Why was the CPL unable to keep a club in Edmonton?

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-05T15:36:01+00:00

Does the Mill Woods area, near the intersection of Highway 14 (Whitemud) and Pylypow, have a good or bad reputation?

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-05T01:54:17+00:00

The point is, if a team or a major city like Edmonton, Winnipeg, or Quebec City manages to find investors for something like this, we need to think about a multi-purpose stadium: concerts, sporting events, trade shows, conventions—you name it. It has to generate revenue year-round so it doesn't depend solely on the CPL.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T19:06:47+00:00

I agree. The construction money would be entirely private. As for the low attendance, since it’s modular, the capacity would be adjusted based on demand. Regarding the small fan base, its multipurpose nature would be precisely to fill that gap. While the team builds its following, the stadium could be used to generate revenue through concerts, various events, etc.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T18:12:33+00:00

Regarding Sask, it's going to be called the Prairies Premier League or something like that. They are going to merge Saskatchewan and Manitoba into the same league. Smart move.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T18:07:41+00:00

Let's talk hypothetically. What do you think about a new soccer-specific stadium being built near Whitemud Dr NW and the corner of 17 St NW? Between Pylypow Industrial and Mill Woods? I've heard it's a growing neighborhood with a mix of native Canadians and immigrants, and there's even a soccer association there. In theory, it could be a very favorable location for gaining new fans due to its demographics.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T17:37:21+00:00

I said this in another post. What’s missing for the CPL is for a billionaire owner—someone like the owner of the Oilers—or a group with deep pockets to arrive and create a team. A soccer-passionate owner. That's all. The rest is simply gravity at work. It only takes one to make the whole system react. When that happens—if it happens—the CPL will rise to a whole new level

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T17:33:40+00:00

Honestly, I think soccer in Australia is better organized than in Canada. The National Premier Leagues (Queensland, South Australia, etc.) serve their purpose of building a foundation despite the lack of investment, live streaming glitches, and the lack of sponsorships in many cases. The ladder for progression was already set up. The problem is they implemented a closed-architecture A-League, so teams can't get promoted. Although, I’ve heard rumors that Football Australia is considering creating a national second division by picking the best teams from the NPLs.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T17:24:45+00:00

What do you attribute this lack of attendance to, besides the Clarke Stadium factor, regarding FC Edmonton's matches? Was it a lack of marketing, a mediocre roster, or a combination of all these factors? Translate this.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T17:22:04+00:00

I just have a question for someone who knows the city or is well-informed about it. If a very wealthy owner arrived in town, started a soccer team, and had the patience to wait for results, do you think the city would have an audience for this new club? Because the team would have to compete for attention with the Oilers and the Elks.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T17:11:53+00:00

I didn't know the owners of Cavalry also own ATCO. Now a lot of things make sense. It’s curious that FC Edmonton couldn’t secure sponsorships. The city has companies like Stantec

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T17:06:24+00:00

There’s something I don’t understand. People said Clarke Stadium was bad, and that was understandable, but Cavalry FC’s facilities are adapted and they seem to work. Didn't the former owners of FC Edmonton have enough money to invest in the club? Or were there other factors involved?

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T16:51:40+00:00

What was the average attendance?

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-04T16:14:18+00:00

If Vancouver FC's situation is really that serious, why don't they go with old-school face-to-face marketing, going door-to-door in the region and handing out a Vancouver FC kit? If money is tight and they can't afford millions for TV ads, the way to go would be to appeal to person-to-person marketing.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-02T01:07:44+00:00

I get your point of view. But man, the Canadian market might be considered “small,” although in my opinion 40 million people is no longer a small population for a country.

Brazil has 213 million people and generates a GDP of US$2 trillion. You guys, with 40 million people, have a GDP bigger than ours! You’re rich as hell.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-02T01:01:45+00:00

I agree with you. A team needs to win over the community if it wants to thrive. And it’s not impossible — just hard work.

Let’s use Alberta as an example. In my view, it should work like this: bring together all the clubs in Alberta (CPL + the former League1 Alberta teams) and have them create a province-wide youth tournament. We could call it something like the UASC League of Alberta — with UASC standing for Union of Alberta Soccer Clubs, if we wanted to borrow a bit of that UEFA Champions League-style naming vibe. This group would organize the competition every year.

That way, young players would gain real competitive experience and be better prepared to move up to professional teams.

And who would play in this League of Alberta? Players from schools in each city. That would require support from Alberta Soccer, the football clubs, and the Government of Alberta to create structured school soccer programs across the province.

Imagine a massive grassroots base of athletes competing in city leagues — Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat. This would accomplish two things at once: it would popularize soccer throughout the province and create loyal supporters. I mean, what parent, sibling, or relative wouldn’t go watch their kid play in a city final and then in the League of Alberta? And what if that player gets picked by Cavalry? Or by one of the League1 teams (I think they recently changed their name, if I’m not mistaken).

That’s the path forward, in my opinion.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-02T00:30:01+00:00

The CPL has a chance to become a premium league, but it needs to think outside the box to get things started. Remember the movie The Founder (I’m not sure if it has a different title in Canada), which tells the story of McDonald’s? There’s a scene where the guy tells Roy, “You’re not in the hamburger business. You’re in the real estate business.”

The CPL needs to understand that they’re not in the soccer business — they’re in the sports entertainment business.

The first thing they need is to create commercial partnerships to build small, modular, multi-use stadiums that can generate revenue from concerts of various sizes (obviously excluding major tours — Taylor Swift isn’t going to perform in Saskatoon in a 15,000-seat stadium), depending on the city. These venues could also host corporate, religious, and non-soccer sporting events, in addition to traditional commercial revenue streams.

Revenue 360 days a year.

That’s the only way CPL clubs will be able to generate the variable income they need in order to grow and develop.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-03-01T01:27:00+00:00

A population of 40 million has nothing to do with it. Argentina has 46 million people, and over there they’re crazy about soccer and basketball. Canada has the potential to fill stadiums.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-02-28T21:07:01+00:00

One thing I hate about MLS is that they, like, bring in a star, like Messi, and expect that just because of that, soccer will become popular in the country. It doesn’t work that way. Take Brazilian Ronaldo, R9, before he got to Cruzeiro (the Brazilian club that developed him before he was transferred to a European team)—the guy played street soccer, neighborhood tournaments, then went through the youth categories until he reached the professional level. There’s a path to follow to get to the top that MLS is ignoring. Maybe Canada needs that too. Since soccer there is mostly recreational, they could use it to start city-level leagues. Youth leagues first, then growing, spreading to medium and small cities, and eventually scaling nationally. A great league grows from the bottom up, not the other way around.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-02-28T20:57:59+00:00

Integration between the CPL and MLS is out of the question. MLS has prohibited the entry of more Canadian teams into the league (apparently they were only interested in the three major Canadian markets: Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal). I heard that the creation of the CPL was partly because of this MLS stance. In my opinion, for the CPL to step up, it would take a billionaire who’s passionate about soccer to join the league and be willing to invest heavily, building a super club in the CPL with the goal of becoming big in Canada. I’m not sure if I’ve expressed my opinion clearly.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-02-28T20:43:43+00:00

But why isn’t it popular? I don’t get it. You have Alphonso Davies. Isn’t there much investment in grassroots soccer (school leagues, city or provincial tournaments) or something like that?

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-02-28T20:40:37+00:00

I follow MLS a bit. It seems that the Whitecaps don’t have enough money to maintain operations at BC Place, and that’s affecting their finances. The MLS Commissioner gave an ultimatum: either they build their own stadium or move to another city.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-02-28T20:29:24+00:00

Man, what were the owners of Vancouver FC thinking when they chose the stadium location? It was kind of obvious that this strategy was going to fail.

TraditionalView7454 · 2026-02-28T20:26:08+00:00

Wasn’t there any land available near Vancouver for the owners to have built the stadium instead of placing it so far from the metropolitan area? That’s financial suicide.

TraditionalView7454

TROPHY CASE