Dino Rossi and Ron Smale
Details of the press conference for Ontario League 1 held at The Ontario Centre on Tuesday April 8th, 2014 at 2:00pm. The head table was composed of Ron Smale the president of the Ontario Soccer Association, Dino Rossi the chairman of League 1 Ontario and Benito Floro the head coach of the Canadian Men's National Team. Before the conference started Rossi outlined for me the hometowns of the ten teams. The meeting was called to order at exactly 2:00pm. Attendance was about 50 when the meeting started and grew to about 60. Ron Smale started the meeting by saying that today's meeting is to announce the start of Ontario League 1 and the OPDL (Ontario Professional Development League). (They will try to set up a female league in 2015). Ontario League 1 will be semi-professional, standards based, men's league. This will align with the CSA's strategic plan. This league will play a critical role for Ontario's best players to achieve their full potential in a standards based league that will offer them a clear pathway to the elite levels of soccer and will maximize experience for coaches and referees too. This is a pilot program that expect to expand. The league values will "encompass excellence, respect, integrity, accountability, honesty, alignment, and inclusiveness". Smale introduces Victor Montagliani, president of the Canadian Soccer Association who wasn't there (he was somewhere in BC) but said a few words by speaker phone. Montagliani thanked the OSA for their organization committee and praised their leadership for initiating the league. This league will be the cornerstone as outlined in the CSA meeting (press conference of January 23rd). This league will do the heavy lifting in player development. Smale then introduced the OSA executives. Rossi said he had some doubts over the three years they'd ever reach this point. Their main goal is the fill the opportunity gap of the high performance players in their nearby community. Ontario is the engine that drives Canadian soccer. The first league game will be on (Friday) May 30th between TFC Academy vs Vaughan Azzuri and will be held at the Ontario Soccer Centre. The first weekend of games will all be held their for this special launch. Rossi also said this is a standards based league in compliance for first class development of athletes, officials and referees. There are ten founding teams who are the risk takers. Benito Floro then was introduced and made a few comments (I found him very soft spoken). He said this (league) is the present and future of Canadian soccer. Executives of the ten teams were introduced (except Windsor Stars who are located 370 kms away...city across the river from Detroit Michigan). Here are the teams in the first year of the league: introduced alphabetically. ANB Futbol—a King City Academy (which is about 20 kms north of Toronto) Durham Power FC—that should be in Oshawa Internacional de Toronto—from North York but will play at Lamport Stadium this first year because of field renovations at various stadiums preparing for the Pan Am games. Kingston Cataraqui Clippers—from Kingston and have nothing to do with the team that plays in the CSL. Masters FA—an academy team from Scarborough that will play at L'Amoureux Park. Sigma FC—from Mississauga who will play at Hershey Fields. Toronto FC Academy—will play at the TFC facilities at Downsview. Vaughan Azzuri—this is in the same region as the Ontario Soccer Centre. Windsor Stars—played in the now outlawed CSL last year. Woodbridge Strikers—their facilities are right beside the Ontario Soccer Centre. The whole meeting was over in 17 minutes and was then followed by photo ops and one on one interviews. I was a little disappointed by the lack of media at the meeting. With club execs stepping forward to attendance that swelled to maybe 60, it left only about 10 that I might guess as journalists. Podcaster Duane Rollins (only recognized him by his voice), Inside Soccer publisher Alfons Rubbens, and Anthony Totera who hosts OSATv TouchLine. Now I scrambled around to ask some questions. Anthony Capotosto of TFC Academy answered me that they'd be filling their roster with their Senior Academy players with birthdates from 1992 to 1997 but mostly 1995 and 1996 players. These would be players who've never signed a pro contract (so no Wilmington Hammerhead guys!). The last two years since they disappeared from the CSL they played in the OSL Provincial Elite league so I've never seen Jordan Hamilton play. Communications Manager of this league is Ben Rycroft which I find ironic in that he helped outlaw the CSL by uncovering the matchfixing scandal. He said he's had to curtail some of his work for CBC and some of his other journalistic contracts to concentrate on running this new league. Stephanie J Geosits is Director, Marketing & Communications who approved me when I e-mailed them for an invitation to today's meeting. **Correction on above paragraph...both Rycroft and Geosits hold these positions in the Ontario Soccer Association (not League 1 Ontario). Their names were listed on the two page Media Advisory given out to those in attendance which had the logos of both the OSA and League 1 Ontario. As I spoke to Rycroft before the meeting began to ask if he was just hired in the 'Help Wanted' posting by League 1 Ontario he did say no. In a message board reply to clarify he said that position has not been filled. Well no schedule was discussed except for opening weekend---time for me to ask Dino Rossi some more questions. OK....there will be ten teams, single table, 18 games, every team plays every other team home and away. There will be no playoffs. Now also there will be a Cup competition with the teams being broken up into two groups of five. Each team plays four games. Best teams make it to a one game semi-final and winners to a one game final so it is possible that two teams will play a total of 24 games. That semi-final, final weekend may take place the weekend after Thanksgiving. Rossi said to me and Duane Rollins that the goal is to eventually be able to participate in the Voyageurs Cup (Canadian Championship against the MLS teams). Rossi is not sure how many of the teams will actually be semi-pro. All ten could start off as amateur in the first season but they may be adding some professionals in the first season to press for the cups as the season wears on. For now it's not that important. I ask him (and others) why a college player would come back to this league for the summer rather than play in the PDL league (which wraps up their play in July so they can all get back to university). This league offers less travel then nine hours on a bus to Indiana and players may be attracted back by a sense of loyalty to the team that they grew up playing for. They will also try to get a women's league started. (I'd think same situation as the W-League has Southern Ontario well covered). I expect TFC Academy will best be able to backfill any players that go back to school in August). No one could answer me what happened to St Catharines Roma Wolves who played in the CSL last year but were at the pre Christmas press conference. Most in attendance scattered within ten minutes so I only saw people from a distance I'd first met in the 1990s such as David Gee from Toronto Lynx and the powerhouse Toronto Olympians, Peter Pinizzotto head coach of the Lynx for the first six year of their pro run (also coached Montreal Impact in their A-League days). Tony La Ferrara (now listed as the Pickering franchise head coach) but various CSL teams over the years, Tony Comacho who was the chief of officials in the CSL. So many questions! Well I'll have all season to chat with them. Rossi also told me that on the game day roster, 8 of the 18 players must be under age 23. Rocket Robin robing@eol.ca
MP3 File...Audio of the press conference (all 17 minutes)
(good luck hearing soft spoken Benito Floro)
Dino Rossi and Ron Smale
Benito Floro
Representatives from the teams (mostly limited to one per team for photo purposes) and league officials.
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