This week we are joined by FC Edmonton GM Jay Ball. This is the first of a two part podcast that focuses on the June 8 announcement of FCE joining the Canadian Premier League from Jay's perspective. We also go back to November 24 (Black Friday) where the club made the announcement that it was withdrawing from the NASL, and the journey they took in reviving the club and getting to the CPL.
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This week is a very special episode for us as we talk about the FC Edmonton launch and crest new reveal. We break down our experience with the launch, including our march down Whyte Ave and the being front and centre for the announcement itself. We also break down our thoughts on the crest, including elements that work, and some that don't. And of course, we share a bit of the experience in the past six months that brought us to that special night.
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This weeks episode is another special one where we react to the announcement of a new club, and this week we share our thoughts on Winnipeg's Valour FC. As per usual, we look at all the crest and all the design elements within it, as well as the colours, stadium and everything else we can think of.
Oh, and WE'RE GOING TO THE CPL! We look at the teaser video the league released on Tuesday saying Edmonton is approved by the CPL. Since these teasers give some insight into the identity and branding of the clubs, we look at what is focused on in the video and how it can relate to the club. We also share the YEG4CPL plans to pregame and march to the announcement.
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This week we break down the latest CPL club to be officially announced, the HFX (Halifax) Wanderers FC. For this special episode, we are pleased to be joined by Privateers 1882 member and owner of the first Wanderers membership, James Covey. He shares his thoughts and reaction of the announcement, as well as explaining the origins of the Privateers 1882, which strangely enough has a bit of an Edmonton connection.
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On this episode we invited the Young Gaffers podcast to join us to talk about their new hometown club, Cavalry FC. We went over the announcement itself, along with breaking down the choice in name, colours and crest.
After that conversation, we go a little deeper in analyzing the branding and how it compares to the other recently announced club, York 9.
And of course, we sprinkle in a few CPL rumours for good measure.
You can find the Young Gaffers podcast here.
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This weeks podcast focuses on York 9 FC and their formal announcement. We react to the announcement itself, and offer our thoughts the colours, crest, stadium and membership drive.
We then move onto talking about fan arrogance, and how we (Canadian soccer supporters) need to change a bit and be a little more arrogant about our own clubs now that they are coming to be a reality. We explain why it is important and how it can help drive support across the league.
And finally, we briefly ask the question if there is an issue with stadiums across the CPL. No conclusion is determined, but we figured it's worth getting the conversation started as we've seen some success stories as well as nightmares from watching the stadium issues plague the NASL.
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This weeks episode is a jam packed on where we return to the classic format again with just Nathan and Adam. We offer (or Nathan at least does) reaction to both legs of the Al Classico, and how it lays the ground for the greatest CPL rivalry.
We also talk about the CPL owners meeting in Edmonton ahead of the CSA meetings where new groups were awarded memberships to operate as pro clubs in Canada. From the meeting, Commissioner David Clanachan spoke of his preference for calling Remax Field as home for the Eddies. We weighed in on the pros and cons of a move to Remax and how Clarke Stadium should still be the main focus.
We also offered some quick reaction to Calgary's home stadium for next year, why is it called Port City and more!
For this episode, we focus on the future of pro soccer in Alberta with the Young Gaffers podcast. The central theme is the upcoming "Al Classico" as well as focusing a where Edmonton and Calgary are in terms of CPL hype and what a professional club will mean to each city. We also jointly examined the rumoured club names that have surfaced in the Canadian trademark office. And of course, a couple barbs are thrown in trying to determine who will win these upcoming matches.
This weeks podcast is a very special one as we are joined by former FC Edmonton defender Paul Hamilton. Long time fans will remember Paul as being an original fan favourite and was named to the NASL Best XI in 2012. Being that Paul is a former professional player, we got the unique opportunity to hear what happens as players transition to a more conventional lifestyle and how much different it is playing as an amateur with Scottish United.
This episode is a special one we've been wanting to do for some time now, and that's one focused on Free Footie. Tim and Leah from Free Footie sit down with us to talk about the program, which gives kids an opportunity to play organized soccer when it would otherwise be inaccessible to them. We talk about the beginnings of Free Footie, it's rapid growth, success stories and much more!
If you would like to find out more and/or donate, you can do so here!
After a great run of guests, we return to our more "classic" setup of just Nathan and Adam talking about soccer. On this episode, we do an in depth look at what is effectively the death of the NASL and where it went wrong. Then we move on to feature the CanPL with news and rumours we haven't really talked at length about in the last few months. We finish the podcast by talking about the YEG4CPL movement and our #March2CPL with events happening every Friday evening in March!
Sean Fleming joins us on this episode. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Sean was a long time coach with the CSA, including leading u17 men to two World Cup appearances. Sean is now the u16 coach with the FCE academy. He shares a lot of stories from his experience as a coach, including coaching notable national team players at the youth levels and much more.
This episode features Ricardo Casanova who started up the YEG Soccer Project. He joins us to talk about soccer in Edmonton, going from the youth levels to he's coached, to the status of infrastructure in the city and accessibility of the facilities we do have. He's hosting an event on February 23rd to celebrate soccer in this city, and details can be found here.
You can find the YEG Soccer Project Facebook page here, and the Twitter account here.
In part two of our fan round table, we look at the future of pro soccer in Edmonton. Dallas, Dave and Tobi all return, as well as FC Edmonton general manager Jay Ball.
This episode is part one of a two part round table where we had a few special guests join us to talk about FC Edmonton. We were joined by FC Edmonton general manager Jay Ball, as well as prominent fans Tobi, Dallas and Dave. In this conversation, we took the opportunity to talk about why we're all FCE fans, including what brought us to the club as well as some highs and lows.