From: marco@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (Marco Petroni)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Subject: Re: Montreal got a new concession in the APSL
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:03:57 GMT
Organization: McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines, Montreal, Canada

In article <1992Dec10.203530.14300@sobeco.com> rcroteau@sobeco.com (r.croteau) writes:
>In <Bz0qnL.K8A@DMI.USherb.CA> bedaj00@DMI.USherb.CA (JOEL BEDARD) writes:
>>Good news for soccer fan in Montreal and the rest of North America!
>
>	Yes, and this might kill off the Canadian League.  BTW, this new team
>in Montreal is not associated with the Supra.  Saputo pulled a quickie as it
>was a major sponsor to the Supra then financed then entry of the new team.
>Supra's ex-general manager Pino Asaro will be GM for this new team.

Well, according to Joey Saputo, the team president of the new, as yet
un-named APSL team, he and Aliaga, the Supra owner, spoke about a bid for an
APSL franchise, adding that if Aliaga was going to apply for one, Saputo
wasn't going to. It turns out that Aliaga never made an application, nor
did he post the $100,000 US bond to the APSL. Perhaps Saputo didn't really
pull a quickie; maybe Aliaga just dragged his feet.

In any case, here's some more info on the new Montreal franchise:
the team has an operating budget of about $1,000,000 per year, and
they hope to buy the better Supra players, if possible, as well as
getting a couple of players from Europe or South America (I believe
that the APSL has limited the number of foreign players on a given team
to 3). BTW, the franchise is not expected to make *any* money, at least
for the first few years, with Saputo expected to lose about $5,000,000
in the first five years.

With regards to the CSL and the Supra, it seems that the league may continue
after all, as the Vancouver area has been awarded a franchise to replace
the 86ers. The new team is from Burnaby. I have also heard on the radio
and read in the newspapers, that the Supra players have yet to be paid for
their last month of play. Strange that a franchise will the relatively
huge financial backing and sponsoring from local businesses, like the
Supra, still has not finished paying their players yet.

As for a Toronto bid for an APSL team, they still have about a week to
put in their bid, otherwise they'll have to wait for next year, but
it seems that APSL people are confident that one will come in the next few
days.

I, personally, am happy to see Montreal in the APSL. Hopefully it will
be a more competetive league than the CSL. If it turns out to be so,
fan support will follow, but another venue for soccer should be
built; Claude Robiallard is too small, and the Olympic Stadium, with
its artificial surface, is too big. Even if the Big O had a grass pitch,
rent for the place would suck up too much money.

Marco...
--
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- Marco Petroni - VE2VTN - "Forza Milan! En ROUGE et BLACK." "Forza Ancona!"
	-- McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines (McRCIM), 
                         McGill University, Montreal, Canada.  
 INTERNET/BITNET: marco@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu  or marco@mcrcim.mcgill.ca
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