Getting Canadian Clubs to the MLS

Joey Saputo recently went on record saying that "Montreal's entry into MLS is no longer a question of if, but when." Vancouver already has a guaranteed spot in the 2011 MLS season. Toronto is currently the home to a financially successful MLS team for a third season. Eugene Melnyk has been quoted as saying that getting an MLS team to Ottawa is "a no-brainer". Most recently Edmonton has been throwing around the idea of an MLS bid.

The idea of whether or not the MLS is the best way forward for Canadian clubs to develop is up for debate, but what is not up for debate is that the MLS is the future of the sport in this country. The MLS is bringing in the money, is catching audiences from across Canada, and is "the only league" in many people's eyes.

You could go on debating the quality of the MLS compared to the USL for hours, and believe me its been done. The simple fact is for Canadian teams to gain the national recognition they need from a mainstream audience they need to be competing in the MLS. The USL just doesn't have the exposure and as long as the MLS continues to maintain its status as the top league financially the USL will always be a second option to the MLS.

With all that in mind getting as many Canadian clubs into the league has to be the top priority. With Toronto and Vancouver already there the obvious next step is Montreal.

For a USL team Montreal has a solid fan base getting a sell out of over 12,000 out to their home opener last weekend and of course bringing 55,000 people out to the Big O for a CONCACAF Champions League game. The fans want the MLS, the organization is ready to make the jump and the only thing that stopped them in their 2011 bid was Joey Saputo's arrogance, refusing to pay the $40 million entry fee.

What needs to happen in order to get Montreal to the MLS is to get back on commissioner Don Garber's good side and for Joey Saputo to get off his high horse. According to Saputo these things are going well, they are in talks with MLS and a franchise looks inevitable in the near future.

The next prospective site is Ottawa. I think for Ottawa it's a case of "If you build it they will come". Getting an agreement with the city to build a 20-30,000 seat soccer specific stadium in downtown Ottawa is the only way this bid is going to get going. Melnyk is convinced that building a stadium near the Scotiabank Place (home to the Ottawa Senators) would work, but I doubt the city would allow this considering the mess that the location of the Scotiabank Place created.

Garber has said he speaks very highly of Ottawa and if a viable stadium plan is in place I think an MLS team in Ottawa is the future.

Edmonton Oilers owner, Daryl Katz is the newest billionaire to consider the MLS north of the 49th. Although at the moment he is just considering, The Edmonton audience has shown the interest in soccer is there time and time again. People point to poor men's national team attendances, but the U-19 Women's World Cup drew excellent crowds as did an L.A. Galaxy - Vancouver Whitecaps friendly. With relatively little advertising for these games these attendances are all the more impressive.

Although Commonwealth Stadium isn't really an option, because of its enormous size so a new soccer specific stadium would have to be built in Edmonton to accommodate an MLS franchise.

Getting Canadian clubs into the MLS will help the sport in this country more than anything else could right now and making sure this happens should be these club's number one priority.

[Cross-posted to The Canadian Stretford End]

The door is open ...

Ottawa 67's owner Jeff Hunt was on the FAN 590 tonight and left the door open to partnering with a soccer team, if Ottawa ever gets a stadium.

"For soccer fans the highlight of the discussion came when Hunt said that they would look into bringing a MLS 'or other professional soccer league' to their stadium if they win the day. Although the cynic in all of us might dismiss that as just pandering to anyone in city that is leaning towards the footy option, let’s take it at face value for now." — The 24th Minute

The possibility of soccer was mentioned during the Lansdowne Live press conference back in October (although it might have come off better if there had been any trace of soccer memorabilia on the podium).

Related:
'Other' options for Ottawa (The 24th Minute)

The W.C.E. is in like with Lansdowne, not in love

It seems best to pass the conch with regard to the latest on Lansdowne Park. It has been a popular topic.

The Globe figures MLS took a body blow to the solar plexus while the CFL bid only had the wind knocked out of it. Perhaps this forces Eugene Melnyk and the soccer people to call Roger Greenberg and the CFL lobby and start collaborating, as D. Rollins wondered.

The worst fear, of course, is that a city which hasn't done anything about this for a decade, won't do anything. A functional sports stadium is for some other city, not the capital of a G8 nation.

Again, who knows what will happen in 15 days' time, especially since it is up to the W.C.E. under the Joker, Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien.

A more pressing concern is that the ballpark on Coventry Rd., the former Lynx Stadium. City councillor Rainier Bloess mouth was ahead of his mind yesterday when he lumped it in with Lansdowne Park as one of two "white elephants." He is, no disrespect, speaking ignorance. The baseball stadium, in Carl Kiiffner's words, is "entirely paid for -- every last penny." It had a tenant for 16 consecutive summers until last week. Meantime, Lansdowne Park, counting this summer, has lacked one for 10 of the past 13.

A personal stance is that as someone who is will be not be around Ottawa for much longer has no claim on saying what's best for the city. It really falls to people who are more personally invested, so have at 'er.

Related:
Preserving part of our souls at the heart of the city (Earl McRae, Sun Media)
Stadium dreams put on ice (Shane Ross, Sun Media)
Councillors skeptical of 'big ticket' spending on stadium (Patrick Dare, Ottawa Citizen)
Ottawa's great stadium debate continues to simmer (David Naylor, globesports.com)

Lansdowne Dead?

Metro's Ben Rycroft, my colleague at It’s Called Football, is reporting on a leaked document regarding the Lansdowne Live development proposal. The report suggests that the site is in far worse shape than originally thought and that “large scale renovations of the stadium's north end stands are going to be needed just to bring it up acceptable standards.”

Rycroft has taken this information as a hit to Ottawa’s MLS bid. With all due respect to Ben, I don’t follow. See, Lansdowne is the proposed site of the CFL team. Eugene Melnyk wants the thing built out in Kanata beside the hockey rink. If anything this is good news for the MLS bid because it could make the stadium renovation at Lansdowne cost prohibitive. Many in the Glebe aren’t thrilled by the idea of a stadium there anyway. They would be perfectly happy with alternative development plans that don’t include large amounts of sports fans interfering in their idyllic urban lives.

If you talk to anyone in Ottawa they will tell you that it's not a matter of if the city will build a new stadium, only where. Any problems with the Lansdowne site make the probability of building elsewhere more likely. Since the Kanata site is the only one that promises to have a tenant attached to it, this seems to be good news for Ottawa’s soccer hopes (and not so good for its CFL fans).

Related:
Lansdowne will cost extra $20 million over 10 years (Patrick Dare, Ottawa Citizen)

The real loser in potential Habs sale? Montreal soccer fans

Huge news today that Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett is officially trying to offload at least a portion of the team [Sean Gordon, The Globe and Mail]. The timing's certainly unfortunate for the Canadiens, given their recent struggles and coaching turnover in the midst of what was supposed to be a glorious centennial season. It's likely that the sale won't matter all that much for Montreal hockey in the end, though; this is the league's most storied franchise and one that successfully dominates not just its local market, but its entire province. The idea of moving the team can't be in the cards, unless the dealer is an absolute moron.

The real potential losers here are Montreal soccer fans. Keep in mind that Gillett was responsible for much of the money backstopping the Montreal Impact's bid for MLS status. Given that the Globe story mentions that Gillett may also be looking to offload his interests in Liverpool FC and NASCAR, it's hard to see him having an interest in supplying the financing for Montreal to make another run at one of the 2012 expansion slots.

That's too bad, as the Impact will need all the money they can get. As the Canadian Guys pointed out on the weekend, Stade Saputo is not an acceptable MLS stadium in its current 13,000 seat incarnation. Renovations to make it a 20,000-seater were discussed this fall, but they're going to be expensive. Although Joey Saputo stated firmly after Montreal's withdrawal that the partnership "never, at any point, had any trouble whatsoever financing its bid," it's looking more and more like that may not have been the case; Gillett's troubles with Liverpool were in full swing by that point, and the economy was already in the tank. Of course, Saputo's words may well be technically correct; they may not have ever had trouble financing their proposal of $43 million Canadian (as reported by Ben Knight back in his Globe days), including construction costs, but it seems that they were unwilling or unable to come up with the $40 million U.S. franchise fee. You have to wonder if part of that was perhaps due to Gillett becoming uneasy about investing more in sports at a time when he was already facing a cash crunch at Liverpool.

This is not meant to paint Gillett as a villain. In fact, as portrayed in Stephen Brunt's columns, he comes off as the sort of man you'd want as an owner; not stingy with the wages or the stadium expansions and respectful of cherished traditions. His Liverpool counterpart Tom Hicks is quite a different story, but Gillett seems to care about sports and to do so for the right reasons. Obviously I can't know his motivation for trying to sell his sports interests now, but given the global economic turmoil, the possibility exists that it might not have been his choice under better circumstances. He was a great owner for the Canadiens, and he should be remembered as such; he also supported the idea of MLS soccer in Montreal and he deserves praise for that.

The question for any future Montreal bid for MLS status is if they can find someone willing to take Gillett's place, and they'll have to do it soon. As Ives reported, MLS wants to add two more teams in 2012. If we presume the same two-year gap between expansion announcements and starting play, that would mean that the next two cities would be decided about a year from now. That's not a lot of time for Montreal to find an investor willing to pony up the cash for stadium renovations and the full franchise fee. Plus, it may even be more expensive this time. Yes, Vancouver got in for $35 million in the end, but they had significant leverage on their side; there weren't a lot of promising bids left at that point, and as Marc Weber of the Vancouver Province pointed out, there's quite a difference between his estimate of the $24 million that Montreal offered (which may even be generous considering construction costs in Montreal) as a franchise fee and the $35 million the Whitecaps paid. Montreal has no such leverage, and they may even be starting from less than zero given the ugly public ending to their last MLS bid.

Meanwhile, the USL is looking less and less attractive for Montreal. Seattle's already left, and Vancouver and Portland are soon to follow suit; there go three of the marquee teams. Plus, Vancouver in MLS means there will be less Canadian media coverage of Montreal and the USL; they'll probably still get local write-ups, but the national soccer narrative is likely to focus on the MLS teams (especially if they get a good national TV deal). That doesn't mean that the USL won't still be viable, but it's going to look more and more small-time down the road. If I was a Montreal soccer fan, I would be hoping like hell that the Impact find a wealthy investor to replace Gillett and get a solid bid together for the 2012 round of expansion. If they don't, soccer in Canada may pass them by.

Vancouver in MLS; what's it mean for Montreal (idly wondering)

Vancouver is officially in MLS, as you know since Rollins was out front. Meantime, Théo Gauthier, the Ottawa Sports Guy, has some misgivings about what it might mean for Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo.

"It's difficult to tell, but remember that George Gillett, owner of the Montreal Canadiens and Liverpool FC, has made it known he'd love an MLS franchise. It's not out of the realm of possibility that (MLS commissioner) Don Garber is much less comfortable with a French-Italo-Canadian-cheese and Jos Louis maker than with a WASP Texas businessman with much deeper pockets that would immediately link his MLS club to the storied Liverpool FC.

"If I'm right, and this is what truly happened, it would be quite unfair to the Saputo family. They have nurtured the soccer culture in Montreal from its embryonic stage to the solid franchise it is today. To have the rug swept from under them by a swaggering cowboy would be sad indeed."

There was a similar situation, you will recall, when MLSE-owned Toronto FC came into being and the Toronto Lynx owners promptly folded its team post-haste. They were a mom-and-pop store up against Wal-Mart. It passed with barely any notice, even though MLSE-bashing might be Toronto's official sport.

It piqued some interest, to say the least. Gillett has his hands full with Liverpool, by most accounts; replacing CEO Rick Parry, trying to replace undersized Anfield (44,000 seats; Manchester United has 76,000) and making nice with co-owner Tom Hicks. There's also the matter that FIFA boss Sepp Blatter isn't hot on having Americans own European teams and wants MLS season to start in late summer and run through the winter, which might be a bit of a problem in Toronto and Montreal.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for Montreal in 2013 and, yeah, there's Ottawa too.

Related:
Hooray! I think? (Théo Gauthier, Ottawa Sports Guy)

Vancouver to MLS!

I’ll have far more on this as the story plays itself out, but it appears that the news that I first broke on The 24th Minute, that Vancouver will be awarded a MLS team, will be confirmed at a press conference later today.

This is awesome news for soccer fans in Canada. Although the USL does provide a decent brand of soccer it does not match-up with MLS in terms of exposure or potential growth. As good as the current Whitecaps are, they are still playing in a stadium that sits 5,000 with limited attention outside of the Lower Mainland. By joining TFC in MLS, the ‘Caps have the potential to become a truly national brand.

There are some questions. Most notably, whether the ‘Caps will be allowed to keep their current player development system. Here’s hoping they are because it’s top notch.

What isn’t a question is the future of the league or sport in this country (don’t believe me? Then ask Stephen Brunt). MLS soccer is in Canada to stay. If you are a soccer fan, rejoice. If you don’t like soccer...why should we soccer fans care what you think? Back away from the comments section. We’ve heard whatever “joke” you’re going to post already. Let us enjoy our moment...

As stated, I’ll have more on this tomorrow...

Committing to nothing ... totally Ottawa

It would just be cherry-picking to say it's true to form for Ottawa city council to come to a decision which doesn't tie them to coming to a decision.

C'est la vie. The latest seems to be that they're going to give priority to the Lansdowne Live proposal from the Jeff Hunt group and Eugene Melnyk's footy fantasyland way out wonder in the wilds of Kan-a-ta. Please don't jump to the conclusion it's an either/or, since as the Paper of Record notes, "city manager Kent Kirkpatrick repeatedly said this is not the case. He said the process will help determine whether either proposal shows enough merit to continue developing further before final decisions are made."

Uh-huh. It seems sporting to let our commenters, if they so see fit, have it out over whether this plays more into Hunt's hands or into Melnyk's. The first group had the jump on Mr. Eugene, and it probably has a better reputation than the Senators owner, who's taken some hits in the last six months, more so for his hockey team's fall from grace than over Biovail.

Melynk's critics would charge that he's playing a game of Calvinball, changing the rules and the objectives as he sees fit. Some, a minority mind you, would the Hunt group's plan would be same ol', same ol', except Lansdowne would go from public space to private space, on the public's dimes.

The upshot, though, is the city isn't even really saying it's going to commit to something April 22, near as one can tell. A glass half-full person, tough as that is to be in this city, would say perhaps they're ultimately going to look at the Bayview/Lebreton Flats area and force the principals to swallow their pride, hold their noses and work together. Or is that too pie-in-the-sky by half?

Related:
Kanata and Lansdowne stadium proposals get priority, council decides (Jake Rupert, Ottawa Citizen)
Maybe the CFL isn't such a bad idea: Eugene Melnyk (The 24th minute)
Proposed soccer stadium could host CFL team: Melnyk (Derek Puddicombe, Sun Media)
Soccer would thrive in Kanata, Melnyk vows to councillors (Jake Rupert, Ottawa Citizen)

Football squared in Ottawa.

Initially.

Ottawa MLS bid COO Cyril Leeder slipped the word into the conversation subtly, but it was there. “That would seem unlikely going into an initial proposal...” he said when asked if a future Ottawa MLS team could share a stadium with a future CFL team.

He preformed his understated magic in a wide ranging interview on It’s Called Football last Saturday. Have a listen in its full here (the interview starts at the 17 minute mark – the audio is low off the top, but it gets fixed).

The thing about “initially” is that it isn’t “never.” Leeder didn’t say that there would never be a shared stadium in Ottawa.

This battle isn’t so much about a stadium, or sport even. At its root it’s about power and money. Eugene Melnyk wants to control the stadium in Ottawa and he’s enlisted MLS to help him do it. The league has shown time and time again that it will let teams share stadiums if the ownership is strong. Don Garber likes Melnyk (one source told me that the two hit it off like long lost fraternity brothers) and wants him in the league. The Ottawa bid has always been about 2013. Garber is making enough noise about requiring a soccer specific stadium to help his new buddy win the battle locally, but if it doesn’t work out and the two groups are forced to work together to build a football squared field of dreams...MLS will still be interested in 2013.

Ottawa deserves both teams. And it’s not likely to build both stadiums. If I were in Ottawa I’d be a little leery of going the MLS route when I knew that the CFL was coming regardless. But, without getting into a peeing contest about which league is more viable moving forward, there is little doubt that soccer is a growing sport that often attracts a different audience than Canadian football. In an ideal world fans of both sports could be served.

So why not make it happen? If you build it....

Vancouver wins MLS team; according to highly placed MLS source

Vancouver and Portland will be granted MLS franchises later this month, according to a highly placed MLS source.

The failure of Miami to secure the backing of Barcelona has effectively ended the expansion race. Ottawa remains at play for 2013 and will go into that bidding process as the likely frontrunner if it approves a soccer specific stadium in April.

The source says that "all bets are off" for 2013 as several of the bids that pulled out for ’11 will be back in the hunt.

St. Louis still lacks significant financial backing to be a legitimate factor in the 2011 bid. Quietly the St. Louis bid has been negotiating with MLS to allow a structured deal similar to what Montreal and Miami asked for. It has been suggested that St. Louis was only prepared to pay about $9 million US in expansion fees, with the rest of its money tied up in infrastructure improvements required for MLS.

To this point MLS has not budged on the $40 million asking price and does not seem likely to do so with St. Louis either.

"St. Louis is banking on the league looking for a natural rival for Kansas City and nostalgia for what the league once was," as second source said.

The decision to go to Portland and Vancouver was based on "stadium plan, political support and geographical factors," the MLS source said.

MLS is waiting for Portland to give final approval on its stadium plan to make the announcement. That's expected to come March 11. If Portland approves the stadium, the expansion announcement will likely take place March 17 or 18.

Snark break ...

As you were camping out for Spinal Tap tickets. The sustain, listen to it ... I don't hear anything ... well, you would if it were playing.

Miami's chances of getting a MLS expansion team are deader than Jefferey Loria's prospects of a new ballpark for the Florida Marlins. In other words, great day to be a soccer fan in Ottawa or Vancouver who rooted for the Expos way back when (there have to be a few).

Barry Bonds' case: Everyone realizes this will never make it to trial, right? It's only the U.S. Bill of Rights, who cares?

Vernon Wells has one of the worst contracts in baseball. Try not to look so surprised.

Nashville wants to host a NHL all-star game. You are only a year too late to make jokes that this would kill the NHL in Nashville for good.

Baltimore Ravens defensive back Anwar Phillips should foreclose so well when he's on the field. None of this has been proven in court, but who knew someone could sink lower than playing for the Ravens?

This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting:

• Tiger Stadium in Detroit might yet be saved.
• Anyone who has spent time around Belleville, Ontario, knows about the old Memorial Arena, which people love because it has no protective glass and the lowest sideboards around. It's too bad, then, that some fan had to get hit in the head with a puck and spoil it for everyone else.
  
• Last, but not least, try to work "bonehead gangster" into conversation at some point today.
  
  
  
  

That's all for now.

That night in Montreal ...

The image of MLS commissioner Don Garber doing a spit take all over his BlackBerry — Montreal won?! —, well, that's a good place to start.

Eduardo Sebrango scored both goals for the Impact in their 2-0 CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final first-leg win over Santos Laguna of Mexico in front of 55,571 absolute nutters at Olympic Stadium. It's early yet to know what kind of watershed this is for Canadian footy, but as D. Rollins says in his 24th Minute post, "Maybe every person who has fought to bring this sport into the mainstream in Canada also walked away with a victory."

One would hope that succeeding years prove that to be more right than wrong, regardless of how much or how little you're into soccer. Canada only excelling in team sports which a small, snow-bound fraction of the world cares about is gets old pretty quickly. Obviously, CONCACAF's club competition is several rungs below the Champions League or the Copa in South America, but what counts here is people investing themselves emotionally in their local team, and by extension, the sport on their own continent, rather than settling for watching it via satellite.

That, at least in this recovering soccerphobe's opinion, is what Garber showed the back of hand when he tried to demand a $40-million franchise fee out of the Impact and owner Joey Saputo. Now the Impact, for one night at least, are the toast of fans across North America, while Garber is in scramble mode trying to find an ownership group willing to ante up in the midst of a recession.

Who knows what Montreal winning, especially since even a casual Canadian fan knows not to count on anything when one of our teams heads south of the Rio Grande for a game. Duane is the guy who gets football and he says don't even try to understand it, so it might be foolish to try. Let's just say it was great. It wasn't aired live in CBC prime time, but the next time something like this comes along, it probably will, which is progress. That contributes to a great night all-around. Let's keep hoping it leads someplace.

Ottawa's stadium debate: Hunt takes it to a new low

"Given they're joined at the hip, the problem extends to the Civic Centre. The 67's are in serious jeopardy if the city makes the decision to build an outdoor stadium somewhere (other than Lansdowne Park)"

And with that flip and manipulative statement any sympathy this author had with the CFL bid in Ottawa went out the window. Jeff Hunt is going down the route that so many crass, mostly American, owners have done in the past. He wants his tax payer funded castle and if he doesn't get it he's going to take his toy and play with it somewhere else.

The 67's in jeopardy? Please. Where, exactly, is he going to move the team? Cornwall? North Bay? There is no place you could move Ottawa's junior hockey franchise that will provide Hunt with a better opportunity to be profitable. Ottawa, along with London and Kitchener, is the best market in the OHL. If Hunt actually moved the team from the capital he'd be, well, an idiot.

But, he knows damn well that playing the hockey card might just be enough to sway public opinion. Playing with the emotions of the diehard junior puckheads may be cynical and obscene, but it might just work.

Hunt built his reputation in Ottawa as the owner of the 67's. For him to even so much as suggested that there is a possibility that the team could move if he doesn't get his way with the CFL proposal is pretty damn low. I would have thought that he was better that that. Sadly, I guess I'm wrong.

Here's an idea. If Hunt wants to show that the CFL is a better bet than MLS in Ottawa then how about he do that? Demonstrate why Ottawa would benefit more from football than soccer and how the CFL bid is better for the people of the capital region.

Don't threaten to move their junior hockey team.

MLS in Ottawa: Eunibomber drops the big one

The race to get to the trough is on and we'll see who finishes first.

"Eugene Melnyk's company, Senators Sports and Entertainment, wants to build on to its existing recreation hub — Scotiabank Place and the Sensplex nearby — by seeing the city build a stadium that would house a Major League Soccer franchise, creating an 'entertainment village' that would attract something in the order of four million visits a year." — Ottawa Citizen

Please bear in mind that just because Mr. Eugene says he's going to do it doesn't mean it will happen. Never, ever underestimate the incompetence and foot-dragging of Ottawa city council.

It is understandable if people see this is a body blow to the Lansdowne Live! plan, especially since Roger Shenkman, John Ruddy, et al., could end up cutting friendly neighbourhood frontman Jeff Hunt out of the picture to get a piece of action. Don't be so hasty; Duane and others on It's Called Football (you can access it through The 24th Minute) pointed out that MLS commish Don Garber tends to praise every potential expansion city to the skies, and the local media in each city tend not to notice the "pillow whispers" (Ben Knight's term) he's giving to each of the other cities.

The ballpark village is, in good friend Pete Toms' phrase, is "all the rage" in the U.S., since it is a way to dress up the fact that sports magnates are sucking at the public teat. Pete wrote an extensive piece, "When Stadium Financing and the Recession Collide" (The Biz of Baseball, Jan. 20) that covered the subject very thoroughly.

There is a huge scramble on, especially since the federal governments in both the Canada and U.S. are ready to throw money at projects which are, wait for it, "shovel ready." Melnyk can also sell this as part of Canada's push to host the 2015 Women's World Cup, a point which seems to have sailed past a lot of people, with Duane as a notable excpetion.

Please keep in mind that a lot of these stadium village projects are having trouble taking form. That's a big unacknowledged part of this story. The Wiki for the ballpark village in St. Louis next to the current Cardinals baseball stadium refers to it as "a big embarrassing turd right in the middle of the city." (It will probably get more attention this summer when the Cardinals host the baseball all-star game.)

Oakland Athletics owner Lew Wolff "heard crickets" (Examiner, Feb. 14) when he pitched a ballpark village for Fremont, California. (Wolff might have switched his sights to San Jose, where he owns , wait for it, a MLS team. Another proposed for Arlington, Texas has never got off the ground.

Beyond that, anyone who wants to build one of these has to have financing. They need tenants for any retail development. They also need developers willing to build homes in the area.

The bottom line is you cannot predict where this is headed, especially considering the rot of incumbency that permeates Ottawa city council (how are you coming along with light rail, everyone?).

In the short term, it means that two of Ottawa's irreplaceable amateur sports institutions, the Hunt's 67s in the OHL and the Ottawa Gee-Gees in CIS football, are in a bit of flux. However, and this is just coming from an outsider, it seems like Ottawa has had a blind spot with this for a good 15, 20 years, and it's caught up to them. A lot of people want something new.

The irony is original Senators owner Bruce Firestone, Cyril Leeder and co. wanted to do this two decades ago out in Kanata; they had projections of "profits that would scrape the sky," and everyone doubted them. It seems like were information rich, but cash poor.

(Incidentally, Duane pointed out the B.C. Place project for footy is a "disaster," which runs counter to what the Paper of Record said last Saturday.)

Related:
Melnyk plans ‘entertainment village’; Project would include offices, restaurants, bars, apartments, hotels for area near Senators’ arena (Patrick Dare, Ottawa Citizen)

Bald man to appear on Interweb

"Cause you clearly haven't had enough of the Ottawa to MLS talk, join me tomorrow when I appear on the Internet radio program It's Called Football. The program is live at noon eastern and can be listened to at Thatchannel.com.

I will be debating former Globe and Mail blogger Ben Knight on the merits of Ottawa's MLS bid. We will also be talking about Montreal's remarkable ticket sales for next week's CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal, David Beckham, Manchester City's spending and much more.

It's even webcast, so grab the kids and gather around the computer to watch me! I'll try not to swear

The Ottawa soccer question: Conclusion

Part four of four of the Ottawa soccer question below the jump

Can Ottawa win?

Having looked at the Ottawa bid from several different angles, there is only one thing left to discuss – does it matter? Is it possible that Ottawa might win this thing?

Maybe.

As wishy-washy as that answer might seem it’s about a hundred times more hopeful than the answer you would have go to the question six months ago. Then, to say it like the kids today do, you would have got a solid ROFLMFAO. Or something like that anyway. It didn’t seem at all likely.

However, since then close observers of the process have become more aware of Ottawa’s strengths and, equally important, several other bids have taken a step back.

Montreal losing its game of chicken with MLS was the single most important factor that put Ottawa’s bid in play in a serious way. Located just 90 minutes west of Montreal, and with the potential to tap into the French Canadian market, and an obvious dance partner for Toronto, Ottawa represented a great plan B for MLS in its Canadian planning.

Ah, Canada. Canuck-ness is another issue that might play to Ottawa’s advantage. Although it is difficult to figure out what Don Garber actual wants from one day to the next it does seem like the league wants to increase its footprint in Canada. Sure he will talk about wanting to take care of the U.S. market as well, but why not do both? If further expansion into Canada is desired then Ottawa’s bid probably comes down to an either or with Vancouver as opposed to a competition with the other four cities (more on that in a minute).

Note that the competition is down to four. Atlanta, never really a factor, dropped out last month thus taking another obstacle out of Ottawa’s way. Some people are suggesting that St. Louis’ bid is all but dead. Garber said as much last month when he admitted that the league wasn’t happy with Jeff Cooper’s wallet. No money, no team.

So now we’re down to Ottawa and three others – Vancouver, which we’ve touched on, Miami and Portland.

Miami is in. No one will come out and say it just yet, but Barca’s money has eliminated any and all objections to giving South Florida another try. Then there is Portland.

There is a lot to like about the Portland bid – it’s a wonderful soccer market in a beautiful (and funky) city. But, it’s got stadium issues. They might figure them out. They might not. Most of the city’s attention the last little while was figuring out what to do with its mayor, who evidently has a thing for 18-year-old teenage boys (not that there is anything wrong with that. Except there was because the kid was an intern. It’s a little messy up there right now). The city has a task force running that is going to make recommendations on whether to fund a two part plan that will see a new AAA baseball park built and the existing ball yard converted into a soccer specific venue. There are a lot of ifs in Portland. Although it would be foolhardy to eliminate it from the conversation just yet, it’s also hard to suggest that its chances are improving.

Which brings us back to the Ottawa versus Vancouver question. Of the two Canadian cities, which has the better chance at making the jump? Van City has a lot to like. As its fans like to remind us ignorant easterners the Whitecaps were one of the shining lights of the NASL (they were one of the few teams that made it all the way to the end in 1984 and were Soccer Bowl champions in 1979). The current ‘Caps are USL-1 powers and the Southsiders form the core of passionate support. There is little doubt Vancouver would make a wonderful addition to MLS. And if they had a real stadium plan they could likely start to sell the season tickets.

But they don’t. Neither does Ottawa yet. But if the latter situation changes, then it stops being hard to imagine the capital jumping ahead in the MLS race. Actually, if Ottawa gets approval for its soccer specific stadium plan it moves right on up to the front of the queue.

So, to answer the question that started this piece...does Ottawa actually have a shot at this?

You betcha. Crazier things have happened. Seriously.

The one troublesome issue with the current situation is that Ottawa city council has indicated that it won’t be making a decision about the stadiums until April at the earliest. MLS has said in the past that it wanted to have the expansion issue dealt with by March 19 (the 2009 season opener). Although the league has waffled on that point (SHOCKING!), it’s not ideal that Ottawa is putting itself in that situation.

Unless Capital City FC has reason to believe that MLS might name one or two teams for 2013 as well...It is, after all, difficult to turn down $160 million.

We had so many great bids that we couldn’t decide. All four of these cities will make wonderful additions to MLS...

Ottawa in ’13. Remember where you heard it first.

The Ottawa soccer question: Part 3

Part three of four of the Ottawa soccer question below the jump.

Football Vs. football


The history of Canadian football (gridiron) pre-dates the history of Canada. In 1861, at the University of Toronto, the first documented game took place. It’s been a part of the Canadian sports fabric ever since. At times it’s been at the forefront of Canadian culture, at others it’s been close to extinction. But, no one can deny that it’s a part of us and has been for a long time.

The history of soccer in Canada is two years older. Yet it’s never talked about in the same way that Canadian football is. Even though there has been periods of high popularity (like the CFL) and pockets of strong support – and areas of indifference -- (like the CFL) soccer is forever dismissed as being “illegitimate” in the eyes of many Canadian sports fans, particularly those of a certain age.

However, it’s important to remember that soccer has a history every bit as long as Canadian football when framing the current stadium debate in Ottawa. Canadian football fans will pull the heritage card out at all opportunities. Canadian soccer fans will slowly burn as they have their patriotism called into question.

Allow me a moment of personal disclosure here. This debate makes me uncomfortable. You see, I love both sports. Long before I was soccer blogger boy I was CIS football blogger boy. Being in the stands watching my Alma matter (Wilfrid Laurier University. GO HAWKS!) win the 2005 Canadian university football championship is a memory I will take to my grave. I follow the CFL. I would be devastated if the game were to ever disappear from the sporting landscape in Canada.

But make no mistake. It is a debate. Ottawa has a choice to make and that choice is between our football and their football. Sadly both can’t win. The Hunt group may say that its Lansdowne Live project could host soccer, but there is literally no way that MLS will come into Ottawa without a soccer specific stadium. The league may make allowances with a Seattle, but Ottawa’s bid needs to be perfect to have a chance. So, it’s Kanata or bust for Capital City FC.

Here is where the debate needs to turn local. I can sit in my den in Toronto and tell people in Ottawa what’s best for them (it would certainly feed a stereotype), but the truth is Ottawa needs to answer this question for itself. What sport does it want more?

Speculating, it’s difficult to think that soccer can win the day. As stated above, the sport is still viewed as being outside of the mainstream, in spite of having a history just as long as Canadian football. One of the reasons for that is that soccer experienced a dead period in its popularity that ran from about 1945 to 1970 – the baby boomers formative years. The boomers -- God love ‘em – still hold most of the influence in the country. They hold the money and they are in positions of power in the media. And to this generation, soccer is a non-starter.

There are exceptions to that, of course, but those exceptions usually have accents. And, as much as people don’t want to talk about this topic, that makes a difference. Accent bombers don’t need a soccer team because they already have one. In Manchester. Or Glasgow. Or Milan. Or...

As those of us in Toronto heard for years, those fans won’t turn out to watch MLS. Except some did. And it turned out that we didn’t need them to turn out anyway. Boomers have little to do with TFC’s success. That’s mostly on the Xers and Yers, fans that grew up expecting soccer on TV, hanging out in pubs watching the Champions League and wishing that they had a team of their own. One they could see in person and not just on the tube.

And here’s the thing. Just as soccer had a dark period that ran from ‘45ish to ‘70ish, the CFL had its own black period. It ran from about 1970 to 1995, when it was next to impossible to find the CFL on TV and a generation – about the same generation most likely to look at soccer as a legitimate sporting option in Canada – was lost.

So the debate in Ottawa can almost been seen as a battle of the generations. The old versus the new. What’s the best bet for the city moving forward?

As stated, I love the CFL. But, is it really the better bet for Ottawa. Really? In 2025 will there be more CFL fans in Ottawa than soccer fans? I know what my money is on.

But I don’t matter. The question is what Ottawa wants to bet on. Maybe after watching the CFL fail twice before (and I fully acknowledge that the last failure had everything to do with ownership. I just don’t think that matters when you are talking about people’s perceptions), Ottawa’s about done with Canadian football.

Maybe it’s time to embrace a new, old thing.

Type rest of the post here

The Ottawa soccer question: Part 2

Part two of four of the Ottawa soccer question below the jump

What's in it for MLS?


There was girl like her in every high school. She dressed a little frumpy, wasn’t all that popular and had mousy brown hair (to be fair to the fairer gender there was a boy in every high school too – wearing flood pants a size too small, awful in gym class and a member of the AV Club). When people looked at her – actually people didn’t really look at her, they barely knew she existed. But if they did, they wouldn't give her much thought.

Unless you looked really closely. If you did that you might see that under those frumpy clothes was actually a pretty fit body. Add a few highlights in the hair and, well, she’d be pretty damn hot. Once you figured that out you might realize that she would become quite popular in her freshman year of college. By then she would have blown off your one stop town and forgotten those awkward high school years. If only you’d have paid her more attention when no one else was...

When it comes to MLS expansion, Ottawa is mousy brown hair girl.

No one is taking this bid seriously. The city is too small, there isn’t an established soccer culture, the only people that would go are soccer moms, it’s in Canada, where the hell is Ottawa again? It doesn’t take long to find someone willing to dismiss Ottawa outright, with next to no thought.

Except for one guy. Don. And he’s the guy that all the girls are trying to impress, which makes you wonder what he sees in her.

Maybe it’s because her daddy is pretty rich and a big fan of Don. He’s likely do whatever Don asked him to do and he’s always sucking up. Did I mention he was loaded?

Then there is the neighbourhood she lives in. It’s in a perfect location, really close to a lot of other kids. If Don starts hanging out there he knows that a lot of people would come from out of town for her parties.

Another thing that Don might find important is that he doesn’t have to share her with anyone else. A lot of his other lady friends are involved with richer guys. He knows that if he gives her some attention that he could be her one true love.

Having taken the analogy about as far as I can, let me put it this way. Ottawa is big enough. It isn’t the largest centre, but it is in fact big enough. So scratch that off your can’t list.

It’s size might actually be an advantage. If Capital City FC is born, it will be the only game in town all summer (with apologies to whatever minor league baseball team is in town at the time). It would be another chance for Ottawa to compete with other major cities in North America

But, the biggest thing the Ottawa bid has going for it is Eugene Melnyk. The MLS loves the guy and they think he is exactly the owner they want. If Ottawa gets the stadium plan approved, there aren’t any other major problems with the bid because, really, when you break a MLS bid down it comes to two things – stadium and ownership. Don’t underestimate the importance of Ottawa‘s leadership.

A lot of people laughed when they heard that Don Garber said that a team in Ottawa was all but a sure thing if the stadium plan is approved. Surely, they thought, he was just talking out of his rear-end again. But what, really, does he gain from that? Maybe he’s actually telling the truth because if you look past first impressions Ottawa’s actually kinda hot.

I bet ya didn’t see that coming.

The Ottawa soccer question

I am exploring the Ottawa MLS in detail today here and at The 24th Minute.

Part 1: Can it work?


Ottawa. It still causes Canadian soccer fans to wonder. Where did its MLS bid come from? How is it possible, however remotely, that Ottawa – Ottawa? – could find itself in MLS prior to Montreal or Vancouver, two established soccer markets.

American fans are left to wonder where Ottawa is. The whys don’t concern them because they don’t rate Ottawa as having any chance whatsoever in the expansion race. We’ll touch on that question in another post, but for now let’s evaluate the bid from a Canadian perspective.

If you are familiar with the long standing Canadian tradition of (crapping) on anyone that tries to get ahead in the world, you won’t be surprised that there are Canadians that look at the Ottawa bid with scorn. There is a “how dare you” feel to much of the criticism. Vancouver fans feel that they represent the “soul” of Canadian soccer culture, Montreal fans are frustrated by the MLS snubbing the Impact’s bid (in their mind it was the MLS that snubbed it, not Impact snubbing MLS) and see an Ottawa MLS team as the likely death of their dream.

But when you get past the irrational stuff, there is a deeper felt feeling that causes Canadian soccer fans to dismiss Ottawa’s bid. Fear. Many in Canada are terrified that Ottawa would be granted a team and it would be a disaster, drawing flies for a couple of years before slinking off to St. Louis never to be spoke of again.

Those fears are based on Ottawa’s history as a pro sports market and, likely, long-standing soccer inferiority complex. We simply can’t believe that it’s possible that the sport has turned the corner and is heading straight ahead towards the mainstream. In Toronto, we can buy it (what with all those flags on cars during the World Cup), but in Ottawa? It's just a tad bit maple syrup.

Since the bid was announced, I’ve tried to speak to as many Ottawa friends as I can. I too had a hard time believing that the interest was there. Although many of those that I speak to are a bit iffy on the possibilities , they don’t discount the possibility of it working. If it’s marketed positively and run professionally, the city will likely buy in. Ottawa isn’t beyond showing a little civic pride, they argue.

The thing is, when Toronto came into the league many of the same fears were expressed. Although no one doubted that there was enough soccer fans in T.O. it was suggested that those fans wouldn’t come out to support “second rate” soccer. Hell, I called Toronto’s Fan 590 one spring day in 2006 to talk about those fears. I told the host that I worried that this would be the last chance for the domestic game to succeed. In moments of weakness I’ll admit I wasn’t hopeful.

Then, seemingly out of the blue for those that had followed Canadian soccer for years, came the Red Patch Boys. Made up for the most part by guys and gals that fell in love with the game in College Street pubs during the World Cup, the RPB was that missing something that older supporters had dreamed of finding for years. For long-standing U-Sector/Voyageur types it was like when Galileo and Scaramouche discovered the Bohemians in We Will Rock You.

Oh my God there are others like us. They do exist!

The key for Ottawa is to find its Red Patch Boys – or maybe for Ottawa’s RPBs to find each other. And that can’t happen until there is a team.

If that happens it can mean nothing but good things for Canadian soccer.

Next up – why MLS should want Ottawa.

Snark break...

Hey, we'll always have cheaper beer at the ballpark ...

Doug Smith, on the endless (and ignored by the media) Raptors/Rogers/TSN2 controversy: "Where to look next? How about the sponsors? How about letting them know that, say, you won’t shop at whatever store the omnipresent Galen Weston owns? Or you won’t get your car serviced by whatever bailed out auto giant buys an ad?

"Where to look next? How about the sponsors? How about letting them know that, say, you won't shop at whatever store the omnipresent Galen Weston owns? Or you won’t get your car serviced by whatever bailed out auto giant buys an ad?" That would be Loblaws, and Ford, to name but a few.

Former Buffalo Sabres tough guy Larry Playfair (1,812 PIMs), to ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun: "I think, in my lifetime, there will be no more fighting in the National Hockey League. I think the day is coming. And that's OK. The game is so much better than when I played. The game is skill on skill. It's fun to watch."

Perish the cynicism over Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz buying the city's Golden Baseball League team. Some would say he made made $400,000 investment in the Cracker Cats in hope Edmonton will build him a $600-million arena.

Doesn't Katz know that the owner of a Canadian-based NHL team (if not a Canadian-based owner of a NHL team) should be trying to build a soccer stadium miles from the city core, where most of the footy-minded folk live? That's how you do it.

Remember, death is not an option: Who's more credible, Gary Bettman talking about the Phoenix Coyotes or Eugene Melnyk talking about the Senators' prospects?

Honestly, not a headline about Bernard Madoff, but about basketball: "Boomers lick their wounds."

The unspoken scandal about the teenage camera operator in Oshawa who was reassigned for talking to Don Cherry: That so many city-owned OHL arenas are run by private American firms. Ask everyone how that arrangement is working out in Kingston.

OK, so NCAA hoops won't be on your radar screen for another month, but Duke had its worst loss in almost 20 years last night. Hey, you look happier already.