An artist’s rendering of the new Lansdowne Park stadium scheduled to be built by 2014.
Men’s soccer has yet to make much of an impact on the Ottawa sports scene, but there are hopes that will change in 2014 when a new professional soccer franchise kicks off at Lansdowne Park.
The team will compete in the North American Soccer League, a Division II league with teams from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Although Ottawa was awarded a NASL franchise last year, the recent Lansdowne vote has cemented a home ground for the team. The season will start on the road until Lansdowne Park is ready.
John Pugh, owner of the Ottawa Fury and Ottawa’s new professional team, has high hopes the team will follow the lead of previous Canadian NASL teams.
“Our goal is to follow in the footsteps of teams like Montreal and Vancouver who played in division one soccer for over a decade before they moved up to the MLS,” he says.
There is, however, a long way to go before that can happen. With no expansion draft in the NASL, gaining the players needed to be a competitive force in the league could be a challenge.
“We already get emails from prospective players every day,” says Pugh. “There is no draft as such . . . but the head coach will have a lot of connections and a choice of players to look at.”
Kenny Caceros, Fury youth program graduate and current NASL player for FC Edmonton, is one player interested in joining the Ottawa team.
He says it was only a matter of time before Ottawa got a professional team.
“Fury has done a lot for me in terms of development as a player on and off the field. I would like to give back by helping the club succeed at the professional level,” says Caceros. “In 2014, I’ll have had two years at the NASL level under my belt and I would very much enjoy bringing that experience back home to Ottawa.”
Questions have been raised over whether there will be enough demand to fill the 24,000-seat stadium. Currently, the Ottawa Fury Premier Development League team has an average attendance in the hundreds.
The highest average attendance for an NASL team last season was 11,507 for the Montreal Impact.
“We’re not going to fill the stadium for every league game,” says Pugh. “We will be doing whatever we can to make it feel intimate, by blocking off the seating and so on.”
The Vancouver Whitecaps have similar procedures in place for match days at BC Place.
While Ottawa isn’t necessarily known as a soccer city, NASL commissioner David Downs has hopes for a fan base for the team.
“We’re looking forward to Ottawa’s on-field contribution to the NASL in 2014 and are confident the city’s soccer fans will support the club in style,” says Downs.
The name of the soon-to-be club is still uncertain. A competition will be held to decide whether the team will be the Ottawa Fury or another name chosen by fans.