It is amazing how people make comments, like a friend told me..., i think the attendances are..... If you dont know dont comment.. If you never watched a game or went to TD Place dont comment because you dont know what you are talking about. I was a volunteer for the Fury since the beginning over 6 years ago, first at Algonquin, then at Carleton and then at TD Place. The reason the Fury will not be playing next year is all about POLITICS, if you watched the press conferance today you would have heard Marc Goudie say they were making plans for the 2020 season but when it became apparent that CONCACAF, and CSA, would not sanction a Canadian team playing in the US they had no option to withdraw.
You have to realise how the soccer world works, CONCACAF is the governing body for North and Central America and the Carbibean. CONCACAF represents 41 countries and each country has one vote, each country that has a national league automatically is considered as a Division 1 league, so for example the MLS in the US is considered the only Division 1 league, if a new league is formed it is classed as Division 2 and then another league will be Division 3 and so on, the USL was considered a Division 2 league, even though it had way more teams than the MLS, when the Fury moved from the NASL to the USL they were then classified a Division 2 team, but when the CPL started up this year in Canada they automatically became a Division 1 league without playing a single game and they only had 7 teams, do you think that is fair?
The CPL was the dream of
Victor Montagliani who was the president of the CSA, in 2016 he became the head of CONCACAF and was determined that Ottawa be apart of the CPL. For the Fury to play in the USL they had to be sanctioned by CONCACAF and CSA and because there was no other option for the Fury they always received their sanction, but as soon as the CPL was to start they did not want to give the sanction, it was only when the Fury threatened to take them to arbitration that at the last minute they backed off to allow them to play the 2019 season unfortunately it meant that the Fury missed out on signing a number of very good players who wanted to come to Ottawa but as there was no guarantee Ottawa would get that sanction they ended up signing for other teams.
Again if you listen to the press conference Marc Goudie stated they have NEVER had any communication with CONCACAF, since March the Fury have tried to communicate with CONCACAF but were just ignored by them.
Another reason why the Fury could not continue was finances, Goudie stated that OSEG has put over 15 million into the operation of the Fury since the beginning this included franchise fees to NASL and USL, also if the Fury had immediately moved to CPL there would have been a penalty fee for leaving the USL and a franchise fee to join the CPL, I am not sure what the franchise fee for the CPL was but it is 8 million to join CPL for next season.
OSEG were quite willing and had stated from the start that they would eventually join CPL but wanted to see how the league performed before making a commitment, but why would they leave a very successful and well established USL league that has had 2 teams recently move on to the MLS and i believe another 2 will go in the next couple of years, and these were teams that the Fury have played and have beaten. Also all the players who played for the Fury are under USL contracts and those contracts would not be transferable to the CPL so the Fury would have to start all over again in player recruitment. In most cases the salary level in the USL is higher than the CPL
Also for your information the USL (United Soccer League) is made upof 3 different leagues with 118 teams and 9 more to start next year, 1. Championship which the Fury played in consisted of 36 teams with 2 to start next season. 2. USL 1 which consists of 10 teams and 5 joining next year. USL 2 72 teams with 2 more joining next year. The USL is the largest and fastest growing soccer organisation in North America. the CPL had 7 teams this year how many next season who knows.
If you watched the press conference you would have seen John Pugh who is the father of the Fury it was his idea, his dream to start professional soccer in Ottawa, he had a very hard job of saying what he wanted to say and was on the verge of breaking down a number of times, his dream was being taken away from him. You would have seen Julian De Guzman Canada's best player ever unable to speak he was in tears, the operation of the Fury was his baby but it was being taken away from him.
Why do the politicoes have to get involved let the teams play where they want to play, let the players play where they want to play.