Quote:
Originally Posted by Riise
Considering the difference in fortunes of both clubs this week, the future is looking more promising for Calgary at the moment. Running a professional club in Edmonton and Alberta is a financial hole and the owners are running the club at a loss. Unless they can start to sell-out their ground, which may be easier now that the team is starting to do well on the pitch, the owners will have to eventually pull the plug.
In contrast, Foothills is taking the slow and steady approach. They are a self-sustaining club that develop their own players and field teams in the leagues that match the level of their academy products. In just their second season the PDL, Foothills FC have won their division and divisional playoff. A lot of the faces in the team picture for this year's squad were also in the U16 team photo four years back.
While Foothills are developing the cores of their first/senior team, they are also developing their fanbase. Foothills can break even at 1,000. Generating private and public funds to turn one of the local stadiums into a footy specific ground with a capacity of 1,000, or even 3,000, is much easier than selling out the 10,000 seats at Clarke Stadium which FC Edmonton needs to do before the City will pay for upgrades.
Nevertheless, I want FC Edmonton to survive and be successful. I just think they took a difficult path that is littered with the corpses of former Alberta-based professional teams (e.g. Aviators, Drillers, Mustangs and Storm).
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1,000 is a solid number for a PDL franchise at this stage and would be strong enough for them to consider joining to USL depending on how they feel about squad strength. I agree with you that I prefer their method of growth as the more natural, organic growth as compared to other clubs such as Edmonton or Ottawa. Foothills are certainly creating a very strong base from which to work on and develop.
My biggest concern with a future Canadian Premier League is the involvement of the CFL. I'd hate to see clubs be created and have to use the CFL (and their stadiums) as crutches for survival. OTOH, i'd hate to see teams with strong developmental programs like Foothills be brought into a structure run by a league from a different sport with perhaps a different view of how to operate things and direct growth. It's a bit concerning, at least from this outset. More concerning is that there's been very little press or word about this league since it was first mentioned.
There's a lot of potential in this country for strong, stable football franchises to draw in the 5,000-10,000 range, and to develop their own players at their own rate. Problems would arise if another league steps in and suddenly decides to rush those plans or force something on them that they're quite frankly not ready for. This range would be absolutely perfect for cities like Victoria, KWC, and St. John's amongst others if that desire was so there.
Right now, all of the major teams in this country (save for Edmonton) are seeing growth in their base and exposure and attendance on the whole, along with the minor teams like Calgary. There's been progress and that's great to see and now it's just a matter of supporting and organizing that a bit more.
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