The Edmonton Aviators were a soccer club based in Edmonton, Canada. Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a Team sport played between two teams of eleven players and is widely considered Edmonton (ˈɛdmɨntɨn is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page They were a member of the North American A-League and folded after playing only one season, 2004. History In 1996 the United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues established the new Select League consisting of its strongest teams from its professional FIFA "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Midway through the season, with the club in financial trouble, the league took it over to save it from folding. The renamed Edmonton F. C. only lasted until the end of the year.
Expectations that Edmonton could support an A-League team were high, as the city had recently hosted the inaugural FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship at Commonwealth Stadium to tremendous success and similarly had success in hosting a number of the Canadian men's international games. The original A-League (formerly the American Professional Soccer League) was a professional men's Soccer league in North America. The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is a world championship football tournament organized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association for national For the stadium of the same name in Kentucky, see Commonwealth Stadium (Kentucky.
The group that brought the Aviators to Edmonton claimed that they were in it for the long haul, believing that they could keep the team in Edmonton for three years at a minimum, offering both men's and women's soccer to the city of Edmonton. However, the owners were planning for average crowds of 11,000 at Commonwealth Stadium, which some members of the local press held as unrealistic. This would have placed the Aviators, a mere expansion team, near the top of the A-League in attendance. On April 29th, 2004, they announced their men's roster, including former Drillers Kurt Bosch, Rick Titus, Nikola Vignjevic, Eric Munoz, and Sipho Sibya, as well as a number of highly regarded local players such as U-20 National Team player Chris Lemire. Rick Titus (born March 10, 1969) is a Trinidadian-Canadian Soccer defender who currently is playing for the Toronto Lynx in the Nikola Vignjevic (born March 12, 1971 in Belgrade Serbia) is a retired Serbian soccer player Eric Munoz, FACS (born October 14 1947, The Bronx New York) is an American Republican Party To round out the roster, internationals Claudio Salinas, Jamie Lopresti, and Jose Luis Campi were added. There was great hope and optimism for the local teams success.
Franchise Failure
The team was dogged by a number of problems:[1]
1. According to the local press, one of the main problems was the venue. Commonwealth Stadium was the home of the Canadian national soccer teams, but with a seating capacity over 60,000 people, the smaller crowds were utterly dwarfed by the large stadium. Seating capacity refers to the number Rent was extremely high, and the Edmonton Eskimos had priority with Commonwealth's facilities. The Edmonton Eskimos are a Canadian Football League team based in Edmonton Alberta. As a result, the Aviators were constantly restricted in what they could do at Commonwealth. Smaller Clarke Stadium was just across the street, but the Aviators did not move there until late in the season. Clarke Stadium, in its original incarnation was a Canadian football Stadium located in Edmonton Alberta. Also, as a result of the venue choice, the Aviators were unsuccessful at getting weekend dates for their games. Only 3 out of 11 matches were scheduled for the weekend, owing to previous bookings for the Edmonton Eskimos, the local CFL football team, and the international rugby tournament, the Churchill Cup. The Edmonton Eskimos are a Canadian Football League team based in Edmonton Alberta. The Canadian Football League (CFL ( Ligue canadienne de football (LCF in The Churchill Cup (currently referred to as Barclays Churchill Cup for sponsorship reasons is an annual Rugby union tournament contested by representative
2. Moreover, the men's team had the worst performance in the league, as might be expected for a new team, but still to the displeasure of Edmonton sports fans. The team's performance was not helped by difficulties between the players and the team's administration. Rick Titus, one of the veteran players, encountered some friction between him and the former president Wylie Stafford, through to head coach Ross Ongaro, and on down to several teammates. Rick Titus (born March 10, 1969) is a Trinidadian-Canadian Soccer defender who currently is playing for the Toronto Lynx in the Ross Ongaro, born September 9 1959, is an Edmonton native whose playing career included caps with Canada's Men's Olympic and Youth Teams and professional experience According to the Edmonton Sun (July 4th, 2004), the centre of this dispute was the requirement that approximately half of the team had to consist of local players. As a consequence, Titus was released by the Aviators in midseason, eventually joining the Toronto Lynx. Toronto Lynx is a Canadian Soccer team founded in 1997. The team is a member of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League Shortly thereafter, Titus attempted to amend this area of difficulty but as was reported, Joe Petrone, then heading the club, maintained that the damage was done and that the player was not going to be accepted back. In the same atmosphere, as noted in the Edmonton Sun (July 6, 2004), Waldemar Dutra, a promising local goal-scorer who trained with the Aviators, left for Schweinfurt, a Third Division team in Germany. Schweinfurt ( German for Swine ford) is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right
3. Further, as cited in the Edmonton Journal (July 20th, 2004, p. A4), the business plan of the team's owners was a source of some concern for local soccer officials.
As noted in the press, with lower attendance than expected and higher costs than anticipated, the owners returned their franchise on August 15th, after it failed to meet its revenue expectations for the three months it existed. The club’s ownership group, Edmonton Professional Soccer (EPSL) Ltd admitted to the league that the business plan, put in place at the start of the franchise, was flawed. With ticket sales much closer the league average of 3000 people, the EPSL was suffering large operating losses. The club’s 19-person ownership refused to provide immediate cash injection to keep both the men and women’s teams afloat, and chose to see the franchise fold. As a consequence, the league took over operation of the Aviators, renaming the team Edmonton F. C. as the old owners took the rights to the Aviators name with them. The team was run on a shoestring budget, transferring away what few skilled players the Aviators had acquired and moving to the much smaller Foote Field where, incidentally, attendance was noticeably better. Foote Field is a multi-purpose sports facility on the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton Alberta, built as a legacy facility for the 2001 World Championships [2]
The team was folded by the league after the 2004 season. After the club's folding was announced, it was speculated by some in the local press that the team could have worked if a better business model was arranged from the outset.
The team's only coach was Ross Ongaro. Ross Ongaro, born September 9 1959, is an Edmonton native whose playing career included caps with Canada's Men's Olympic and Youth Teams and professional experience
Year-by-year
| Year | Division | League | Reg. Season | Playoffs | Open Cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 2 | USL A-League | 6th, Western | Did not qualify | Did not qualify |
Sources
- ^ euFootball.BIZ covering the professional football (soccer) business - Edmonton Aviators has returned its franchise
- ^ Ibid.
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