Sports in Canadian culture

[Nicko999]

Felix Auger Aliassime is slowly becoming the most hyped up junior tennis player in the World and he's still so young.

Based on what I read (no stream available), his match yesterday against Tommy Paul was one of the best junior match seen in a long time.

Paul (Roland Garros junior champ and qualified for the US open main draw before losing in the 1st round) beat Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in what was over 2 hours match. Keep in mind Paul is 3 years, 3 months older. Felix turned 15 a month ago.

Some twitter reactions:

Josh Meiseles ‏@jmeistennis Sep 8

This is INSANE. Felix does a full split five feet behind the baseline, promptly sprints to the ad corner and does it again for a BH winner.

Josh Meiseles ‏@jmeistennis Sep 8

This is not a junior match.

Ben Rothenberg ‏@BenRothenberg Sep 8 Queens, NY

You know a kid has industry hype when there are ~200 people watching and nearly all are wearing credentials. Felix Auger Aliassime. #usopen

Dan Evan ‏@Dan_EvanR 15h15 hours ago

@bgtennisnation The best from Felix Auger-Aliassime yesterday. Djokovic like. Incredible defense to offense.

Some pretty names starting to notice him

Brad Gilbert ‏@bgtennisnation Sep 8

A must see match on court 5 today 3rd from 11 in the juniors Tommy Paul vs 15 year old Canadian sensation FAA this young fella is tremendous

[SignalHillHiker]

CBC-NL is reporting we got the 2017 Brier.

[blueandgoldguy]

If this Canadian soccer league does in fact get off the ground, it will look ridiculous having crowds of 5,000 (a good crowd) in a 20,000 seat lower bowl like IGF and most of the other CFL stadiums. It will kill the atmosphere and long-term kill any chances for strong crowds. For a place like Winnipeg, the best bet would be to spend several million at the Waverly Soccer Complex. Get rid of the cheap wooden stands, put in 3000 or so stands on the west side, a few hundred in the north end, a thousand or so on the east side and some corporate tents on the south side. A sellout or near sellout would create a good atmosphere and probably encourage people to come back on a regular basis.

Save the CFL stadiums for Canada Cup matches and CONCACAAF matches and friendlies with Canadian MLS teams - matches which will have a chance at drawing over 10,000 people.

[mistercorporate]

CFL franchisees will own some of these teams but the word is still out as to where they will be playing. There may very well be small soccer stadiums built for this purpose, we won't know for another year.

[snowmobile]

Some places the Canadian premier league should play:

Shaw Park, Winnipeg: Sod the infield and lift the mound out like they do in Oakland and you have 5000 very good seats for soccer that are close to the action.

Stampede Grandstand, Calgary: Have a turf field you can move in and out.

Saskatoon, Griffiths Stadium: If the Saskatchewan team plays some games in Saskatoon this stadium is the perfect size for this league.

Moncton Stadium: Stadium showed well during the world cup

RAP, Victoria: One decent side could be complimented with some temp on the other side.

Hope this league gets off the ground with teams playing in oddball locations!

[mistercorporate]

The 2,000 capacity Ontario Soccer Centre was built by renovating a regular soccer field for $5 million, it now hosts TFC's USL development team. Such stadiums can easily be built and financed for even the smallest cities (perhaps even give naming rights to cut costs):



I have a feeling that enthusiastic fanbases like Regina and Winnipeg may be able to fill CFL stadiums all by themselves, however.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by mistercorporate

I have a feeling that enthusiastic fanbases like Regina and Winnipeg may be able to fill CFL stadiums all by themselves, however.

Erm, 35K+ for a Canadian B-League? Wishful thinking.

[osmo]

Regina isn't a sports town, its a Rider town. The Rams draw flies and the Pats have shaky attendance also most years.

[FrankieFlowerpot]

No Toronto 2024 Olympic Bid

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hal...st-minute.html

[mistercorporate]

Originally Posted by FrankieFlowerpot

No Toronto 2024 Olympic Bid

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hal...st-minute.html

Time for me to change my signature!

[csbvan]

It will be nice to have international soccer back at BC Place! The November men's world cup qualifier against Honduras will be played in Vancouver:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/world...caf-vancouver/

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by mistercorporate

I updated my last post. I never heard anything about promotion-relegation since it's still early days yet (official announcement will come sometime in 2016 and official launch in Spring 2017). That being said, promotion-relegation is technically feasible. I'm neutral on the subject, though promotion-relegation may be a disincentive for financial investment in top flight soccer groups. Perhaps a hybrid approach may work, the top four PDL/USL/PLSQ/League1 teams can compete in the C-League while the full-on C-League franchises will be permanent fixtures of the Premiership.

Canadian Soccer News had a podcast with some updated info on the league, I never got around to listening to it. If anyone else listened to it perhaps they can chime in with fresh details.

The only way regpro would work is if you had three seperate leauges like the CHL.

One leauge for the west, one for ontario, and one for the east.

Have the top four from each compete in a Canada wide competition.

[Nicko999]

Originally Posted by csbvan

It will be nice to have international soccer back at BC Place! The November men's world cup qualifier against Honduras will be played in Vancouver:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/world...caf-vancouver/

Honestly, I'm absolutely shocked a World Cup qualifier is going to be played on artificial turf. I guess they don't want to risk it with potential bad weather. It will be November after all.

[osmo]

Originally Posted by FrankieFlowerpot

No Toronto 2024 Olympic Bid

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hal...st-minute.html

When LA threw its hat in I knew it was D.O.A. LA can produce a nearly all funded corporate bid with existing facilities that already are in place. Toronto can't beat a LA bid on such a short time frame.

Toronto would have a lot of work to do selling a velodrome in Milton as viable when the Olympics now are more clustered to save on costs.

Also, once again Canada and its culture of cheapness comes through. Corporate Canada did not want to open its wallet to the bid even though they would benefit greatly from branding and business opportunities. Only if Government handouts were in order would they come through. Contrast this to LA which had corporate backing from the start with the USA Feds only handling security costs.

LA loses nothing if it loses so what may happen is that Paris wins 2024 and 2028 will be in North America.

IMO Toronto needs to host the games. It is the only way critical issues such as the Gardiner and a full DRL line will get addressed.

[Oilkountry]

Originally Posted by osmo

When LA threw its hat in I knew it was D.O.A. LA can produce a nearly all funded corporate bid with existing facilities that already are in place. Toronto can't beat a LA bid on such a short time frame

Toronto would have a lot of work to do selling a velodrome in Milton as viable when the Olympics now are more clustered to save on costs.

Also, once again Canada and its culture of cheapness comes through. Corporate Canada did not want to open its wallet to the bid even though they would benefit greatly from branding and business opportunities. Only if Government handouts were in order would they come through. Contrast this to LA which had corporate backing from the start with the USA Feds only handling security costs.

LA loses nothing if it loses so what may happen is that Paris wins 2024 and 2028 will be in North America.
IMO Toronto needs to host the games. It is the only way critical issues such as the Gardiner and a full DRL line will get addressed..

Olympics isn't the only thing LA will undercut from Toronto if they win. I bet farmers field gets built if the bid is successfull. Not that the NFL/T.O. conversation has much ground in the first place. But if LA gets a new stadium...put a fork in TO

[mistercorporate]

LA was never a frontrunner for this bid. Anyone who is familiar with the whole bid process, bid patterns from previous games and speaks to those who have a track record in the Games community would be aware that Paris is a clear frontrunner. Toronto had many advantages over LA, most of all the fact that it hadn't hosted before. LA has hosted twice and quite recently too. Fully funded corporate games are an anomally and unlikely to ever get approval again. 84 was due to the cold war and 96 was arguably the worst games in history from the IOC perspective and similar games bids will never win approval, Atlanta totally misled and arm twisted with the support of Coca-Cola, one of the reasons Chicago and New York (much better candidate cities than LA) were rubbished in the first round in the most humiliating way. Realistically we would have probably come in 2nd, just behind Paris (LA would have been eliminated in the first round). The only way we would have won is if Paris screwed up, which is still possible. 2028 seems like our next most likely window of opportunity.

[osmo]

Originally Posted by mistercorporate

LA was never a frontrunner for this bid. Anyone who is familiar with the whole bid process, bid patterns from previous games and speaks to those who have a track record in the Games community would be aware that Paris is a clear frontrunner. Toronto had many advantages over LA, most of all the fact that it hadn't hosted before. LA has hosted twice and quite recently too. Fully funded corporate games are an anomally and unlikely to ever get approval again. 84 was due to the cold war and 96 was arguably the worst games in history from the IOC perspective and similar games bids will never win approval, Atlanta totally misled and arm twisted with the support of Coca-Cola, one of the reasons Chicago and New York (much better candidate cities than LA) were rubbished in the first round in the most humiliating way. Realistically we would have probably come in 2nd, just behind Paris (LA would have been eliminated in the first round). The only way we would have won is if Paris screwed up, which is still possible. 2028 seems like our next most likely window of opportunity.

Huh?

1988 made a profit and has been the only Summer Olympic games to do so. 1996 broke even with zero debt.

The IOC cares about who can deliver a marketable games, that now can be cost-effective. The days of max spending are gone.

Chicago has a long history of corruption and could never present a serious bid, NYC is hampered by scale and size. Its botched attempt for 2016 will be its first and last attempts of the games. LA only came online once Boston stumbled but LA puts forward a USOC bid package almost every time. They would be a candidate for permanently hosting the games which has been a idea floated.

You forget that that USOC means tests each USA bid and in theory they put forward a bid almost every time. The IOC is obsessed with rotations and 2024 was most likely going to be in Europe but France has a lot of other stuff on its plate which gave a small window for Toronto to exploit.

Toronto's best hope is that LA goes all in for 2024 with Paris winning which then leaves the door open for them in 2028 as LA would not bid (in full) again so soon. Cities such as Dallas, SF, DC would be on the radar for the USOC.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by mistercorporate

LA was never a frontrunner for this bid. Anyone who is familiar with the whole bid process, bid patterns from previous games and speaks to those who have a track record in the Games community would be aware that Paris is a clear frontrunner. Toronto had many advantages over LA, most of all the fact that it hadn't hosted before. LA has hosted twice and quite recently too. Fully funded corporate games are an anomally and unlikely to ever get approval again. 84 was due to the cold war and 96 was arguably the worst games in history from the IOC perspective and similar games bids will never win approval, Atlanta totally misled and arm twisted with the support of Coca-Cola, one of the reasons Chicago and New York (much better candidate cities than LA) were rubbished in the first round in the most humiliating way. Realistically we would have probably come in 2nd, just behind Paris (LA would have been eliminated in the first round). The only way we would have won is if Paris screwed up, which is still possible. 2028 seems like our next most likely window of opportunity.

What was so bad about the Atlanta games? The Olympics are a commercial enterprise, at least the Atlanta organizing committee had the balls to come out and admit it and saved their citizens some money in the process.

[mistercorporate]

Originally Posted by esquire

What was so bad about the Atlanta games? The Olympics are a commercial enterprise, at least the Atlanta organizing committee had the balls to come out and admit it and saved their citizens some money in the process.

Apparently in terms of the "Olympic amosphere", quality of venues, professionalism, etc. it was the worst one of the modern era. Many of the Olympic reforms to ensure quality and reduce commercialism kicked in after that, they were only theoretically reduced somewhat after Sochi which was at the other extreme. I was there for Atlanta and enjoyed it myself, though other than the track and field event (80,000+ people in attendance) it felt no different to the Pan Am games lol. Others who have been to more Games claim they usually have much, much better ambience and street presence. Certainly Toronto even with the Pan Ams, totally wiped the floor with Atlanta as an Olympic platform (as much as I like Atlanta otherwise).

[esquire]

Originally Posted by mistercorporate

Apparently in terms of the "Olympic amosphere", quality of venues, professionalism, etc. it was the worst one of the modern era. Many of the Olympic reforms to ensure quality and reduce commercialism kicked in after that, they were only theoretically reduced somewhat after Sochi which was at the other extreme. I was there for Atlanta and enjoyed it myself, though other than the track and field event (80,000+ people in attendance) it felt no different to the Pan Am games lol. Others who have been to more Games claim they usually have much, much better ambience and street presence. Certainly Toronto as a venue for the Pan Ams wiped the floor with Atlanta as a platform (as much as I like Atlanta otherwise).

I think that probably had more to do with the city itself than with the event or how it was administered. I'm sure you know that most big cities in the southern half of the US have little ambience and street presence of any kind.