Wednesday June 20th, 2001.
Scarborough
Mirror: Soccer team eyes move to Mississauga
by DJT
Soccer team eyes move to Mississauga
By SAM LASKARIS Special
to The Mirror
Scarborough is losing its championship soccer
franchise.
The Toronto Olympians, who have played out of Scarborough's
Birchmount Stadium, are keen to relocate to Mississauga, starting with the 2002
season.
The Olympians have been the class of the Canadian Professional
Soccer League (CPSL) during the past three years.
They've won the CPSL's
regular season title three straight years and they've also captured three
consecutive league Cup crowns.
The Olympians also won the CPSL playoff
championship in 1999. In 1998 and 2000, they were defeated in the league
final.
Yet the franchise has struggled considerably at the gate. Thus,
the desire to move.
"It's basically 99.9 per cent done now," said David
Gee, who wears several hats for the Olympians.
Gee not only is the
Olympians' coach, but has also added general manager duties on his job. And last
month he became the club's sole owner after purchasing the franchise from Coffee
Time Donuts.
Gee, who lives in Mississauga, is eager to move his club
there. In fact, he would have preferred to have his team playing there this
season.
"But it was too late when I got involved (by buying the team),"
he said. "The schedule had already been done and the fields had already been
booked."
The Olympians, who sport a 3-1 record, played their home opener
at Birchmount Stadium this past Sunday, beating the North York Astros
2-1.
Gee said he's not concerned about the impact the news of the club's
move will have at remaining home contests this season.
"I don't think
we've had any attendance so we can't hurt it," he said. "My wife was working the
gate on Sunday and we had a paid attendance of 28."
The 12-team CPSL
already has another franchise in Mississauga. Toronto Croatia, which previously
played its home matches in Etobicoke, moved to the city during the
off-season.
Toronto Croatia and CPSL officials have given Gee the green
light to also move his franchise.
For the first couple of seasons, Gee
said he is hoping to stage his club's games at the soccer field behind Erin
Mills Arena.
Currently, there's some bleachers which would accommodate
about 100 fans. Gee plans to bring in additional stands to bring the seating
capacity to about 1,000.
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