Sporting Madness

I was on Daniel Feuerstein 's excellent soccer show, Feuerstein's Fire , earlier today to discuss the Whitecaps, B.C. Place and the Nutrilite Canadian Championship (speaking of which, I'll be live-blogging the Whitecaps - Montreal Impact match here tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. Pacific) with Daniel and my 24th Minute colleague Duane Rollins . The entire show is well worth a listen, touching on Toronto FC, the Montreal Impact and Canadian soccer generally. My segment starts about 45 minutes in. You can check out the show here .

CBC's John Molinaro has a very interesting story today confirming that both the USL-1 champion Montreal Impact and USL-1 finalist Vancouver Whitecaps are set to break away from the league . Whitecaps' president Bob Lenarduzzi told Molinaro that both teams are looking to join the other teams (the Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, St. Louis Soccer United and Tampa Bay Rowdies) in the Team Owners' Association in a breakaway league for next season. This needs to be approved by the United States Soccer Federation, as it oversees club soccer in the U.S., where most of the teams are based (I'm pretty sure the Canadian Soccer Association will go along with whatever comes out of this). "We're still pursuing the new league alternative, and by the end of the week, we should have our application into the USSF for them to grant us that status," Lenarduzzi said. "Our belief is that in order for soccer to grow in Canada and th...

After months of controversy surrounding the future of the B.C. Place retractable roof project, it sounds like progress is actually being made towards a solution that could turn out very well for the Vancouver Whitecaps and B.C. Lions. Matthew Sekeres of The Globe and Mail reported this morning that the project will be going ahead. That's according to "sources familiar with the situation", which aren't always the most reliable, but in a case like this, it's awfully tough to get anyone on the record. Here's the key quote from one of Sekeres' sources: "But a source familiar with recent discussions about the provincially operated stadium said the teams have little to worry about, and that an announcement is expected later this month. “They're hoping to get it resolved in the next 10 days,” the source said. “I think it's a positive resolution [for the sports franchises].” That isn't overly emphatic, but it's far better than any new...

Jason Davis of Match Fit USA and Zach Woosley of Ginge Talks The Footy were nice enough to have me on the Match Fit USA Podcast yesterday to discuss the Vancouver Whitecaps and the B.C. Place roof situation . Here's the link to the newly-uploaded podcast. Check it out!

The latest news on the B.C. Place front, which Duane covered here , is rather depressing. As most know, the $365 million plan to replace the existing solid roof with a retractable one and renovate the interior of B.C. Place was an important part of the Whitecaps' successful bid to join Major League Soccer. However, Global BC (a local television channel)'s sources have told them that "the roof replacement may no longer be a key government priority and it may be forced to pull its funding in the current economic climate," meaning "the project could face some serious delays or be cancelled altogether". As the Globe and Mail story linked above shows, nothing's been officially decided yet, though. It's understandable that the provincial government is looking for ways to cut costs. After all, they're facing a deficit that could reach as high as $4 billion this year , despite pre-election predictions in February that it would only be $495 million. Th...

The Vancouver Whitecaps are expected to announce a deal with the provincial government today to build a $30 million training facility/national development centre at John Oliver Park in South Delta [ Phillip Raphael , South Delta Leader ]. This is quite an interesting move and may considerably affect Canadian soccer. For one thing, this kind of new facility will only further shift the balance of Canadian youth development to the West. The Whitecaps already have the most comprehensive youth academy in Canada and are producing and developing a lot of Canada's young talent; this facility should help them attract even more of the top prospects. The climate also favours a Western shift, as the B.C. soccer season goes year-round, unlike much of the rest of the country where snow prevents extensive play in the winter. I don't have many details on this yet, but it certainly sounds like a move that would aid Vancouver's youth development system and Canada's youth development a...

This is interesting. After the media flurry the other day about apparent threats [ Friends of Soccer ] by the party to axe the proposed retractable roof for B.C. Place, which I wrote about here , the NDP has come out with a statement calling the whole thing a " Liberal lie " and claiming that they've always been at war with Eurasia in favour of a retractable roof. That does seem to be a bit of a reversal in my mind thanks to the ads they have ran and the lack of specific provisions for B.C. Place in their platform, but it could also have been a misinterpretation. Regardless of who's to blame, the important thing for B.C. soccer fans is that both sides in the election now are committed to the renovations, which is a great thing for both the Whitecaps and the B.C. Lions. That's as it should be in my mind; this team and their move to MLS are too important to be used as political pawns. Regardless of who takes the election, the future of the renovations now appears ...

The upcoming B.C. provincial election has invaded many areas of life, but sports wasn't really a key issue until now. Tyler Green and Mike Martignago from The TEAM 1040 reported on their blog this afternoon that the provincial New Democrats are threatening to scrap the planned retractable roof for B.C. Place, which of course was a key element in the Whitecaps' successful bid for MLS status. According to the TEAM's sport business commentator Tom Mayenknecht , their goal is "to scrap the plans for a retractable roof and proceed with a simpler replacement fixed roof." With a retractable roof, as I've written before , B.C. Place could actually become a solid soccer stadium. The renovations are based on Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt, home to Eintracht Frankfurt of the Bundesliga and a stadium that hosted World Cup matches in 2006. The new design for B.C. Place follows the lines of Commerzbank Arena quite closely and has a lot of potential. Without that roof, B....

Photo: The cover of Bob Ackles' memoirs . It came as quite a shock last week to hear the news [Neate Sager, Out of Left Field ] of Bob Ackles' death at 69 [Ian Austin and Marc Weber, The Vancouver Province ]. Ackles was such an integral part of the B.C. Lions, the CFL and Canadian football as a whole that it seems weird to consider a future landscape of the game he loved so much without him in his prominent role. It's been a bad year for CFL icons: remember, we lost J.I. Albrecht [Stephen Brunt, The Globe and Mail ] back [Neate Sager, Out of Left Field ] in March [my piece], so Ackles' death takes away yet another of the characters who made this league great. Today, as an appropriate intro to the Lions-Blue Bombers game, TSN spent a half-hour of their pre-game show relating the tributes [a collection of them from TSN.ca ] to Ackles, a man who thoroughly deserved all of them. The collection of tributes they were able to put together on short notice was very impres...

Photo: Saskatchewan knocked off B.C. 26-16 Friday night. (Photo from Luongo ) First, a quick disclaimer. There was plenty that happened in the sports I'm interested in over the weekend, but unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to write about it. Thus, I started several posts but didn't get them finished: they should go up later tonight or early tomorrow. Here's the first one. I'm going to try to start doing some analysis of the various games I go to or watch on here. There's usually plenty of other outlets handling the game stories, so I'll focus more on the analytical side, with perhaps a bit of humour here and there. My preferred method for these is from the Clint Eastwood classic " The Good, The Bad and The Ugly ," breaking down the best performances, the worst performances and the just plain awful stuff that happened (a previous example is here ). I'll file these under "The GBU". As always, post thoughts on the series or ide...

To make a Major League Soccer franchise, you will need: - One (1) large metropolitan area with a long soccer tradition - One (1) billionaire owner committed to building a soccer-specific stadium at his own expense - At least three (3) natural rivals either in the league , entering the league , or pushing for an expansion slot . - 48, 172 fans who come out for a mere exhibition game against an MLS side (granted, one with a noted superstar ) - One (1) prominent and highly recognizable Canadian soccer player , national coach, Hall of Fame member, club coach, star executive, team president, spokesperson , TV commentator and newspaper columnist to helm the franchise bid. - One (1) soccer-specific waterfront stadium (NOTE: Highly desirable, but can be replaced temporarily by the following concoction: one (1) aging stadium that's shown it can handle high-level soccer matches , one (1) provincial premier willing to step into the breach left by local authorities and spend money on spor...

Some interesting news came out today. The Vancouver Whitecaps, who have been trying for ages to give the city a privately-funded new showcase stadium (supposed to be paid for entirely by Vancouver multi-millionare Greg Kerfoot, the team's owner who has been a key financial backer of the growth of soccer in Canada) with little success, may have finally made the breakthrough needed on a stadium of suitable size to support their Major League Soccer ambitions. However, the potential breakthrough has come from an unexpected direction that may cause as many problems as it creates. According to local radio station CKNW, both the Whitecaps and Lions will be represented tomorrow morning at a news conference called by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell , which is believed to be on the subject of a new retractable roof for B.C. Place. The Whitecaps told CKNW last week that they'd consider playing in B.C. Place with the new roof if it helped their chances of landing an MLS franchise. On the fac...