The Bottom line

[Bxl Boy]

http://www2.sportsnet.ca/blogs/gerry_do ... ttom_line/

Gerry Dobson


Rather than hastily bang out a blog revealing my own disappointment at Canada's dismal showing at the under-20 World Cup, I thought I'd let it settle for a few days first. Perhaps try and give it a little perspective. But maybe it didn't work because I don't know if I feel any differently than I did immediately after Sunday's shocking exit.


But I'm probably as guilty as the next guy of turning what wound up being false hope into expectation. I think the CSA, the team, the media and fans across the country might have felt the same thing. The new stadium, the brisk ticket sales, positive pre-tournament friendlies, the success of Toronto FC -- it all created an environment where belief in the team surpassed its ability. We know now they simply weren't good enough. Maybe if we had taken a hard look, we would have recognized that from the outset. Maybe not.

But I'm convinced of this. From the ground up, we need to look at the entire way the sport works in this country. I guess that sounds like a tired argument. But with all due respect to the hard working volunteers across Canada, the CSA needs to be re-invented. Perhaps the new CEO has some fresh ideas. But it has to be run like a business. It has to make money. It has to turn that money into coaching, developmental programs and an infrastructure that will allow us to find, develop and keep the best young players we have. I don't know how to make it happen. I wish I did.

Love 'em or hate 'em, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Limited knows how to make money. And that's what's needed. Run the CSA the way a professional sports franchise is operated. Or better still, maybe the club system should be the main process by which we develop elite players. Isn't that the way they do it in the U.K.?

We're still a few years away from that idea taking hold and bearing fruit in this country. But we're hearing that both the Vancouver Canucks and George Gillett, who owns the Montreal Canadiens, are interested in MLS franchises. We already know Vancouver Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot has been after a team for some time now.

Let them all at it. You watch them find and develop young players if it means improving the bottom line for them. Maybe they don't know the sport. But they'll hire people who do. And maybe I'm crazy. But aren't you ready to try just about anything? Because what we've got isn't working.

[penz]

Gillett in the MLS? If he was considering bringing a team here, maybe the box-office success of the U-20 games convinced him...

Anyone else feeling the pressure slowly rising somewhere in Saint-Léonard?