[blueandgoldguy]

It was obvious months ago that the CPL would not be starting up in 2018. No announcements by any of the founding clubs, no announcements from the league...not until now. They may be lucky to get this thing off the ground in 2019. Lot of work to do in 14 months.

Winnipeg is setting themselves up for failure if they are playing at Investors Group Field as the article implies (Winnipeg playing in a stadium seating 30,000) Even getting an average of 10,000 people to attend games in the first season - a generous estimate although possible for the first season given the curious factor plus lots of freebies - would result in a mediocre atmosphere with a half empty lower bowl. That would kill interest pretty quickly in the product on the field.

That doesn't even factor in the high probability that interest in the league in most if not all cities will somewhat decline after the initial season for the next several seasons. If you look at MLS after its first season there was a big decline in attendance the following year. It took 15 years for the league to finally match its attendance from that initial season. Expect this Canadian League to follow a similar pattern, possibly worse. I hope the powers that be are prepared to lose money and a significant amount of it at that for the first decade or so of this venture.