Has THF been getting used for anything besides Cats?

THF is more than "slightly bigger" than the FOCU Centre.

Seating, plus field (much larger than ice surface) viewing, etc

You could easily get 35,000 into the place for a big ticket band.

Saskatchewan had 40,000 for the Rolling Stones in '06.

You’re right you could probably squeeze 35 k in there. But you don’t have to. They “sold out” for Keith Ubran a few years back at around 22 k.

It’s all they were allowed to at the time.

From my understanding the Ti-Cats and several ownership groups are hashing out details about starting up a new Canadian Soccer League, of which a team in Hamilton is expected to play out of Tim Hortons' Field. Timeframe seems to indicate 2018ish, but there's simply not enough official statements to back that up.

But why another league when there are thee Canadian teams playing in the NASL?
The NASL is one step below the MLS, a Canadian league would be below that. Wouldn’t a Hamilton team be better off playing Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton?

The CSA and Caretaker are looking at the big picture, well into the future, perhaps 10 or 15 years

The Canadian Soccer Association is considering a bid for the Soccer World Cup in the very distant future.
A bid will never be accepted if there is no FIFA sanctioned domestic league in that Country.
Caretaker and the CSA want to develop Canadian Soccer players in a domestic League to improve our players from a young age.
This would be the sole purpose of the FIFA sanctioned Canadian League, to develop Canadian players, grow the sport and be able to bid on the World Cup
The President of the CSA was just voted to be President of CONCACAF and a Vice President of FIFA
Canadian Soccer and Canada has never been better represented in FIFA

I like the Caretaker’s plan a lot. It’s good for Canadian soccer and Canada on an international level. You can’t expect slim to understand such logic, as he would rather watch Americans play sports. Like many Canadians, he has sadly sold his soul, and his manhood as well, to the USA.

These type of Canadians will never be beneficial to our nation, and I don’t understand why they live here at all, since their heart and soul is clearly American. I can’t stand followers.

Also what's with the Tiger-Cats schedule this year in the CFL this past away stretch with four games in a row on the road mid July to mid August you would think there was something big going on back at Tim Horton's Field?

I could see two games in a row on the road but come on a stretch of four, you would wonder if your home team was ever planning on coming back?

I think whoever planned the schedule this year should be fired head first out of cannon and especially if nothing big is going on back home that would interrupt the schedule like last year and the 2015 Pan Am Games soccer matches.

Weird or what?

GO CATS GO!!!

I would rather watch Americans play soccer??? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
That’s like saying you watch the CFL because there are a lot of Americans playing.

Are you saying that the Caretaker has sold his soul and manhood because he lives and works in the US and is a US citizen?..seriously? we owe a great deal to Mr Young and what he has done for this city, you should be ashamed.

What does “these type of Canadian will never be beneficial to our nation” mean anyway. What benefit have you made to our nation?
Get back to the topic instead of the silly juvenile comments. How old are you?

  • Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary have NASL franchises. The NASL is one step below the MLS, Montreal was in the NASL but with so much interest in the Impact they stepped up to the MLS.
    Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary are not going to leave the NASL to play in some “all Canadian” league, I can see Hamilton getting an NASL franchise but not playing in a league one below the NASL level. Maybe in 10 or 15 years there will be an “all Canadian” division of the NASL.

Right now the Canadian national teams is made up of players from the MLS/NASL and a couple of players in Europe.
The team will be picked from the best players in the top leagues.
All I’m saying is that Hamilton should get a team in the NASL

Well first, there are only two teams playing in the NASL, Ottawa and Edmonton. The Calgary Foothills play at a division bellow. As far as the reason, NASL is bound by restrictions enforced by the USSF (US Soccer Federation, their version of the CSA) that to be sanctioned, at least 75% of the teams must be US based. Currently the NASL isn’t large enough to have another Canadian team, and even if they expand it would severely limit the number of Canadian Franchises. It also is incredibly unlikely MLS is going to ever expand in Canada as there isn’t ownership who would want to tank their incredibly high expansion fees, and MLS is more focused on larger, more lucrative US markets.

The second is because of costs, FC Edmonton is not doing so well financially but has an owner who is tanking huge losses. Flying from Edmonton to Florida (where three going on four NASL teams are based) or even worse, Peurto Rico is costly, and it’s also a lot of money in the wind because it’s a US league, meaning having to pay in US dollars severely hampers the ability to make money.

The third is development. There is only a very limited number of places that a young Canadian player can go and play professionally and make a decent wage. MLS’s Canadian requirements literally are 3 Canadians must be on the roster (not starters) of the three Canadian MLS clubs. Often they just warm the bench, so meaningful minutes aren’t being played there to benefit our national team. The NASL clubs are a different story, but they are hamstrung by the number of Canadian teams, which can’t expand, so only a limited amount of minutes are being played there. After that you have the three USL farm teams for MLS, which while having stiff Canadian requirements, the average player salary is comparable to CFL practice roster players. After that, the only other option is to play abroad, which typically unless you are a special cream of the crop player, doesn’t often happen, and when it does, runs the risk that player won’t play for Canada as after 5 years he qualifies to play for a different national team. A new league would not only give a lot more spaces for younger Canadian players to go, but also likely expand the number of academies developing young talent and more importantly, not be beholden to any USSF rules.

The fourth is it would be Canadian and from my understanding that fact alone makes it a product that Canadian broadcasters need due to CRTC regulations.

The fifth, although it is less of a concern now, is that some of NASL’s board and former owners were hit in a big FIFA bribes and corruption scandal last year. That really put a damper on things. That and NASL has had a consistent problem of MLS poaching their teams after they’ve done the legwork to build a market and meeting USSF requirements. It’s also a case they’ve been threatening the USSF with lawsuits because of their Division 2 status without promotion or relegation or fair reason and that hurts their ability to market. It’s not as bad as it was when the scandal first hit, but it’s drama that smaller ownership groups have been staying away from.

Easy to say when you dont live in the area

Well done Hammer, great post! :thup:

Did you see all the people being rushed out of THF last year during the dog days of Heat they did it to save us fans from scorching heat and dressed in black plus gives STH,s time to book vacations btw also same reason why 90% of the games are at night now

So lets see now, The TiCats know their starting QB won't be back from major surgery before week 7, which puts him on exact schedule from his required surgery and fans just cannot understand why the home schedule is more back end loaded. :roll:
Since Collaros got injured on Sept.19th 2015, the Cats have only one regular season home win at THF!

Unless you’ve lived there since 1930, there’s been a stadium there longer than you. Deal with it.

It’s also all they needed according to Bob Young. He said they could turn a profit on a million dollar act with a crowd of around 20k.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4777974-keith-urban-to-headline-first-concert-at-tim-hortons-field/

The Tiger-Cats, who Young said are the sole promoters of the concert, are targeting to have a capacity of between 22,000 and 24,000 seats available for the show.

When asked how many tickets they needed to sell to break even, Young replied “several thousand seats less than what we’re going to sell.”

We don’t know all the details of the new league (tentatively called the Canadian Premier League). The intent is for it to be dubbed as “Tier 1” in Canada (MLS is tier 1 in USA/Canada, NASL is tier 2, USL is tier 3). Likely at a skill level comparable to NASL. Goal appears to be 6-8 teams, all based in Canada, with ties to ownership groups in the CFL or NHL. Speculation is that the Ottawa Fury would move from NASL to the CPL.

Again, this is all speculation, but is summarized best here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Premier_League
8) Sorry, but you are wrong !!! :roll: The head office and all football operations are still located at Jarvis St. !!

I don’t think thats right… I’m pretty sure the Cats facilities including coaches offices etc, are all at THF now. No reason for them to still be at Jarvis.

Football ops, the running of the football side of the team, is done at the stadium now, and Jarvis is where the business side of things are run. The football ops were only 100% at Jarvis during the teams homeless phase from late 2012 to when they moved into THF.

The 2012 and back football ops were run out of the IWS offices. I think Obie was the only football ops guy to have a Jarvis office before 2012.