I am sick of CSA, Toronto

NearSouth · Post edited by piltdownman at 2011-08-02 09:35:49

I read this morning that " TORONTO - Toronto will host three Canadian home games on the road to qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The Canadian Soccer Association announced Tuesday that the Canadian men's national team will face St. Kitts and Nevis on Sept. 2, Puerto Rico on Oct. 11 and St. Lucia on Nov. 15, with all three games at Toronto's BMO field. The four teams play each other twice, once on home soil and once on the road.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/FIFA+Toronto+host+World+soccer+qualifiers/5193032/story.html#ixzz1Tt7V7W5o"

Why does Toronto get all three matches? We have fine pitches and support here in Vancouver, and especially in November when the last fixture is to be played, I can imagine them playing in freezing temperatures in Toronto. Have they actually thought of that possibility?

I am sick of the CSA always thinking of Toronto first and foremost and forgettng about the rest of the Country. I hope they freeze November 15th. I really do. I greatly enjoyed the U20 FIFA matches played in Burnaby a few years back. How was it that CSA thought of us (and Edmonton) then? Well, they had to because they didn't have the pitches to run all match play in Toronto; don't think they didn't first consider doing that, right!

Freeze in Toronto-hell, CSA. Up yours!

respectfully, NearSouth

Moved to Canada National Team

Lord_Bob

Recently the CSA has been moving to eliminate regional representation on its board of directors. This is probably one side-effect: nobody to tell the Metcalfe Street fat cats "hey, you know there's a rest of the country, right?"

Men and women, there's been one senior game west of Toronto in the last five years. It's staggering.

krisaug5

That is DISGUSTING!!! Especially with our new stadium!
That november game should be here instead!

danimal

Maybe we will get some round 3 love.

krisaug5

^if they wont give us round 2, you think they'd give us round 3?

piltdownman

If we make it to round 3 they will give us Mexico or USA so they can outnumber us 10-1 and the CSA makes more ticket revenue.

krisaug5

I think I'm going to go buy a Canada Jersey this month. Sport Chek, right? I havent found ANY online...

danimal

I thought we drew into Cuba and Honduras for Rd 3 (and winner of another Rd 2 group).

danimal

And yeah. I doubt we will get any round 3 games, just wishful thinking.

Blue_and_White_Army · Post edited by Blue_and_White_Army at 2011-08-02 10:08:01

Please continue to bitch about the CSA and the fact that they put all of Canada's World Cup qualifiers in Toronto in this thread.

However, please put all discussion about Canada's World Cup qualification campaign here instead.

Blue_and_White_Army

krisaug5 said:
That is DISGUSTING!!! Especially with our new stadium!
That november game should be here instead!

No way. November should be in Nunavut!

Blue_and_White_Army

krisaug5 said:
I think I'm going to go buy a Canada Jersey this month. Sport Chek, right? I havent found ANY online...

There's a link on the frontpage of the CSA website:

http://csa.rmpathletic.com/en

Brettness37

Maybe an email campaign to the CSA pledging support to the National team,when the CSA finds the rest of the nation?

Lord_Bob

I've seen the new Canada kits at a few smaller sports shops around town. The store in the tunnel near Granville SkyTrain and the Bay had them in the window for a while.

tim13

Several points.
1) The players like it. Most are from Europe so a 5 hour flight as opposed to a 9 hour one.
2) The pitch is heated and, V's Cup cloudburst notwithstanding, a first rate pitch.
3) Seats 20,000.
4) TFC supporters have shown a willingness to get behind the MNT.
5) Cold weather works to our advantage. Our guys grew up with it.

Blue_and_White_Army

A little surprised the first game wasn't in Montreal (which has grass, and is closer to Europe), even though the players want all the matches in TO.

When do the Saputo Stadium renovations begin?

ynwasouthside

^Brett was saying it's still 8hrs from London to Toronto. But otherwise, I fully agree.

rovers_adam

As a massive St. Kits fan, I am appalled that I will have to travel all the way to Ontario.

Royalcity

BMO field is supposedly the "national soccer stadium" and the CSA might have money invested in BMO because of the past U-20 tournament.

But I agree that it's a total disgrace. The BC government has blown a wad on renos to BC Place and should demand that we get equal share.

Sack the CSA.

Blue_and_White_Army · Post edited by Blue_and_White_Army at 2011-08-02 10:53:19

ynwasouthside said:
^Brett was saying it's still 8hrs from London to Toronto. But otherwise, I fully agree.

Brett meant that from Vancouver, you fly to Europe over the Arctic, but that's not the case from the middle and east coast of Canada. Montreal's probably an hour or so quicker.

ynwasouthside

Sorry, I was replying to Tim. Apparently it's a fallacy that Toronto is 5 hours closer than Vancouver to Europe. One I've repeated myself several times. I agree that Montreal must be a hour or so closer.

krisaug5 · Post edited by krisaug5 at 2011-08-02 11:30:35

London Heathrow to

Vancouver : 9h 30m

Toronto: 7h 55m

Montreal: 7h 20m

On the way back, shorter by approx 1/2 hour due to winds.

ynwasouthside

Suffice it to say, for anyone who's flown across the Atlantic, 1.5 hours makes a huge difference! Not to mention a more reasonable time adjustment.

AJAX79 · Post edited by AJAX79 at 2011-08-02 12:18:24

The longest flight which I have done twice in the past year was a 17 1/2 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. 13hrs to Honk Kong and then 4 1/2 to Kuala Lumpur. an Extra 1.5hrs on the 13hr flight wouldn't make a difference to me but it would for the 4 1/2hrs....just the way I personally have experienced long distance flights.

But ya, long flights suck period! especially if the reason isn't a pleasant one.

Whitecats

Maybe it's because of our artificial turf that we miss out.

Shawnster

^ Yep! The plastic pitch will hinder our chances of MNT matches.

AJAX79 · Post edited by AJAX79 at 2011-08-02 14:35:12

Hence the "what looks like drainage" that they are installing at BC place....if that's what it is. Future consideration for grass when need be.

Blue_and_White_Army

Would the architecture of BC Place allow for natural grass? Is there enough sunlight exposure?

Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt, Germany has grass, so perhaps it would be possible...

Shawnster

The drainage is necessary regardless of pitch since there is a potential of rain when the roof is open.

As for grass, I think it's very possible. Depending on the costs of upkeep during throwball season. They would need a full time crew to repair the pitch after lions games.

piltdownman

Grass won't happen because they want to use the venue 300 days a year. The Whitecaps and Lions are only 10% of those dates.

GoF

As an outsider from the CMNT point of view, I think they're right to keep the games in the east for both conditions and the fact that it's a grass pitch.

Canada needs all the advantages they can get and playing in cold conditions is one of them. The CSA would be foolish to bring winter games to the warmer BC.

If we could get grass at BC Place then yes, some games should be brought here. If not, then that's the punishment we deserve for not going for a proper pitch here.

Yeah it's not fair and it's not national but there are very valid reasons as far as I see.

Lefty

On top of GoF's points, I just don't see any tangible support for the mens team in the lowermainland.

Frankly its embarrassing to see Canadian supporters out number two or three to one at Swangard. Disgraceful really. I think there's always significant support for the other sides back east, but not like we saw a couple years ago here.

Our support is a joke.
We don't deserve it for a lot of reasons.

Blue_and_White_Army · Post edited by Blue_and_White_Army at 2011-08-02 16:31:48

It's still shorts weather in Ontario come September. November, on the other hand...

I agree that World Cup qualifiers should be played in an advantageous location, but it's been more than six years since the Canadian men's national team has played in Vancouver. That's ridiculous. I'm beginning to wonder if we should just start up a Cascadia national football team, and bid to host 2014 VIVA World Cup at BC Place.

Or perhaps the Southsiders should organize the second FIFI Wild Cup, like St. Pauli did in 2006?

Blue_and_White_Army · Post edited by Blue_and_White_Army at 2011-08-02 16:34:09

Lefty said:
On top of GoF's points, I just don't see any tangible support for the mens team in the lowermainland.

Frankly its embarrassing to see Canadian supporters out number two or three to one at Swangard. Disgraceful really. I think there's always significant support for the other sides back east, but not like we saw a couple years ago here.

A couple of years ago? The last friendly we had was in 2005, and the last meaningful match was 2004. Considering we're Canada's third-largest city, that's a disgrace.

How do you expect to grow the popularity of the Canadian MNT here in BC if we never get to host a match?

krisaug5

This is a classic "CATCH-22"

They wont give us a game because of the lack of support and proper grass pitch
They wont give us a proper grass pitch because fans dont support the team as much as back east because we never get to see them

Super-dumbed down of course, but the fact remains. SOMEONE needs to step up and say, "Hey, let's do this..."

Lord_Bob

Why do we think that a bunch of guys from all parts of the country playing in all parts of the world are going to have a magical, statistically significant advantage in cold weather? Mike Klukowski plays in Turkey; how much soccer do you suppose he plays when it's -10 with windchill?

Blue_and_White_Army

Yes, and Lars Hirschfeld plays at Vålerenga in Norway. Five of our guys play in Germany, which has a winter season, and can be damn cold in the winter.

Plus, the majority of our squad are from Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. I bet you they would perform better in the cold than someone from the Caribbean.

CheekyMonkey

AJAX79 said:
Hence the "what looks like drainage" that they are installing at BC place....if that's what it is. Future consideration for grass when need be.

Is there actually a possibity of a grass pitch in BC place? If so that would be awesome!

Southside_Regular

Lord_Bob said:
Why do we think that a bunch of guys from all parts of the country playing in all parts of the world are going to have a magical, statistically significant advantage in cold weather? Mike Klukowski plays in Turkey; how much soccer do you suppose he plays when it's -10 with windchill?

It's very much of an advantage because the teams that we host in CONCACAF(other than the U.S.A.) find it extremely difficult. Think of how many players who are from nations south of Texas are seen wearing gloves in matches where the temperature is 11 o 12 C. For those nations playing in near zero temps is the equivalent of playing in a place like Panama in 35 C heat for Canadian players.

Lefty

I bet a couple of those matches the Caps played this year was damn near the equivalent of 35 C, given the heating of the pitch.

Steve · Post edited by Steve at 2011-08-02 19:21:15

krisaug5 said:
I think I'm going to go buy a Canada Jersey this month. Sport Chek, right? I havent found ANY online...

Soccer Express in Coquitlam has the red ones. 15% off, too.

krisaug5

Sweet. Gonna swing by there next Taco Tuesday (taco time nearby for cheap Tacos!!!)

PrairieboyAlex

$10 that BMO will be less than 50% full for those games

Whitecats

Maybe we should not hold our breath that Vancouver will be a host city for the next women's world cup due to our plastic pitch.

The Veltins arena Schalke's stadium has the grass field on table that gets rolled outside the stadium for sunlight and rain and cut and then gets rolled back inside for the match. Surely, Kerfoot would have the money to retrofit BC Place with this if he was willing to build an entirely new stadium.

the grass field could slide back and forth over an artificial surface for the Lions.

OldFan

Whitecats said:
Maybe we should not hold our breath that Vancouver will be a host city for the next women's world cup due to our plastic pitch.

The Veltins arena Schalke's stadium has the grass field on table that gets rolled outside the stadium for sunlight and rain and cut and then gets rolled back inside for the match. Surely, Kerfoot would have the money to retrofit BC Place with this if he was willing to build an entirely new stadium.

the grass field could slide back and forth over an artificial surface for the Lions.

Where would you "roll the grass outside" around BC Place? We don't have the real estate for such a design.

Canuckred

Roll the grass onto the back of 12 semis heading to Chilliwack? :-"

Royalcity

krisaug5 said:
This is a classic "CATCH-22"

They wont give us a game because of the lack of support and proper grass pitch
They wont give us a proper grass pitch because fans dont support the team as much as back east because we never get to see them

Super-dumbed down of course, but the fact remains. SOMEONE needs to step up and say, "Hey, let's do this..."

Yup thats about it!

500 mil and counting and the CSA doesn't notice a) a FIFA approved pitch surface in a government funded stadium reno thats downtown in an Olympic city b) the longest professional soccer club in North America that is drawing over 20k to home matches.

Makes you wonder what the CSA does notice about the game in Canada? Premier "Talk Show Host" should throw a tantrum about this.

Sack the CSA...

tim13

krisaug5 said:
London Heathrow to

Vancouver : 9h 30m

Toronto: 7h 55m

Montreal: 7h 20m

On the way back, shorter by approx 1/2 hour due to winds.

Cool. I've learned something new today.

tim13 · Post edited by tim13 at 2011-08-03 10:39:36

While it might be possible to roll out the grass from BC Place and put it somewhere to get sun and rain why would Kerfoot do that? Building our own stadium would be cheaper plus we'd get all the other revenue streams. We need our own stadium. BC Place is temp.

I just hope that the fake turf at BC Place is better than the crap they are playing on at Empire. We shall see soon.

I was very sad when Edmonton changed Commonwealth stadium to fake turf. No more games for us Albertans either. Lets face it, you need a serious grass pitch and a stadium that will seat 20k.

piltdownman

The only way I can see grass working is if they put it on big trays and store it somewhere under the stands at BC place. Stack them up with grow lights, and irrigation. Even with 20'x20' trays just the field itself would be 135 trays. I don't even know if it would be possible, but that's the only way I can see grass even being remotely possible.

Lord_Bob

I don't miss the grass at Commonwealth Stadium at all. It was awful for soccer at every time of year except just before the very beginning of CFL season, when it was merely mediocre for soccer. The artificial turf, even a couple years in, seems to play much better.

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