March 7, 2020...My first thoughts on the League 1 Ontario Schedule for 2020 (by Rocket Robin)

  
My thoughts on the release of the League 1 Ontario Schedule   
Saturday March 7, 2020.
by Rocket Robin 

The long awaited League 1 Ontario schedule for the 2020 season for both their men's and women's 
league was released on Thursday.  I expected there was a delay because of the lengthy wait for 
the Canadian Premier League schedule as it was delayed for the finalization of a team in Ottawa 
which brought its total up to eight and made for a balanced schedule mostly confined to weekends.  
I can see a few instances where the L1O schedule has worked both with and around the CPL 
(which 'bought' the L1O in November 2018).  (examples of that later in this article).  
I only have enough time to cover the men's division.   

There are 17 teams in the Men's Division this season which by numbers is one more than last year.  
The headline from the league indicates there will be a compressed schedule but reading the schedule 
closely shows that every team plays the other teams once making a balanced 16 game schedule—8 games 
home and 8 away—which was better than last year when each team had either 7 or 8 home games.  

New to the league this season is Hamilton United who are the first team from that city (they had 
a women's team test the waters last year—league policy is that new teams can start with either 
a men's or women's team in their first season).  The other 'new' team is North Toronto Nitros 
who played in L10 for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.   Ottawa South United Force are not returning 
to L1O—in fact they have moved to the PLSQ league which is the equivalent of L1O but in the province 
of Quebec.  It makes geographic sense because they are on the border with Quebec and every drive 
to the GTA (Toronto area) where the majority of the L1O teams are located was a ten hour same day 
round trip.  The OSUF record was poor each year.  2019 had them finish with a record of 0 wins, 
14 losses, 1 tie with 1 goal scored all season (and that was in their season opener).  I'm sure 
visiting teams didn't like the long trip there either.  

The season starts one week earlier than last year so we have the regular season from Friday 
April 24th to Sunday August 16th.   And they can squeezed in 16 games.  There are no breaks like 
other years when there was a long summer weekend like Canada Day or Simcoe Day.   The league's 
statement on Thursday said the compression was brought about because many teams lost players who 
returned to post secondary schools in Canada or the USA.  OK sounds good, but, last year's schedule 
ran from Friday May 3rd to Sunday August 18th (so in effect the same third weekend in August).  

The real change will show up in the playoffs which have been shortened to one-game series rather 
than two.  Fair enough.  Eight teams make the playoffs like last season and the one game Final was 
held Friday September 27th.  This season the playoff final will be Saturday September 5th but then 
there will be another final game one week later between the playoff winner and the regular season 
winner with the berth in the Canadian Championship on the line.  

Note:  If the first place team also wins the playoffs there will be no championship game.  That game 
will be hard to promote with little time unless the regular season winner trips up early. 

I can still see a major problem with this new format.  I was able to attend many of the playoff 
games last season.  Some of the highest ranked teams were devastated by players returning to school.  
The time they left however was in the middle of August when their varsity team either began training 
or started its season.  Sigma FC was an example of this as I talked to their coach at that time 
to confirm a tweet that something like 23 of their players had now returned to school (meaning 
university or college).  They got knocked out by Masters FA when they were down to a choice 
of which 16 year old goalie to start.    Similar situations occurred with Vaughan Azzurri 
and Alliance United.       

Having the regular season winner play the playoff winner gives that team a second chance but if they 
are devastated by students leaving their team, they won't be any better three weeks later for 
a mid-September contest.  

The league has an extra trophy as this will be the second season they will not have a League Cup 
which always took place mid-week in poorly attended games at what-ever field was available on short 
notice (could easily be cross town).  Perhaps that could be recommissioned as the trophy for 
the regular season winner?  

One reason for the release of the schedule that some folks thought was late was to avoid conflicts 
with Canadian Premier League games meaning home games of York 9 FC and Forge FC.  York 9 this season 
has scheduled the majority of their games on Friday nights to avoid same-day conflicts with 
MLS Toronto FC and attract more youth and families who are usually occupied with their own clubs 
on Saturdays and Sundays.  Most of the GTA teams have avoided playing the same night as York 9 
(Windsor TFC and FC London are too far away to be a concern) except for North Mississauga SC.  
Once again this season they are sharing the grounds at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre with Sigma FC 
who have kept their Saturday and Sunday games as in prior years.  North Mississauga were scheduled 
to move to 'Park 459' (being developed) in 2021 so maybe when they have control of their own grounds, 
they can choose a different day to play.     

All teams avoid conflict in their first week as York 9 is out of town.  The second week has all 
the L1O teams not playing Friday May 1st which is a York home game.  

Now the new Hamilton United team has actually scheduled their first and third home games 
at Tim Horton's Field, home of Forge FC, on the same day after the CPL game!  That could be good 
publicity.  Saturday May 2nd have them playing at 8:00pm expecting Forge will finish their game 
against HFX Wanderers by 3:00pm (OK that is a long wait) and Saturday May 16th at 4:00pm within 
an hour of Forge playing Valour FC.  Their other games are at Ron Joyce Stadium on the grounds 
of McMaster University with only one same-time conflict. (Saturday May 30th) 

The other new team is North Toronto Nitros who will play all their games at Downsview Park which have 
their fields just outside the property of the BMO Training Ground.  When they were in the league before 
they played at Varsity Stadium in midtown Toronto until the U of T varsity teams needed the field then 
were bounced to Downsview Park and Esther Shiner Stadium in North York.  

Other teams will be staying where they are except Unionville-Markham who last year had to split their 
games between Mt Joy in Markham and L'Amoreaux Park in Scarborough which is the home of Masters FA 
after their grounds at Bill Crothers Secondary School are being refurbished.  This year they will play 
all their games at Azzurri Village (aka Toronto Azzurri SC Youth Sport Village) which is south of Steeles 
on the east side of Keele just over from York Lions Stadium the home of York 9 FC.    

It will be interesting to see if the broadcaster OneSoccer shows a 'Game of the Week' whether men's 
or women's this season or just waits until the playoffs.  All other games are available on the L1O's 
website although they are mostly one-camcorder-on-a-pole quality.   

I was able to attend exactly forty L1O games last year so I'm hoping to match that this season besides  
my other commitments to York 9 FC and Toronto FC II of USL League One.  

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
twitter @RocketRobin01  

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