u/Canfootballnerd

I was having a hard time figuring out what to call this.
There's a theory that only 10% of people involved with or interested in something visit forums, social media etc. for their hobby. The rest just watch the games (or listen to the music, play the game, whatever) and only ever talk to their friends in person about it.

The NSL is still, functionally, a brand new league. We know there is an audience: Each match day across Canada 8-10.000 people turn up to go see games live (eye-balling the attendance figures for a week with 3 matches)

Each game gets about 5-6k views on Youtube. Not sure how many more are on TSN and so on, but lets say its about 8K total per game.

There is a lot of people for a brand new women's league but it's also not a lot of people. These things can be very precarious.

However engagement on social media, reddit etc. is very very low. We got 1200 people on this sub split across all 6 teams. Social media posts dedicated to the NSL get handfuls of likes. Most news articles you can't see the views but I wager it is low.

And that can be dangerous because it is all a signal to people who might be interested that it's not popular and that it's not worth engaging with. Not the NSL. Not football. Not Canadian leagues. Not women's sports.

So here is my over-enthusiastic, somewhat caffeinated plea to the community:

You gotta become that 10% or 1% or whatever that is actively engaged. You gotta become NSL nerds. I don't mean learning where Pridham went to school or how many saves McAslan has made in her career when the shot comes from the left side of the box, while within 2 metres of a defender on an overcast day.

I mean engaging. If you read the news, check the sports section and if there is an NSL story, click on it and read it. Even if its not your team.
If your newspaper doesnt cover NSL matches, email them and ask why. If you follow a blog or website that does cover the NSL, click and read every time they publish. If you don't, pick one.

If you are on social media, take a moment to leave a comment on team posts or when outlets are reporting on the NSL. Ditto on Youtube. Make sure you are subbed to the league youtube and listen to when they do things. Leave a comment there as well.

Check on the subreddit and leave a comment or start a thread. Get other fans talking. Get your team subreddit alive and well. Start match threads or conversations about favourite players. Maybe in the start its only 5 people who post regularly but a new potential fan who sees 5 people talking might join in and now its 6. They wont join if its a graveyard in there.

In short, get stuck in. Become a nerd. Make the NSL part of your media landscape. Spend 5 minutes each day for the team you love and the league that we are very fortunate exists at all. Even if you can't go to games. Especially if you can't go to games.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I hope it made sense.

(and full disclosure, I do write for a blog but I am intentionally not linking it here because the point is not our specific website, its everything).

Taking some initiative to get the sub more active.

Have a chat to get to know each other. What games are you watching this weekend? What other sports leagues or events do you watch? Anything interesting going on?

Keep it nice and friendly.

Cheers, I hope its okay to share this here. I write a weekly column for Truenorthfoot covering the two Halifax football teams. I also got a chance to have a brief chat with Stephen Hart so give it a read and let me know what you think. If you click on my old articles, you can also read the in-depth interview I did with Weichers.

I will be interviewing another player this afternoon which should be out after the weekend.

Any Montreal based news sites or newspapers that are either in French or offer both languages and which cover the Victoire regularly.
Ideally also covers Montreal soccer and other sports.

Ditto for podcasts, news networks that have youtube segments etc.

To be clear I am only interested in resources that are in French or which have an option for French.

It's time to get serious about learning some French 😄

Funny how quickly the main PWHL sub seems to have decided Montreal are the villains, now that the Frost is eliminated 😄

(Also I am not a Quebecer but I do have friends who are, does it seem a tiny bit on the nose that everyone is coming out to bag on Montreal for being unruly?)

Just musing out loud I suppose.

Please enjoy (and if theres things you'd like to see added to this format, please let me know)

Cheers everyone.
First things first: This is not to get a job interview or pass a citizenship test or anything. It is strictly for personal enjoyment and challenge.

I have been wanting to learn some basic French for a while and it looks like I will have a span of about 6 months to basically nerd out on learning as much as I can.

The end goal is to be able to read basic news articles and listen along to a documentary or sports broadcast. Obviously this will take more than 6 months, but I want to see how much I can achieve in that time frame, before I will have to reduce my learning time to a more modest schedule.

I am already familiar with immersion methods for another language I have been learning but I am wondering if there are any techniques people have used effectively or any resources you suggest.

My use case is strictly reading and listening. I do not need to write french and it is completely irrelevant if my accent is awful. I ONLY need reading and listening.

Looking forward to any suggestions you might have or experiences from anyone who did something similar, regardless of the reason (tourist trip, showing off at a family reunion, whatever)

The title is a bit awkward, but I was not sure how to phrase it. I am European, I currently live somewhere far from my home country. I don't want to get into specifics since its not relevant, it's fine, it's just not a place I really feel at home in. Combined with the usual stresses of life, fixing some mistakes we made in our lives and whatnot, I found Canadian soccer (and Canadian sports in general) to be an unexpected comfort.

I got into them by way of MLS when a friend wanted to watch after I got him into football. I found the idea of the Canadian teams fascinating and became a fan.

Learning about the Canadian Premier League is what really set the fire though. Something completely unique and something I quickly fell in love with. When the NSL kicked off, we watched almost every game in the first year. (To this you can add CEBL and CFL, and of course the PWHL even though its not only Canadian)

I think these leagues despite, or maybe because, they are so so small manage to exist much closer to the fans in some ways. I've gotten personalised emails back when writing to multiple clubs, even got a message back from a head coach unprompted after writing to the club.
The fan culture is very nice as well. Every interaction Ive had in person and online has been nice, fun and welcoming. I suppose people see it as a curiosity which is fine. But there has been none of the gatekeeping and hostility you sometimes get in other fan groups. Maybe thats also a function of being smaller.

A lot of the fans are also fairly invested inthe leagues themselves, perhaps because many of them are young and their survival is never guaranteed.

I don't watch a lot of movies and tv show. But being able to tune in and watch Canadian sports has been a point of comfort and hope for me, as has being able to engage with fans and make friends online across your country.

So yeah, it has been a "home away from home" for me and I am pretty thankful for that. That's a bit cheesy but I hope it makes sense. Never underestimate what you have up there.

Needed to call someone internationally. opened a customer service chat, they said it was enabled. I try dialling, it says international dialling is not enabled.
They say to turn it off and back on. I do that. Same message. The rep says maybe it takes a while.

Wait a while, try again, no dice. Call them up. They say they have enabled it, after some back and forth they say they arent sure why it isnt working.

Has anyone run into this or figured out something to do?

Cheers folks. Euro interested in CFL and was interested in following the Alouettes since I follow Montreal in hockey.

What's the story on the team? Any slogans or things to pick up? How hopeful do you feel for this season?

Let's get some stakes in the game.
I have been musing on learning a bit of tourist French for years. Going to pull the trigger and do it if Montreal wins.

What are you going to do?

Cheers everybody.

I'm a European that follow Canadian sports and usually default to Vancouver.

PWHL is what got me into hockey and I watched the Victoire in season 2 as I wanted to follow a Canadian team and my partner has family ties to Quebec.

Season 3 I watched pretty much any game involving one of the Canadian squads, but I was set to support Vancouver. With new sports leagues (or new leagues I start to follow) I usually wait and see if there is a moment where I realise I am emotionally invested in a team.
And while I am not ashamed of having cheered for the Goldeneyes, I realised that Montreal is the hockey team that really made me fall in love.

So yeah, I needed to figure it out for myhself but I am locked in now. Whether the team wins the cup or come in last next year, I'm in.

Everyone has 4 or 5 games on the books now (regular season).

How do you feel about how your team is doing versus your pre-season expectations? Any big surprises from new signings? Dashed hopes?

Cheers, Euro here who follows Canadian sports. I watched a handful of random CFL matches last year but this year I am planning to watch throughout the season.

What are the traditional team rivalries? I assume Alouettes v Argonauts due to Montreal Toronto rivalry? Stampedes v Elks due to being from the same province?

Anything else someone ought to know?

In every league I watch, I end up having at least one team I dislike, either due to playstyle, ownership, philosophy or who knows what. Maybe they were dicks that one time in a game, you know how it goes.

NSL is all love though. I don't love each team the same, but I can find things to enjoy about all of them and as a result, this is probably the league where I am the most likely to just tune into a random game.

(Now with the caveat that I am not Canadian, so the city rivalries are not meaningful to me, I understand that f.x. Toronto and Montreal have rivalries for example)

PWHL is in a unique position where many fans would not have had teams in years 1 and 2. For folks who live in or near Vancouver, Seattle or now Detroit, who had teams you followed before you got your team, did you switch with the announcement?
Stay because once a fan always a fan?
Support both?

Something else entirely?

Share your stories below 😄

Cheers, long time reader, first time writer.
I'm not in the UK but have followed Wolves for some time. Actually, basically since I was a kid reading about football in the newspapers and thinking "Wolverhampton Wanderers" sounded like something out of Lord of the Rings.
After being out of sports for some time, I got back into it and with that watching Wolves throughout the O'Neill era and to now. Got a scarf and a jacket and everything.

However, I ended up getting a friend of mine into it as well after telling them about the miniscule odds of Wolves staying up, back when people were calculating that it was a 0.whatever % chance. He started listening to the Wolves commentary broadcast each game from their website so that's been our weekend ritual and even though we are down now, he's bought in now.

So hey, all things that end also begin again right?

It didn't go as hoped, but I think we all knew deep down it was going to be difficult the first year.

What is everyones high points from the season? What do you think the team can build from?

As a bonus, what was your favourite game of the season?