Ottawa Fury Applies for a USL-1 Franchise

I know, this is MLS Talk, not USL Talk. But given recent events, this is newsworthy.

This has been rumored for awhile, not always the Fury, but that a party in Ottawa was interested in entering the USL First Division. But they picked a really strange time to do it, didn’t they?

A little more about the club: It was founded in 2005 and currently fields teams in the PDL, W-League (Ottawa Fury Women), and the Super-20 League.

It appears that they plan to play matches at a new stadium to be built at Lansdowne Park, pending the approval of the Ottawa city council. Currently Lansdowne Park is the home of Frank Claire Stadium, which hosted matches at the U-20 World Cup. Frank Clair is in, let’s say, less that pristine condition and there’s been talk about redeveloping the place. We may well be looking at a ground-share with a potential new Ottawa CFL team.

The Ottawa council meets tomorrow (Sept. 2) to rule on the stadium plan, and that’s probably what this whole thing hinges on.

So, what do you guys think of this news, and the timing of the announcement considering everything that’s going on with the USL at the moment? I think it’s great news for Canada, the more professional options for Canadians the better.

Update: Here’s a link to the Lansdowne Live project including the potential stadium. The stadium would seat 25,000. That’s massive by USL standards.