Toronto should now just call themselves the Toronto Lympact or something like that.

Or better yet, how about the T.O Montreal Impact Reserves?

Seriously, I would be pissed off if I was a Toronto fan.

Judging by this board, Toronto doesn't have any fans.

Just because we dont post on a-leauge.com or uslsoccer.com dosent mean we dont have fans. visit www.torontoultras.net Its a ****ing sad day today.

Real fans start their own discussion boards where they can monitor and decide whats posted, they don't rely on others to host their discussions.

Hey. Not to take sides coz I like and respect the Whitecaps, the Impact and the Lynx. And hell, because I'm afraid of my main man, my BC homeboy, Krammerhead--but I gotta offer a little thought:

Sometimes the number of posts here isn't always a good indicator of a teams fan base.

We got two Spanish language forums for the Islanders. We have fans, it's just that some of us get tired of posting the same thing three times. Since we got a second one, the really nice independent one, only about three or four of us consistently post here. I personally still continue to do it because not everyone who may be interested in our team here reads and understands Spanish...

If you judged the amount of fans a team had by the posts on this board, this seasons posts especially, you'd wager that the teams with the fewest fans were Montreal, Vancouver Puerto Rico and Portland. The truth is those 4 teams are in the top 5 in the league attendance wise.

Conversely if you'd wager that the teams with the largest groups of fans would be Richmond, Atlanta, Virginia Beach, and Charleston. In reality 3 of those 4 teams are the teams with the poorest attendance in the league.

Back to Sigma's original point:

Yes, it is very stupid how the Lynx have passed their best players off to Montreal toward the end of every season. Not that I have to point it out, but trading away you best players is exactly the opposite of what any team should be doing. Especially when they get nothing back! I mean, what have the Lynx gotten from Montreal over the past three years? A couple of embossed soccer balls (number 4s, probably) and a some corner flags. It's ridiculous!

You wonder why you have trouble building a bigger fan base when you lose every year? It's not rocket science!

Might I suggest that even if the Lynx were winners they would not draw that much better.

Seattle and Toronto have a few things in common...among them the "need" to feel like the focal point of an entire region. USL soccer just doesn't help that cause.

The Sounders are consistent title contenders, making the playoffs 10 of 11 seasons and going to the FINAL an average of once every 3.3 years. Say Seattle sports fans: "So what! It's the minors."
Exactly what Toronto fans are and would be saying no matter the Lynx record.

That was freaking hilarious. Props!

Toronto is the biggest market in the a-league. This city is soooooooooo diverse and is full of soccer, during the worcl cup or euro cup or even qaulifing or friendlies you have people driving in their cars with flags hionking horns the market is great we just need a team worthy of following.

No doubt that TO is a great city. I have never been to a city where people honk their carhorns when "their" team wins games like in TO. When the underachieving Leafs were facing the Sens in the Playoffs back in 2002 when the Leafs would win everyone was honking their horns all freaking night. People were screaming out of cars, revelling in the moment. My wife and I thought that it was really cool until it was 3am and we needed to get to sleep.

Unless you are the Leafs, TO won't support you unless you win. Maybe the Raptors are an exception. They were in the playoffs too back in 2002 and they were very much an afterthought.
Just look at the Blue Jays, the Argos. I'm not convinced that TO would care about the Lynx if they did win. TO is a very complicated place. I just hope that the Lynx survive long enough for me to go see a game. If MLS comes to town or even gets announced, the Lynx are dead...

I don't think the people waving Nigerian/Spanish/Korean/whatever flags during the World Cup are going to show up for the Lynx. Most of them probably don't even follow soccer much in their original countries anymore. It's just a chance to be proud of wherever they were from.

Maybe, as some people have mentioned above, Toronto does have a problem with the second tier. Maybe Torontonians would come out for an MLS side and consider it the "team worthy of followign" that U-Sector mentioned.

I remember back when the Lynx were playing in Varsity and doing even reasonably well, however, that the crowds were better. Not Montreal/Rochester good but decent without the numbers being fudged. I remember drawing over 5000 against Rochester. Maybe no matter what the owners do the Lynx will never be a super drawing team if they play in the USL. I do know that they can do a lot better than they are IF they field a decent team. And that starts with retaining your good players, not sending them down the 401!

YEah the people waving thier flags wont come to lynx games. 1) the stadium location 2) "Why dont you come to a lynx game with me " reply " HAHah the who, I can probably lay for them" you have no idea how many times I have heard that. If we hjad a decent stadium downtown or anywhere that is Toronto the walk-up crowd would be much better. THere are people that crave soccerand just want to watch it. It also does start with not sending players down the 401, in both directions towards montreal and towars Etobicoke (where the stadium is located )

A stadium in Toronto would be great. For more than just Toronto teams, too, because of media exposure for the national team, blah, blah, blah.

The problem is that no one has both the money and the desire to make this happen. The Lynx ownership has the desire to support the team but not the money. MLSE has the money to field an MLS team but not the desire to build a stadium to do it. This is constrasted with the situations in Montreal and now Vancouver where billionaire owners are in place. I don't really see the situation in Toronto changing until (unless) Toronto, too, finds some owner with a billion dollars and a deep enough love of soccer to spend a few million on the team without expectation of a return.

Ya but is the USL really minor league soccer?? I don't think it is...if they can compete with teams in the MLS, WHICH THEY CAN, to me...they aren't minor leauge teams. It's Pro Soccer.

Unfortunately the USL is considered minor league by everyone as professional leagues can be minor leagues. I tried my hardest in the past to say it wasn't minor, but can no longer fight it. You can't fight the majority of people and sports writers opinions.

However, the US Government recognizes the USL 1st Division as "a major league"! Otherwise, it would have lost it's P-1 Visa status for foreign players a long time ago....

What's going to happen to the Lynx once MLS sets up shop in Toronto's new soccer stadium in 2007?

If that ever happens (and I won't believe the new stadium deal it until they actually start building it) who cares what happens to the Lynx.

I would hate for USL-1 to lose another team. Maybe the Lynx would move to London or Kitchener?

I would hate for the league to lose a real team as well. I don't consider the Lynx to be a real team. Real teams try to win and don't give away their best players to a rival team when they are still in the playoff race.

If the Lynx folded, I wouldn't mind seeing a team in those cities you mentioned, maybe Windsor, Ottawa or Hamilton as choices to place a team. However not with the same owners. The league doesn't need another joke team.

What's the latest on Hamilton and Ottawa? There was talk of one or both of these cities entering the league.

Can't see Ottawa getting into the first division of the USL anytime soon.

The PDL is a good fit for Ottawa at the moment.

Assuming a stadium and an MLS team in Toronto (and like Krammerhead, I'll believe it when I see it) the Lynx would be dead. If the league wanted to move the team rather than fold it I would suggest either Hamilton or Kitchener.

Hamilton has a decent history of soccer back to the CSL days and draws well (for the CPSL) with the Thunder.

Kitchener had a CSL team which didn't do as well. That, however, was then. The Kitchener metro area is now just under half a million. It is highly affluent and has strong support for sports. It is also an area which has recently crossed that intangible line where it has gained a sense of self and identity. I think it would do well with a USL team assuming (as with all such ventures) proper ownership.