MISSING FANS

Soccer still hard sell in Canada

Friday, July 10, 1998
By Jeff Gray

Kitchener, Ont. -- This is Canadian soccer. There is no Ronaldo, no singing, no flag waving, no hooligans. The child-heavy crowd's attention is quick to wander, and the loudest cheers come when the Lynxster, the costumed mascot of the Toronto Lynx, decides to throw free soccer balls into the stands.

Thousands of kilometres from the World Cup, the Lynx have moved a home game from Varsity Stadium in downtown Toronto to Kitchener, about an hour's drive southwest. They are playing the last-place Connecticut Wolves and hope to break a four-game losing string. Dark clouds hang above the pitch.

There are about 300 people in the stands before the rain starts to fall -- mainly children in shiny soccer jerseys who just played in a local tournament or who got tickets through their teams, their parents and coaches.

The Lynx play in the A-League, semi-professional soccer one level below major-league soccer in the United States. There are two other Canadian teams, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver 86ers. Montreal humiliated the Lynx at a Canada Day match in Ottawa, 6-0.

At Varsity, the Lynx say, they draw about 1,800 fans a game. They would love to be more like the league's first-place Rochester Raging Rhinos, who average more than 10,000 fans a game. But this is Toronto, where the streets clog for World Cup parties but domestic soccer remains a relative obscurity. Montreal and Vancouver also draw modest numbers, but their gate receipts are better than Toronto's.

"There is a future for soccer in Toronto," said Bruno Hartrell, the club's chief financial officer. "Soccer's flourishing. We've just got to get the fans to the stadium."

Hartrell, who owns and runs the club with president Enzo Iantorno and vice-president Bruno Tesan, is a chartered accountant. The Lynx are just a hobby -- none of them intend to make a profit. "You've got to have a day job when you're in soccer."

The Lynx, now in their second year, hope to go from losses to breaking even on a bare-bones budget of $750,000 within five years. Last year, the club lost $500,000. This year, they expect to lose as much as $300,000.

Although ticket sales are off this year, by the fifth year Hartrell hopes to draw between 5,000 and 7,000 fans a game. That would allow him to double player salaries and attract some higher-calibre talent.

The Lynx's minimum salary for a starter is about $15,000 ($3,000 a month for a five-month season), slightly higher than the A-League median. Most players work or attend school in the off-season. Some Lynx players switch to North American indoor soccer and manage to make a living. Some play overseas.

Peter Sarantopoulos, 30, a player and assistant coach with the Lynx, played for the Canadian national men's and youth teams, and the now defunct Canadian Soccer League, winning the 1992 championships with the Winnipeg Fury.

He takes a realistic view of professional soccer's chances in Canada. "I think it depends on how you look at soccer. I have never tried to be a professional soccer player in Canada. . . . I've always seen soccer as an addition to what else I'm doing."

Sarantopoulos is halfway through his training as an optician and plans to go into the family eye-wear business after his soccer career.

But if the A-League flourishes in Canada, and crowds and salaries grow, it might be possible for more than the current handful of players to make a living playing professional soccer. And that would help the national team develop the talent to get Canada into the World Cup, Sarantopoulos said.

The rain slows the action on the pitch, as Connecticut fails to connect on a couple of scoring chances. The drizzle also scares off a number of spectators.

In the 14th minute, midfielder Brian Ashton catches Daryl Holmes's deflection of a corner kick from Nikola Vignjevic, popping the ball into the upper-left corner of the Wolves' net.

For the rest of the game, the Lynx, who played with some new faces, thanks to some injuries and a suspension, defend their lead against the long-ball pressure of the American team, hanging on to win 1-0.

Tempers flare at the end of the game, and three Wolves, including their goalkeeper, who booted the ball into the stands in anger, received red cards.

Selling professional soccer in Toronto and winning matches are both uphill battles, Hartrell said. The Lynx are 6-10 and remain sixth among the seven teams in their division. For now, Hartrell's eye is on the team's next home game, against first-place Rochester at Varsity Stadium on July 19.

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