pareja says Dallas will have a USL team next year as well.

Matt Polster did his MCL, out 4-5 months after surgery.

[Hot Pepsi]

I think the CFL model is a financial one. MLS is expensive. Tickets for Whitecaps games are around the same as for many EPL matches, though the product is much inferior. Kids also pay full price. CFL games, relatively speaking, are a bargain. Fans know that. If you can take the family to a CPL match for a similar price, then the league might just manage to survive

That’s great, but how is that different from the USL?

[Amor de Cosmos]

It's all Canadian. To some people that matters.

[jefe]

Tampa Bay Rowdies fired their coach and replaced him with one of their fullbacks.

When the summer transfer window opens up, everyone in MLS gets access to a new pot of money called the Youth Transfer Fund. It's meant to be spent o kids who can be later sold on for a profit.

[jefe]

Albert Rusnak said on his way to Europe for the international break that he was really happy to be escaping RSL with everything going on their right now for a bit. Meanwhile, Sparta Prague have offered 2 million Euro for him.

Tyler Adams seems be close to moving Red Bulls, to Leipzig at the end of the MLS season.

USOC round 3 early game tonight, North Carolina FC 4-1 Ocean City Noreasters of the PDL.

Tigres have decided they would very much like to swap Enner Valencia for Giovinco. That's nice for them.

[imp]

The Ocean City Noreasters. Snappy name for fan chants. Or, yet another candidate for stupidest club name ever. The Ocean City Boardwalks would have been better.

[jefe]

The Ocean City Noreasters. Snappy name for fan chants. Or, yet another candidate for stupidest club name ever. The Ocean City Boardwalks would have been better.

David Vaudreuil used to coach them, I think. Him or John Maessner.

US v Brazil 9/7 at son of Giants Stadium, 9/11 v Mexico in Nashville

The USSF GM position that's been created after the latest shakeup is going to go to Earnie Stewart.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The CPL Calgary team will be known (apparently) as Cavalry FC. It joins Valour FC (Winnipeg), Port City FC (BC lower mainland) and Founders FC (?). It be nice to have a city attached to the name.

[ursus arctos]

Says the QPR supporter . . .

[Amor de Cosmos]

Well there is actually a "Queens Park"...

[ursus arctos]

As there is a port and cavalry regiment.

Le Club de hockey Canadien has also done all right without a geographic identifier, but then I'm not being particularly serious.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I also tend to mis-read cavalry as calvary, which is probably just me but it isn't a good look for a sports team.

[ursus arctos]

And here I always blamed that on exposure to hyper-Catholicism as a child . . .

[Amor de Cosmos]

Halifax CPL team to be known as HFX Wanderers it seems. In the near future all cities will be known by three characters instead of words

[Hot Pepsi]

It's all Canadian. To some people that matters.

That’s fair. But it would be more cost-effective and fan-friendly to have eastern Canadian teams in the same division as northeastern US teams and western Canadian teams with northwest US teams.

[jefe]

USA v Argentina and Columbia at home in October.

USOC Round 4 next week has 3 amateur teams surviving to play MLS teams, a NY derby, and Minnesota drawn to host Cincy, after Minnesota had previously said, um we can't host this round. They play at Cincy instead.

[Hot Pepsi]

FC Cincinnati will join MLS next year, playing in Nippert until they build their own stadium.


http://www.espnfc.com/major-league-soccer/story/3512103/fc-cincinnati-to-join-mls-as-expansion-team-next-season