January 31, 2024...York United FC Fan's Meet and Greet Event at the Elephant & Castle in Toronto (by Rocket Robin)

Details of the York United FC Fan's Meet and Greet Event held at the Elephant & Castle in downtown Toronto
on Wednesday January 31, 2024.

I wasn't looking forward to the venture downtown during the rush hour although I was coming INTO the downtown so the subway wasn't as crowded as I expected. The distance from this pub/restaurant on King Street West and Simcoe Street to BMO Field is only 4.2 km away while York Lions Stadium is 45 km. This would have been an expected venue for a Toronto FC event in the days before their MLSE owned team opened their Real Sports Restaurant and wouldn't want to miss out on the revenue that would generate. A superfan at tonight's event said about half the York United fanbase would have liked one of the previous years' choices in Vaughan or Markham.

The team ownership picked up the tab for all tonight's food and drinks. Nice gesture! English pub menu with finger foods and sliders served to us around 8:00pm. The event started at 7:00pm with fans gradually displacing the regular patrons in the back room. I was wondering if they would be able to turn off the music playing inside and outside in the street. Playlist as expected in these places...Elton John, CCR, Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart and more modern groups like Muse and Imagine Dragons but all male and all white. I'd have even counted Three Dog Night as mixed for one of its seven members being black.

Once I was inside I couldn't hear much once the music was combined with the noise of the patrons. Much gossip was lost for anyone more than eight feet from me. When the time came the music was turned off and York United staff had brought their own portable sound system which worked well. I was able to pick up all the audio once the ceremonies started.

The MC was York United's VP, Content and Communication Strategy, Eoin O'Callaghan

First up were some prizes given away for correct trivia question answers.

Trivia questions (4 minutes, 02 seconds)

Head coach Martin Nash

Questions for York United FC head coach Martin Nash (6 minutes, 26 seconds)
How are you feeling about assembling the jigsaw puzzle of this year's team?
What's the latest transfer news? [two new guys signed today]
More trivia questions are asked.

More questions for Martin Nash (10 minutes, 29 seconds)
What players are you looking for to fill the roster? [goalkeeper, winger, center back]
How far away is the team from being organized for 2024? [includes reason that Paris Gee left]
The maturity expected this season for young players Noah Abatneh and Kadin Martin-Pereux?
Are you expecting more goals from Brian Wright and Osaze De Rosario this year?
What will it take to lift the CPL championship in 2024?
What will you expect from Mo Babouli? [interesting comments about good road record
and no support during period of league ownership]
[closing thoughts..."...we need a good start...and...we're not that far away"]

Eoin O'Callaghan with co-owner Ricardo Pasquel

Questions for York United FC co-owner Ricardo Pasquel (14 minutes, 02 seconds)
How's your first Canadian winter going?
How is the immersion for your family?
What's the process been like in run the team?
What are you objectives for 2024? What's the plan to get more people to attend games?
Why are you asking staff for what is working and how to improve?
How do you accomplish your goal of improving the game day experience?
How excited are you for the season to start?
How are you working with Jorge Villapando (the new technial/Sporting Director)?
Villapando says a few words.
Fan question: How about organizing a fan bus for our first game in Ottawa?
Stay tuned!

New players from Mexico. Oswaldo Leon is in the middle.

The three new players (one was signed yesterday)
Oswaldo Leon is a cornerback and will wear number 4. Orlando Botello is a left back and will wear number 6(?). Josue Martinez is a central midfielder and will wear number 15. Interesting the players when introduced weren't wearing their kits but their kits were given away to trivia answering fans. As far as I could tell they were last year's kits. Fans supplied the new players their scarves in time for the photo op.

There were a few questions that I wanted addressed and I asked later when the formal part of the night was over. Some of the questions might have been from fans because on our invitation e-mail it asked us to supply questions. My question was "Where can we watch your road games if the league is no longer on 'One Soccer'? No one could answer me that question but I'm sure the situation is changing every day. I can never seem to catch their shows live but I noticed that their news show has not been updated since last Wednesday. I noticed the bar was playing 'The Stars of MMA' on their tv sets but the important point was the logo of Fubo Sports in the bottom corner. Some fans had mentioned that that service is catching on and to be on a bar's TV rather than the two cable network bohemoths is a good sign.

My other question was where the team would be training. O'Callaghan answered they will start at York Lions Stadium (and not The Ontario Soccer Centre) as part of their fitting into the school's 'all in'. The other place is 'off the record' but it was hinted at during the press conference on December 7th when the new owners were introduced. With the fans shouting out for a bus to travel to the first road game in Ottawa, I expect once there is announced the team is leaving, some of the more well heeled fans will be looking for cheap flights to that city!

Max Ferrari wearing the bucket hat arrived just as the event was wrapping up and was the only player from the 2023 roster that I recognized.

More of the fans I recognized. Moira who is a Day 1 York fan but still a TFC season ticket holder had noticed that the one conflict this season in the schedule is on Wednesday June 19th when TFC hosts Nashville at the same time as York United host Pacific FC. I can't remember now which game she'd be going to. There is not another same day conflict as in previous years there's been a few afternoon/evening non-conflicts if you take the subway.

The noise during some of my recordings is superfan Kyle was celebrating his birthday with a party hat and a green coloured boa he'd been given. I also run into him at League1 Ontario games as he is often a match day co-ordinator.

Ricardo Pasquel mingled with fans all evening and when he asked how the club can be approved I pointed out last year it took until at least the fifth home game before the SSH scarves were in stock to be given out. He said it won't happen this year because there won't be any scarves in 2024! Not the answer I was hoping for but the club will be looking at something else he said.

Pasquel also answered informally with us that FIFA will announce this weekend how many games Toronto will get at the 2026 World Cup and a large number of games (at the expense of Vancouver I suspect) will rachet up more pressure for Toronto to get facilities built or upgraded to be made available for training etc. He is not sure about moving to another stadium but everything is on the table.

A guy that I thought might be Brian Wright turned out to be Anthony Valentine, the director of Retail & Merchandise for the club. Yes he was a player from my following the CSL/CNSL/CPSL days of North York Astros. He's made his way from there to working in a sports store to now being with York. He said he had a present for me (before he told me who he was) and he came back a minute later with a York United FC team scarf of course from a previous year. A perfect response to my disappointment with the 'no scarf' statement from Pasquel. Do these guys communicate telepathically?

I just had to give him one of my cards so he could read about himself in my archives. I should have restocked my back pocket as it turned out I gave out all the business cards I have for my cat's YouTube channel. My ice-breaker is that he's more popular than my soccer page and I believe that is true for the number of different people who come across both sites.

Another guy had sat alone all night and I asked him if he was a player. Yes it is 'Casey' who is on their reserve team. I asked him if he was under 21 and he said he was so I told him there's a good chance he will play especially late in the year going by their action last season to conform to league rules.

I know this was a fan event but there were no media from the league and obviously One Soccer. At the post game press conferences last season it had worked its way down to just me and the young guy Thomas who has probably just now turned 15 and wouldn't have been allowed in here tonight. Ah but John Jacques, the publisher of the website Northern Tribune was here. He answered that he is also a season ticket holder and that may have been the reason he is invited. Photographer David Chant was also here.

Rocket Robin
robin.glover.1958@gmail.com
X @RocketRobin01

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