As Summer Turns to Fall

As the summer slowly fades away, and the leaves turn color as autumn creeps in, one can reflect upon this past summer, as we get closer towards the 2019 inaugural Canadian Premier League season. It began with the official announcement of Winnipeg’s CPL club, Valour FC.  The club’s crest and colors were unveiled on Investors Group Field, the pitch where the team will eventually play. Later in June, Valour FC announced Rob Gale would be the first Head Coach and general manager. The mouth was watering for a local Winnipeg soccer fan, as the road began to next spring. At a Meet the Coach’s night for founding season ticket members at Nicolinos, Rob laid out that his vision for the club was to represent Valour FC’s identity of values: Honour, courage, in the midst of the battle on the pitch. There was also the Valour FC World Cup final viewing party as France battled Croatia. What […]

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Get Behind the New Tradition

With the tremendous run of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets long playoff run, still fresh in our minds, a new journey within the Winnipeg professional sporting world is set to begin with the Canadian Premier League June 6th. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will announce the team name, colors, and ticket prices. As the “White Out” rallied Winnipeggers for a common cause of seeing the Winnipeg Jets go for a deep playoff run, we as soccer fans of a new professional team in this city can take some inspiration and lessons as we embark on our exciting new journey. The enthusiasm shown by Jets fans during the playoffs is a testament to this city’s passion for supporting their sports teams in both poor and great times. Before the 2017-2018 season, the Winnipeg Jets had only qualified for the playoffs once since returning for […]

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Call to Action

A recent twitter thread by friend to Canadian Soccer @FrTheBlackHole resonated with me.  Many of us have passionately engaged in the CPL supporters movement over the last 12 to 18 months.  We’ve attended events, hosted meetings, made scarves, and spoken the CPL gospel to anyone who would listen.  It has been exciting, and a lot of fun.  But as time drags on with very little public news, the weight of the silence has gotten to the best of us. And that made me think.  If people actively involved  like Rob and I are feeling disappointed, it is no wonder that the people of Winnipeg are sceptical.  I get why you might be struggling to believe this is all real.  That a professional soccer team is coming to Winnipeg.  In this city, there has been no public engagement from the ownership group […]

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Building Relationships

On May 6th, the Canadian Premier League (CPL) was officially approved by the Canadian Soccer Association, with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and Hamilton Tiger-cats of the Canadian Football League owning the teams first two chartered members. This only got Winnipeg fans more excited as River City will once again be the home to top notch professional soccer. As part of these exciting times and build relationships with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Red River Rising (RRR) reached out to them and contacted them. The Blue Bombers Vice President of  Business Operations Kelly Kowalchuk replied back. From there, it was pinning down a day, time, and place. After much back and forth, we confirmed a meeting June 19th at the University of Winnipeg Garbonzos location. One key thing that we as a supporters group discussed was ideas we were looking for in a team and game day experience. Generally, RRR wants this […]

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