To the casual observer, it would seem like just another home in a quiet, residential neighborhood in downtown Ottawa.
There isn’t anything special about this three-floor building, located right in the heart of Centretown at MacLaren and Kent streets.
But open up the doors, walk up a flight of stairs, and the inner-workings of a semi-professional soccer club and one man’s aspirations to bring a professional team to Ottawa are revealed.
And John Pugh, owner of the Ottawa Fury soccer club, says he is confident about the idea of bringing a pro soccer franchise to the nation’s capital.
“It’s just a natural extension of what we set out to do seven or eight years ago,” says Pugh, who joined forces with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group to move this project forward late last year.
Pugh says he acquired the Fury eight years ago with two goals in mind: to develop local soccer players and to bring Ottawa the highest level of spectator soccer possible.
Pugh has already achieved his first goal. The Fury’s youth program has helped more than 60 players receive athletic scholarships in U.S.
The Fury also has two semi-professional teams that compete in the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League and women’s league respectively. Both teams play their home games at the Algonquin College Soccer Complex and compete against clubs from across North America.
Now, Pugh is attempting to achieve his second goal of producing a professional on-field product.
He says the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, held partially in Ottawa, was all the confirmation he needed that the city was ready for a pro franchise.
“People really began to understand what it meant to go to a soccer game, that a soccer game (is) actually an event,” says Pugh.
Graeme Ivory, the Fury’s director of communications and marketing, works alongside Pugh daily at the Fury’s office. He says the OSEG is working towards bringing a North American Soccer League pro franchise to the city by 2013.
The future of the NASL remains in question, however, as the league desperately attempts to receive sanctioning from the United States Soccer Federation.
That said, the league’s eight teams, including the Montreal Impact and expansion club FC Edmonton, continue to go ahead with preparations as the 2011 season inches closer.
Ivory forecasts a pro team in Ottawa could potentially attract around 7,000 fans per game, based on last season’s NASL attendance figures.
Ottawa 67’s vice-president Randy Burgess, who is working with the OSEG in the project, says he thinks these numbers are attainable.
Burgess cited Ottawa’s overall soccer participation numbers as one of the reasons why he expects a pro franchise in the city would be well received.
There were over 50,000 registered outdoor soccer players in Ottawa during the 2010 season, according to figures provided by the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association.
If all goes to plan, the proposed pro team would play at the new Lansdowne Stadium, along with the expected new Canadian Football League franchise.
After eight years as owner of the Fury and decades of playing and watching soccer, Pugh seems like just the man to bring a professional soccer franchise to Ottawa.
“I’ve had a lot of experience watching other clubs to see what they’ve done,” he says. “I’ve been the CEO of a company, so I have some business acumen, and you definitely need that if you’re going to have success with any kind of professional sports franchise.”