York United is on its way to completing an offseason revamp on and off the pitch as the soccer club begins preparation for the upcoming Canadian Premier League (CPL) season this week.
The club was purchased in December by Mexican ownership group Game Plan Sports. Brothers Eduardo, Miguel and Ricardo Pasquel took over the club and key front-office roles.
This move came after York’s original owners, the Baldassarra family, sold the club to CPL owners Canadian Soccer Business in April 2023.
On the pitch, the Nine Stripes’ roster has undergone some changes from the 2023 season, including the retirement of captain Roger Thompson.
Carson Buschman-Dormond, Jérémy Gangon-Laparé, Paris Gee, Jonathan Grant, Tass Mourdoukoutas and Michael Petrasso also departed the club after a fifth-place finish and early playoff elimination to Pacific FC.
Key incoming signings include Liechtenstein international forward Dennis Salanovic and former Canadian international fullback Juan Cordova.
New president and general manager of York United Ricardo Pasquel said one of the club’s visions is to focus on young Canadian talent.
“Maybe that’s the most important factor,” he said in a press conference on Dec. 7. “For that, we have small, medium and long-term plans.”
However, this progress is not linear. On Jan. 15, the club announced it was cutting ties with its relationship with United Football Academy.
“We are ceasing our existing, exclusive partnership with United Football Academy, effective immediately,” Game Plan Sports said in a press release.
“When the time comes, our decision on which best developmental path to take will be made in consultation with members of the local football community,” the release said.
Another point of interest for the club’s future is its stadium situation.
Namu Yoon, part of York United supporters’ group Centre of the Universe, said he believes a new stadium should be at the top of the list of things for the new ownership to focus on.
“It’s priority 1A, 1B and 1C,” he said. “The future of this club depends on a new stadium, there’s no other way.”
The Nine Stripes have called York Lions Stadium home for the club’s first five years of existence, but CEO Eduardo Pasquel says the club needs its own soccer-specific stadium.
“We play at a great stadium right now,” he said. “But I also think we need our own stadium, for our fans, for our identity, for everything.
Eduardo Pasquel said the club is still working through options on where this stadium could be.
“Without a new stadium, this club is teetering on the edge of, who knows what, oblivion,” Yoon said.
One option for a future stadium could be very close to Humber, as Woodbine Entertainment announced plans for a 6,000 to 8,000-seat soccer stadium and training complex in Rexdale in March 2022.
Woodbine Entertainment announced today that it is prepared to designate a portion of its 684-acre land at Woodbine Racetrack for the development of a new high-performance training centre and stadium for women’s and men’s soccer in the heart of Toronto’s Rexdale community. pic.twitter.com/gTtLLUrYNT
— Woodbine Racetrack (@WoodbineTB) March 23, 2022
While this plan initially included being home to York United, it was also created while the club was under the ownership of the Baldassarra family, so the Pasquels could choose to go in another direction.
While the stadium is a long-term goal, Yoon says improvements in attendance would help constitute a successful season off the field.
“We want people to say, ‘Hey, it was fun to come to the game and we want to come back,’” he said. “We had a lot of people come to the game once or twice, do they want to come back?
“Even my own friends and family, it’s a hard time to convince them to come back for a second or third game,” Yoon said.
York’s attendance numbers were by far the lowest in the CPL in 2023, averaging just 1,242 per game, more than 1,500 fewer than second-last Vancouver FC’s totals.
Despite the questions off the field, Yoon says there’s optimism going into the 2024 season thanks to the new ownership’s ambition.
There is hope that the investment from the Pasquels, as well as their connections in Mexico, can help bring more high-profile signings like Cordova to northern Toronto in the future, he said.
“We’re constantly angry at the quality of players that Forge and Cavalry and Halifax and Ottawa are signing,” Yoon said. “We’ve gotta be competing with those players, if not getting better players than them.
“The only way we’re going to make the playoffs, or even compete for the title, is if we’re spending the money and making sure we get those quality players too,” he said.
Yoon said the way the Pasquels have talked about engaging fans and spending money on talent is exciting.