New Downtown Calgary Arena

[Innersoul1]

Tropics, dude, you are fighting a losing battle here man.

Consistently, baseball has failed in this city. Now, that's not to say that soccer hasn't because it had. But I don't think that baseball has nearly as much of a draw, or potential draw that soccer does.

Let's look at a few factors with regard to the MLS in Canada. Soccer has been successful for decades in the cities of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. I would suggest that this is based on two factors. Firstly, that they have all previously had soccer franchises that have been well supported for years. The Impact in Montreal, the Lynx in Toronto and the Whitecaps in Vancouver. This has created a generational support of the team along with the fact that they are familiar to all of the cities. Secondly, all three of these cities have large populations of immigrants who often come from soccer mad countries. This leads to a lot of support from that alone. Each of these cities have used the popularity of the support to get fans out for games. I would go so far as to suggest a third factor being that each of the franchises run a development program at the grassroots level as a means of developing soccer and soccer players in their respective cities (The Calgary Storm were quite successful using this model).

All of the three Canadian teams have used the model of building small stadia with the potential of expansion for their success. Albeit, Vancouver had no intentions of being at Swangard long term, they hoped to build an water front stadium that never came to fruition. Now they are VERY comfortable in BC Place where there are able to somewhat create an intimate soccer specific environment. Toronto scored well with BMO Field (built for $72 million) having a capacity of just under 22,000. It's a great stadium but many would suggest that they are close to out growing it. Montreal's Saputo stadium has also served them well and the during the Impact's tenure in the A-League. However, the capacity of 13,000 is too small so a current expansion will take them to a capacity of just over 20,000 by June. Plus, each of the teams have been able to draw large numbers at larger stadia showing that soccer can be HUGE and can be widely supported.

I mention the above because one of the factors that I believe have plagued soccer teams in Calgary has been the lack of a suitable playing venue. As I have said before, Calgarian's are fickle especially when it comes to weather. There is not desire to sit outside in the wind, rain or snow for soccer or even baseball games. I strongly believe that professional soccer could be successful in Calgary if we had a proper stadium that with a proper playing surface . The Storm failed in part because bleachers and port-a-potties don't cut it and the Mustangs failed because Astro turf ruins the game.

I would suggest that soccer as some have suggested above is a lot of running with moments of brilliance. So the experience and atmosphere of being at games is essential. Part of that experience is created by fan clubs or ultras . In Montreal the Ultras, in Toronto the U-Sector and Red Patch Boys and in Vancouver the Southsiders. These groups with their chats, and dances help to build the atmosphere.

Of the Canadian teams Vancouver has the largest development to undertake. The pitch at BC Place has been criticized and they haven't had the consistent numbers that Montreal and Toronto have had. That being said their geographical location in "Cascadia" has created some natural rivalries with Seattle and Portland. That is HUGE.

I honestly, think that at some point we could have an MLS team but first we need to build the game. We can't expect to have a stadium and throw a team in and have success. I really thing that we would have the support in Calgary especially if we got corporate Calgary behind the process.