BIG READ: So how do you fix what's ailing York United FC, anyway?
Five years into its existence, York United FC now finds itself at a crossroads.
It seemed, on paper, that this club would be an easy win for the upstart Canadian Premier League; located in the heart of the hottest hotbed of talent in Canada, surrounded by League1 Ontario clubs teeming with hungry potential professionals, in a huge metropolis encompassing 15 percent of the entire population of Canada alone.
But this week, after another season opener drawing a meager 1,200 or so fans, news emerged that Canadian Soccer Business would be buying York United from the Baldassarra family in anticipation of a potential sale. No timeline nor new ownership was mentioned, but the league assured supporters that it would be business as usual for the club as they broker a new deal.
The news of York United's status comes amid a time where CPL fans are already noticing change in the league: FC Edmonton is no longer in the picture, as expansion side Vancouver FC makes its own debut among the eight clubs that comprise this league. Naturally, the question that many fans asked was whether this was the first sign that York United were through.
However, as my colleague Gareth Wheeler put it on OneSoccer Today, this two-steps-forward, one-step-back turbulance was to be expected of the CPL as a project in the first place. The path to growth was never going to be linear.
Still... one does worry, and it begs the question: What does an ambitious new owner need to do to fix what's ailing York United?
A flawed premise: York Region isn't united
If we're going to fix this, first, we need to be real with ourselves about "York."
When this club was launched in 2019 as one of the league's founding members, it operated under the name York9 FC – the nine serving to represent the pride of York Region's nine combined municipalities.
The problem is very few people in York Region actually care that they're from York Region. Even fewer identify themselves as being from anything other than Toronto, with the populous of cities like Markham, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, etc. very clearly preferring to identify with Toronto – and certainly from a sporting standpoint.
Of course, this changes the further north you go from downtown Toronto, but if you're building a club in Georgina, you're also not building a club in Toronto, and if you stray too south, you're also alienate a big chunk of those nine municipalities, too. So, from the very start, York9 FC faced an issue of identity: What – or, more specifically, who – does this club represent?
By the end of 2020, the York9 FC name and logo were scrapped, its creepy mascot Yorky was killed off, and York United FC was born.
Like many CPL clubs – we're looking at Valour, Pacific, Forge, etc. – the name York9 failed to convey exactly what this organization even was. But in a place like Calgary, a team named 'Cavalry FC' at least had the benefit of being one of the only shows in town, so the name and brand could spread throughout the community without as many obstacles or distractions.
That's not the case in Toronto, or I guess in this case, throughout York Region. Still, under the name York United FC, at least a clear footballing identity emerged to combat any misconceptions. And, unlike their previous marketing efforts under the York9 FC moniker, York United began using imagery and branding with a more Torontonian focus. No longer would they pretend that a sprawling metropolis wasn't right beneath their feet.
So, in 2021, York United FC went boldly into the fire of CPL competition, and while they emerged out of a pandemic scarred but still standing just like everyone else, the new identity they had crafted? It suffered the same fate as the last.
York isn't united – at least, not under the name York. It certainly is under another name, though: The Greater Toronto Area.
Unfortunately, the Toronto name is owned by another – and in a fairly definitive manner – through Toronto FC.
This CPL club finds itself between a rock and a hard place in this regard. You can't compete with Toronto FC for that market share. The resource gap alone is daunting enough, without factoring in history, level of competition, stadium, brand loyalty, and Italian national team superstar(s). Yes, superstars, plural.
Whatever goal the rebrand was trying to solve, outwardly it seemed the club had banked on it helping fill the stands, even though York9 FC wasn't exactly... bad, per se.
But the biggest obstacle wasn't the name or logo of the club at all. No, the biggest barrier to entry today?
It's where this team plays.
Why York Lions Stadium isn't gonna cut it
Among the many necessary changes at York United, none is more pressing, and more important, than a new home.
Located on the campus of York University, York Lions Stadium is neither an ideal or even an appropriate home for a professional soccer team.
You're a club fighting a titan of Major League Soccer for attention and fan dollars, in a city where entertainment options in sports alone include the Toronto Raptors, the Toronto Blue Jays and, of course, the Toronto Maple Leafs ... and you're doing it on a school campus in the summer, where the in-joke among students is that the TTC built a subway line nearby to help get you away from campus quicker.
Add to this the fact that for the first few years, playing at York Lions Stadium also meant you had to play pro soccer on a pitch so small you truly had to wonder how it passed regulation standards in the first place, and you're making the wrong impression on anyone who does make the trek out in the first place.
Then, if you do find yourself at York Lions Stadium on a summer weekend, good luck finding anything else to do after the final whistle is blown. There's nothing to do, see, eat or drink in the nearby vicinity, certainly nothing within walking distance. Nowhere for supporters to properly gather and march to a match. Nowhere for fans to hang out and drink and celebrate victory after the fact. You go, you watch soccer, you leave.
This team needs a home of its own. So, ambitious owner, your biggest obstacle is finding that home. Or buiding it.
Woodbine Racetrack: Home, Sweet Home?
Too often in these discussions about potential stadium locations, fans will point at a map and say "Why not in this spot?" without considering that there are about a thousand regulatory and zoning and construction and infrastructural challenges with any commercial real estate project of this sort. So the actual act of finding a place to play, especially in a city that's already fairly densely built, is already a tall task.
What has emerged as a potential option is a grand vision for Woodbine Racetrack, with Woodbine Entertainment announcing in 2022 that it would be prepared to designate a portion of its 684-acre land for the development of a new 38,000 square foot high-performance training facility and 8,000-seat stadium for women's and men's soccer, all meeting FIFA professional standards with a world-class grass pitch.
Surrounding it? A casino, plenty of food and drink, the Racetrack itself, and more. A proper home, not just for York United, but for Canada Soccer's men's and women's national teams, and potentially for Project 8's own Toronto-based pro women's club, A.F.C. Toronto City.
Will it pan out? That remains to be seen. But if it does, then step one of this rebuild is complete. You've got your digs.
The next step is making this house a home.
Breathing life into a soccer stadium
When you're young and growing up in the GTA, you dream about playing at BMO Field.
Just stepping onto that grass for the first time imbibes you with a sense of pride and importance. This grass has hosted magical moments for both club and country. This is where a FIFA U-20 World Cup was hosted. This is where Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká played one of their first games with Real Madrid. This is where Toronto FC won the MLS Cup.
This is where THIS happened:
It's hallowed ground. There's history within its confines. Important memories.
This is not an easy thing to replicate. You actually can't. It takes time and work and luck and patience and fight and resolve to form, and when it does – if it does – what emerges is entirely unique to you and your own stories, your own memories, your own history.
You won't ever be able to compete with BMO Field in this regard. But that doesn't mean this new stadium can't be special in its own right. It starts by being aggressively accessible to the community. It must not just be available to host all of those important youth soccer days and nights, those tournament finals and league-title decider days, but desire to act like a Wembley Stadium of sorts for those moments, petitioning and bidding for those League 1 Ontario title-winning days or League1 Canada's inter-provincial championships matches with eager enthusiasm and support. A hyper-focused, hyper-local ground where your soccer memories were made, juxtoposed to that of BMO Field, where grander, loftier global ambitions are realized by only the very, very best of us.
And if you truly want to be ambitious, it should stay open to the public 24/7 – a hang-out spot for local soccer meet-ups, a battleground to all who dare to test themselves here. Who knows? A pro player or two might show up for some pick-up soccer from time to time... or a scout, coming to check you guys out. A true proving ground.
Over the course of 5 years, a new stadium built for the GTA soccer community would be the home of local legends and stories. That insane free kick from 35 yards out that finally broke the deadlock between Vaughan SC and AS Blainville; the place where that one scout found that one girl who now plays for that NWSL team – did you hear she just got called up for Bev Priestman's CanWNT?
Isn't it the field where that 13-year-old kid broke that grown ass man's ankles that one time and it went viral on TikTok? Yup.
Those two realms of sporting magic are equally special, equally important... and equally possible to achieve.
In fact, this same philosophy should extend to the very fibre of the club itself.
A team for Toronto, by Toronto
When the Canadian Premier League launched in 2019, it did so with a clear mission: A league spanning coast-to-coast for Canadians, by Canadians. This is where York United could find their own foothold.
See, try as they might, it's becoming fairly clear that York United isn't going to be the rallying flag around which the nine municipalities of York Region finally unite around, with local pride swelling and a deep sentiment of Toronto, the Other growing in equal measure.
So instead of fighting it by drawing a line where it does not exist, why not embrace the Greater Toronto Area as your own identity?
I mean, really embrace it.
Yes, there's already a pro team of note in Toronto – Toronto FC of Major League Soccer.
But the Reds have made clear that their ambitions are grand – and globally-reaching. TFC have signed major international superstars time and time again, reaching an incredible high with their treble-winning 2017 and subsequent Concacaf Champions League final run, and are in the middle of trying to replicate that once again with Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi.
Trying to compete against that would be foolish ... but that's not how you succeed anyway. There is another approach you could take here.
The CPL club is where Toronto's very own come to play. This is the top of our local pyramid, too. If Toronto FC wants to concern itself with Italian internationals, let them. This isn't that. This is our thing. Local players rule the roost here. If you're from the Greater Toronto Area and you can ball, this is your playground. If you dominate in League1 Ontario? We're the first ones calling.
What other part of Canada can put out an elite squad packed to the brim with local guys and compete in CPL? Halifax sure as hell can't. But this place? This slice of Canadiana? It sure can.
Yeah, the rest of the league will hate you. Good. Let them. You, Toronto, are the centre of the goddamn universe after all.
It doesn't need to be Athletic Bilbao-levels of dedication. If you go too hyper-local without any international players, for instance, then you risk looking like another League1 Ontario team. But if you make a commitment to helping build the game in the GTA and York Region by prioritizing local players, coaches, and connections to the local soccer scene, you're probably not hurting your case.
And look, if you're a kid playing soccer in this part of the world? Dream of Toronto FC. Chase that soccer dream as far and as high as it can take you (and help Canada win a FIFA World Cup while you're at it, too!).
But if you're down to show us what you've got instead of rotting in an academy or in the reserves, if you've got a point to prove to someone who doesn't think you can make it, if you're tired of watching others earn a chance that you know you deserve, or knowing you'll never have a chance as long as those star Designated Players are here, if you want to own your city before you conquer the rest, or if you want to represent your hometown by helping grow the beautiful game here, then come to Toronto's real stomping grounds. This is our house.
There's your identity. It all sounds lovely, on paper... but first, it'll require a bit of repair-work.
The harsh realities of Ontario's soccer scene
I've been in Canadian soccer long enough to know something what many, many parents, coaches, and players know all too well. This idea that the Canadian soccer system is one big happy family? It's not.
The harsh reality here is that there are special interests at play everywhere. There are egos, there are decades-old grudges, there's mistrust and contempt, there's apathy and skepticism, and there's always, always someone who believes things should be done another, better way (and often, that better way is their way, but I digress).
If CPL is to establish a foothold in Toronto, even if it were to play at Woodbine, there are bigger issues of trust and collaboration that need to be addressed first, before an even bigger issue is touched on.
So, let's start with CPL's relationship with local clubs. In this regard, League1 Ontario plays a huge role in developing and producing talented footballers and coaches in this region – Patrice Gheisar is banking on this very fact with Halifax this season. Forge FC of Hamilton has a deep connection with Sigma FC, naturally. Why can't York United have the same with, say, Vaughan?
Well... clubs aren't soulless organizations. They're groups of people. And sometimes people don't get along.
In my first draft of this story, I toyed with the idea of answering a question about ticket sales: How do you get more bums in seats? The idea I had (arrogantly, I'll add, as I'd assumed no one else had thought of this) was to split profits of tickets with local clubs 50-50 as a way of incentivizing local youth clubs and L1O outfits to sell CPL tickets to their built-in membership base of parents, players, etc.
But, again, clubs aren't soulless organizations. They're groups of people. And in this case? They're busy, tired volunteers, already stretched thin and unable to add sales to their endless list of responsibilities. Or they're people who feel they've put in their dues and should be coaching or working at a higher level by now, and might not feel like they're being given the respect they deserve, so why would they be inclined to help out, anyway? Or they're more realistic about their membership's interests, and how they align better with, well... Toronto FC.
So there's a lot of factors at play here. In fact, this may be why Forge FC is so successful. The synergy that Bobby Smyrniotis has formed with Sigma FC isn't an easy relationship to curate. It may be why Costa Smyrniotis is such a valuable addition to the CPL's front office, too.
These relationships are fickle. In some cases, there's hurt that needs to be healed. This may be York United's tallest task of all, if not for the other elephant in the room.
How supporters fit into the picture
We've spoken about players, coaches, administrators, owners, stadium planners, and local club leadership, but the most important group of all are supporters – and York United FC haven't gotten off on the right foot here.
The story goes that Generation IX was formed as a York9 FC supporters group, but when the club rebranded to York United, the group felt they weren't consulted or heard, and no longer wished to support the team. And so they left.
The big question here is simple: What type of fan does York United need to attract?
The natural assumption is that CPL is perfect for more hardcore supporters of soccer. Naturally, my next question surrounded the most hardcore supporters in the city – Toronto FC's.
"Is there an unspoken rule about approaching Toronto FC's supporters groups and giving them free tickets (and free beer) as an olive branch to come out for a game or two?"
That was my second thought when pondering how to get more fans in the stands. Sure, on the surface, this feels wrong to even entertain the idea of going to watch another pro soccer team in your city... right?
While Toronto FC has fielded a number of Canadian stars, the Reds are loftier and more global in their ambitions. Surely, among the many at BMO Field, there are those who still want to support their very own. York United's got loads of local talent that those supporters would love to support... right?
Well... not so much. Turns out that when York approached those Toronto FC supporters groups in the past, their answers ranged from "No thank you" to "Fuck off and die" so back to the drawing board on this one.
The next consideration is that a local team needs local fans. Invite youth clubs and organizations out for free and let them enjoy.
But that brings us right back to York Lions Stadium. Even when local fans and clubs come out and enjoy themselves, there's little incentive to return, with nothing to do in the area. Soccer fandom is made in bars and pizza restaurants and tailgates and nearby parks just as much as it's made in the stands. The current stadium situation (and the traffic and parking it entails) makes retention very, very difficult – doubly so when Finch station gets you downtown with just as much time investment.
Okay, Door no. 3: Fans also love a winning team, so further investment in building a winner could yield reward, no?
The problem here is the actual football itself might only account for half the battle, anyway.
Think of it this way: How many of the thousands of fans that attend a Blue Jays game actually know or care about the Blue Jays as a baseball team and are following their regular season performances? Hell – how many fans can even name a single player? The Blue Jays sell on an experience alone. That's what fans can count on, and that's why the organization is investing so heavily in upgrading and modernizing their stadium experience lately.
Yes, fans in Toronto love a winner... but they also love a big-time winner. Are fans in Toronto actually hockey fans, or are they Toronto Maple Leafs fans? Take a look at junior hockey arenas around the GTA, and compare them to those of small-town Ontario. There's your answer.
Winning takes a good experience and makes it a great one. The only way this works is if you have a proper ground that provides an elite experience in the stands and around the stadium, in a community that's just far enough away from Toronto FC and BMO Field to prefer your destination to the long commute.
This begs my final question: Is all of this even worth it?
What does success in CPL actually look like, anyway?
If you're still with me at this point, you're incredible. This is one of the longest articles I've ever written. Kudos to you.
There are factions of CPL's supporters who believe the league shouldn't even bother to compete in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. With strong MLS presences in these big markets, and so much of the league's successes coming in cities like Halifax, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver Island where sporting competition isn't as daunting, perhaps staying away and building strong bases across the country in places like London, Quebec City, Saskatoon, Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo, etc. would be the smarter play (we'll see about Vancouver FC, too).
Expansion isn't off the table; far from it. The league has repeatedly made clear they intend to grow, and hopefully grow quickly, but have also made it clear that viable venues are the single-most important factor when considering expansion.
It seems York's next steps all circle around the need for a new ownership group and a stadium. But that ownership group must bring with it ambition to grow in one of the hardest – if not the hardest market to compete in. And this feature probably doesn't even cover half the battle. As I've come to learn over the years covering this sport, nothing is ever as simple and as straightforward as a writer makes it seem on paper. I'm sure there are a dozen layers of complexity I've failed to consider here, too, in areas like sponsorship, marketing, etc.
It's tempting to believe the easiest play here is to just move the club somewhere else.
I'm not sure exactly what the future holds here for York United, to be honest.
I do stand by my own core belief that if success in this market will come, it will have to mean embracing the GTA as a wide community, or it may have to identify a single city like Vaughan or Markham and work from there. Regardless, this organization will also need to represent the real local soccer scene, and craft its identity around the belief that the talent that's born and raised in these many neighbouring cities and towns is good enough to compete at this level, and beyond.
It will take work to mend and build meaningful relationships with local clubs. It will take a massive financial commitment to even get it off its feet. Then there's the simple fact that we haven't actually seen retaliation from Toronto FC yet. What happens if York United succeeds? Maple Leaf Sports + Entertainment won't roll over without a fight, either.
But if someone has the ambition to try, the reward for it could be one of the best local soccer experiences in the country. A true Toronto football club, in every meaning of the word.
