September 29, 2002 CPSL expansion plans as of this date
I asked some questions about CPSL expansion plans and the Hamilton Thunder crisis to CPSL media head Stan Adamson and president/chairman Vincent Ursini at the CPSL Canada Cup final in London on Sunday September 29th, 2002.
Both name quite a few teams with serious offers but then rate the most likely to be accepted by the league. First both say the 14 teams that are in the league now are staying. Now the new ones:
Selection Latine from Montreal (there were about five guys wandering around the game yesterday with these teal coloured t-shirts). Vince says they plan to recruit from seven local leagues in the area. They will have ethnic Peruvians, Columbians, Guatemalans, and El Salvadorans among the local players. They will play in Montreal, the Dynamites as Vince reminded me actually play in Laval.
Quebec City--Vince says they will recruit from the Quebec Elite League skimming from the cream of their teams.
Another Montreal area team says Stan but Vince says they're from one of the suburbs but not one of the strongest bids.
Kitchener Ontario--Stan thought they'd be in by 2003 or 2004, Vince says they're questionable.
Kingston Ontario--Stan mentioned they'd put in an offer. Vince thinks they're not likely with the proposal they've made.
Two from New York State--Stan thinks Buffalo and Niagara Falls New York. The potential owners expressed interest that the CPSL is the calibre that they're looking for and the CPSL is convenient in location. Stan thinks league sponsers Government of Canada may cause problems and Immigration will question any foreign (non-American) players crossing the border. Vince thinks they might combine their proposal and the Government of Canada won't object because it's not as if they'll be financing the Americans.
Vince thinks except for Windsor (who's right now "not even on the radar screen"), Kitchener and Kingston, Ontario has reached its limit. Any serious Quebec team will be likely to be accepted even if it causes more than two teams to be added next year.
What about the CPSL as a National League? Stan says separate divisions may share in corporate sponsership dollars. Vince says that interlocking play isn't likely except for some kind of Cup tournament like this weekend with maybe a western team or two playing.
What about Ottawa Wizards moving up to the A-League? Stan and Vince agree the original agreement about joining the CPSL is the owner would have the freedom to move up to the A-League when he wanted. We got Wizards president Omur Sezerman into the conversation and he says not next year but 2004 he's going to make his move. Vince isn't worried about losing them because Wizards plan to have a CPSL team acting as their reserve and development team.
Now what about Hamilton Thunder having $130000 in debts? Stan says its got to be less than half that. Vince gave a long detailed story (I wasn't making notes of all this at the time to keep it informal as possible). The players who left the team breached their contracts as they should have given the owner and the league ten days notice. The League's in an awkward spot for legal reasons. The second wave of players have done that and the league will be following that closely. There will be conditions on Italo Ferraro. They applied some that Ferraro couldn't come through on and that was the reason why this weekend's Canada Cup was moved to London.
Well remember that in the CPSL things change weekly but that should get you Voyageurs talking for awhile!
Can anyone find the first person to use the quote calling Cove Road "The worst field in the CPSL"? It was just after the Cup tournament was moved from Hamilton to London. London City coach and general manager Harry Gauss accused me of starting that but I denied it.
Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
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