A More Perfect Union... on the field

On June 20th, Ottawa and the OSEG were awarded the rights to a new soccer team that would play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) (see news article here). This deal has the potential to provide a MASSIVE boost financially to the next Ottawa CFL team, as Lansdowne field will have two anchor tenants to help share in the maintenance/upkeep costs of the field. Also Frank Clair will have another team to fill it's schedule! Synergy is what they call it in the business world.

I feel this new Ottawa soccer team maybe coming in at the exact right time as well. If the team begins play in 2014 or 2015 that is just around the time Canada is hosting the FIFA women's world cup! The soccer buzz will be going even more insane if the city of Ottawa gets approval to be one of the host cities for this tournament. Whatsmore, Ottawa's bid is increasingly more likely to be accepted due to the fact that Toronto will be unable to host any games due to over committing themselves to the Pan American games that summer!

However, I will be cautiously optimistic with this. The NASL has folded before and just recently got on the go again. Who's to say this league will exist in another couple years... especially if the Montreal Impact (one of the league's better attended teams) plays on moving up to the premier Major League Soccer division by 2012.

Another fact that should be highlight is that the renovated Frank Clair Stadium will hold around 24,000 people in max capacity. So far, attendance for NASL games will not even come close to filling this stadium! This maybe an issue for the "Fan Experience", as the new Frank Clair could just be too BIG a stadium for Ottawa Soccer to survive in.

So for now... though I love soccer (2nd to football), I will wait and see how this partnership develops! It has all the ground workings to be great, let's just hope the NASL is still around for another 3 years.

Fingers crossed!!!