TORONTO -- Canadian soccer unveiled its blueprint for a domestic pro league Wednesday, acknowledging that the concept is still in its infancy.
For example, the fledgling Canadian United Soccer League needs to find as many as four new franchises and more than $18 million in corporate support the first year just to get out of the gate. Plus it has to convince the existing Canadian franchises that the grass is greener on the other side.
“It still has a long way to go,” said Bruno Hartrell, owner of the Toronto Lynx of the A-League. “A long way.”
Still the plan optimistically calls for eight teams, including existing A-League franchises in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver plus a proposed Calgary club, to start play in 2002 with an approximate budget of $2 million per team.
The 2002 start date could be pushed back and the league could kick off with just six teams, however.
The new league would play an interlocking schedule with the existing A-League.
Canada has been without a domestic league since the Canadian Soccer League folded in 1992. Currently the Toronto Lynx, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps are the only Canadian content in the 21-team A-League, a feeder circuit to Major League Soccer in the U.S.
Canadian Soccer Association president Jim Fleming campaigned on establishing a domestic league and national coach Holger Osieck has said it is a necessity.
But the CSA's first stab at a study -- a survey by the KPMG management and consulting group in February -- was almost entirely negative. It concluded setting up a league was “risky and highly speculative.”
Undeterred, the CSA kept going and organized a working group to set up a business plan. After nine months, 156 meetings and 71 pizza dinners, according to group leader Gerry Gentile, the business plan was released Wednesday.
After a day-long meeting Wednesday of interested parties, a two-paragraph motion was endorsed giving the green light to the working group “proceeding to an integrated analytical pre-implementation phase.”
Deciphering that proved difficult but essentially the first steps include establishing a formal legal entity, lobbying investors, partners and the government for seed capital and getting corporate Canada on board.
Simply put, there is a vision for how the league should look but the canvas is almost totally blank.
The league would operate in a single-entity format, with the league owning the teams and investors buying into the league.
The business plan calls for a loss only in the first year of play, based on average paid attendance of 2,500. The top player salaries would be $45,000 to $55,000.
The architects of the league hope to attract corporate support by showcasing the spending power of the more than 700,000 registered players across the country, most in the eight to 18 age group. That includes creating a so-called “smart card” which allows kids discount purchases while allowing businesses to track their spending and funnel it towards their product.
One of the blueprint's more interesting recommendations is that the Canadian teams link up with top clubs around the world. For example, the Toronto team could be called Toronto Lazio after the Italian champion.
The Canadian team would wear the same colours and even benefit from three younger prospects, a “twilight player” and coaching and marketing personnel from the Italian mother ship.
“The benefits for them: market share, brand recognition, future pay-per-view broadcast revenue and the right of first refusal for future player prospects,” said Gentile.
The CUSL would play in venues with capacity of between 3,000 and 5,000 with an average adult admission price of $10.
By relying on corporate money for 90 per cent of the proposed league's budget, the business plan relies on gate receipts for only eight per cent of its funds.
The 11-member working group featured representatives ranging from a sports marketing firm to Canadian Tire.
