Thursday January 30, 2025
Toronto FC II schedule for 2025 released. (story from Rocket Robin)
Toronto FC II announced their NXT NEXT Pro schedule for 2025 on Monday in a surprise for some because they are the first
soccer team of the three co-tenants playing at York Lions Stadium to release their calendar.
The other tenants, York United FC of the Canadian Premier League and AFC Toronto from the Northern Super League of the
brand new women's league are both being held back because of the delay in the release of the Canadian Football League
schedule. Neither of those two teams are directly affected for home games but other teams in their leagues are ground
sharing and the gridiron league with their ownership and long history gets top billing. York United this season has also
started an Academy team that will play in League1 Ontario and will be stomping up the turf here but all their home games
will be played prior to the CPL teams taking the field.
This year TFC II's 14 game home schedule has ten on Friday night at 7:00pm, three on Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm and one
on Thursday evening at 6:00pm. That is quite a change from last year when they played nine Sunday afternoons, and only
two Fridays, two Wednesdays, and one Thursday and that's when there was only York United to fight for dates.
Still I suspect there has been some arrangements made between the three teams before the MLS NEXT schedule was dropped.
They've also avoided playing the same dates as their MLS team.
Attendance doesn't really matter for TFC II as their gate haul isn't that important with average attendance only around
300 to 400 and most fans getting in for free as Toronto FC season ticket holders or on the guest list for family
and friends of the players. The admission price was only $10 to the general public.
York United FC fan surveys taken last year revealed that fans hated the 7:00pm on Friday starts because the rush hour
in the north end of the city was just ending by game time. A mid season change to 8:00pm kickoffs was made and team
officials have said that they were pleased with the increase in the walk up crowd. Since the CPL has their own streaming
service on OneSoccer, moving the games to a later time was easy as the evening is cleared to play CPL games every Friday
in one city or another.
I suspect that TFC II would have no problem playing at their training ground in Downsview as they did in their USL days
but I've heard that the MLS and MLS NEXT Pro deal with Apple TV insists that the stadiums have proper broadcast
facilities so cameras on risers and play callers under canvas tent coverings isn't going to cut it.
York United and AFC Toronto will now fight it out for those Saturday and Sunday spots with York trying to avoid Saturdays
when Toronto FC is playing downtown. AFC will be battling to get their games televised between three different broadcasters
who may have only so many open slots on their multi sport calendar.
TFC II opens their season on Sunday March 9th away in Cincinnati. In fact their first four games are on the road which
isn't a surprise in the early spring because of the cold weather our city can still receive in March. Friday April 18th
at 7:00pm is their first home game against Carolina Core which starts a four game homestand.
Toronto plays in the eight team North East Conference with the other teams being Cincinnati, Chicago, New England,
New York Red Bulls, New York City FC, Philadelphia, and Columbus...all having their names ending with 'II', '2', or 'B'
to distinguish them from their MLS parent team. They will play each of those teams either two or three times with at least
one of those games at home. They play each of the seven teams in the South East Conference a minimum of once and two
of those teams twice. A glitch in the scheduling has TFC II playing all of the South Eastern teams once at home except
for Orlando City B.
No new teams have been added to the league for 2025 but four independent teams are joining in 2026 with Grand Rapids (Michigan),
Cleveland, Connecticut, and Jacksonville (Florida) entering the battle. I expect by geography the first three would join
the North East which will cause some conference shuffling as there are no teams joining in the fourteen team Western
Conference area.
The league currently has only two independent teams with Carolina Core and Chattanooga FC having no MLS ties. This battle
for more teams is more likely a fight to kill the rival USL league structure.
The TFC II roster is a work in progress with players being added from their Academy roster and their MLS draft picks
and fringe players expected to be added after the MLS training camp finishes. This is in contrast to the other two co-tenants
making headlines every day by announcing signings one at a time to keep them in the media spotlight. AFC is building from
scratch so recently sped up their announcements with a challenge to journalists if they could keep up with a pledge to reveal
'five players in five days'. York United can't quite keep that pace but re-signing players and bringing in 'almost 70% different
players than last year' has kept the stories coming. Interesting that so far, York has added former TFC II players Luke Singh
and Steffen Yeates to join 2024's TFC II alum Nyal Higgins. Singh and Yeates were with different CPL teams last season.
I was at a '500 Days until the World Cup in Toronto' event held at Regent Park in downtown Toronto on Tuesday afternoon in front
of plenty of children and soccer legend Dwayne DeRosario was involved with directing a soccer clinic. I asked about his
two sons. Goaltender Adisa DeRosario is currently at the Toronto FC training camp so it is quite possible he will be back with
TFC II this season as I expect big money Sean Johnson and MLS contracted Luke Gavran have the two regular spots locked up.
Rocket Robin
robin.glover.1958@gmail.com
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