Leave it to the CFL to not schedule a re-match of the last year's Grey Cup for their first game of the season. Nope, gotta go with a nothing matchup between the Lions and the Stamps. Not only that, the Argos don't even play in week one.:koko:

Personally, at least with the NFL, I would prefer the rematch of the previous SB teams to NOT be a Week 1 game. The teams/players haven't gotten into a groove yet - so the odds of both teams playing to their full potential are a lot lower at this point. I'd rather save a rematch for W3 or W4... even W2 would be better than the first game of the season.

W1 has the the built-in interest of it being the first game/week of the season - so it's probably best to dangle that carrot for a little later.

Tsn reports Canada Soccer may go bankrupt and both men's and women's teams might not be able to play in international tournaments this fall.

Good Lord. Can we not at least prop it up until the guests leave after the World Cup is done?

What does this mean for the CPL? I thought Canada Soccer Business was keeping the whole thing afloat? What happens if it goes under? I'm not sure that any of the teams are self sustaining beyond Halifax, and maybe Victoria and Hamilton but I wouldn't bet on either.

Having the MLS in Van, Toronto and Montreal doesn't help our domestic leagues at all.

It's hard to see how it does. Our three biggest cities are helping to prop up the American domestic league instead of our own. Great if you own one of those three teams, but it sucks for the rest of Canadian soccer.

The TSN article with details is here:

https://www.tsn.ca/soccer/westhead-i...nces-1.1977583

Some of this stuff is kind of whatever, like the fact that some CMNT players had to fly home in economy from Las Vegas... boo hoo.

But some of this stuff is a head scratcher, i.e.

I guess that means the CPL's future is guaranteed through at least 2037? The way this deal is described it sounds like a CPL team would probably be profitable even if no one was at the matches... Which makes me wonder why FC Edmonton went under in those conditions.

I hate to say I told you so, but...

RDS reporting Montreal might be a candidate to land an NBA team likely through expansion. I wouldn't mind seeing that as with bell centre already built saves a lot on cost and instant rivalry with Toronto and Boston.

https://twitter.com/PeteYannopoulos/...20275929513985

Je confirme il y a un deuxième groupe qui veut acheter et amener une franchise de la #NBA à Montréal. Ils sont déjà en contact avec la ligue. L’investissement et l’argent ne sont pas un problème.
@RDSca

The NBA would never work in Montreal. The American players (which is the vast majority of the league) hated Vancouver, so they will dislike Montreal even more. The team would be perpetually bad because if an NBA player does not like the situation they are in, they will sabotage the team til they are traded. Support for the team will drop when the fans realize the team will never be competitive, and the team will be moved.

I dunno the beautiful women and attractions in Montreal are world renowned and I know I would rather play there than boring ol Toronto and their bata shoe museum. Plus would be # 1 attraction for French and Senegalese players.

I think Vegas and Seattle are front of the line with maybe Montreal 4th or 5th (Louisville, Vancouver possibly Mexico City ahead). Not sure who the 2 groups are mentioned in that tweet for Montreal but I don't know how appealing being a tenant in an NHL team-owned building will be. Maybe a certain large telecom company that's in a 3 way partnership down the 401 with rumours of an ownership shuffle coming might be interested in gathering some teams under their umbrella in Montreal.

I remember Tommy Lasorda pulling a practical joke on 2 of his players, telling them they were being traded to Montreal. The joke being Montreal is the last place an American pro athlete wants to play. The city is great, but the culture is something pro athletes will have a hard time with.

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It will always be a struggle in CAnada to keep or attract American players - this even happens in Toronto to a degree. However, that isn't the case for all us players and we have seen an increasing number of Euro and CAnadian players in the league over the past 2 decades. IT's far easier to have a competitive, if not legit championship contender, in today's nba versus 20 years ago, provided you have competent management.

With that all said, Montreal would be a more desirable market than Vancouver. It's twice as big, more cosmopolitan and have some of the best nightlife of any NOrth American city. They are also arguably the festival capital of North America as well.

Montreal is not even close to being twice as big as Vancouver. And when you look at television market size, which is super important in pro sports, the Vancouver market includes Abbotsford CMA and the Victoria Nanaimo corridor, because they would be part of our Metro if there wasn't a body of water separating them. That puts Vancouver fairly close to Montreal as far as TV markets go.

There are TV market sizes from this on line publication on page 20. The numbers are from 2018. TV market size - Montreal 4,059,000 Vancouver 3,711,000.

https://thinktv.ca/wp-content/upload...asics_2019.pdf

I had forgotten the bata shoe museum even existed but if there's any group of athletes that would be interested in that, it would be basketball players.

Vancouver would likely never happen as Seattle is # 1 in line to get a team back as nba has constantly regretted moving the Sonics out of Seattle and for expansion purposes need to balance the conferences with Western and Eastern expansion teams.

Plus Montreal is 2 markets French and English on 2 different networks. Vancouver is larger than either of them.

Not really a joke as John Wetteland was traded to the Reds (not playing for them) and then flipped to the Expos for three seasons.

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