Noonan out at CanPL
What does it mean?
I first heard rumblings about a year ago that people weren’t happy with CanPL commissioner Mark Noonan. At the time, I was somewhat sceptical. He had only held the position for a couple of years, and some of the directional changes from David Clanachan, seemed positive to me.
Unlike the man from Tim Hortons, Noonan wasn’t making grand announcements on expansion bids that weren’t really expansion bids, and he did seem to be solidifying the core markets of Ottawa, Hamilton and Calgary.
However, as I listened to the complaints, I started to see their point. The issue was that was all he was doing. The problem markets of Winnipeg and York remained as such, and Victoria seemed to be treading water. Vancouver was…hard to pin down.
As for expansion, there was none. The blame for the Saskatoon disaster can’t be fully pinned on Noonan, but he didn’t find a way to improve the situation. Edmonton is as dead-in-the-water as it was when they threw the keys on the table, and outside of a single game taking place in Quebec City this season, it doesn’t seem like we are anywhere close to Quebec expansion yet.
Growth just wasn’t as strong as anyone would like it to be. Ultimately, that’s what he was hired to do, and although you can rightfully point to challenges that are somewhat out of his control, the bottom line is still the bottom line.
Which brings us to yesterday’s move, one that can legitimately be framed as a “by mutual consent” transaction.
In my conversations yesterday, I was told that the next commissioner (edited) executive has been lined up and that it is someone with “world class” experience. Until we get more details, we can’t really evaluate things any further. However, we know the challenge will remain the same — we need more growth.
Not just new teams but also existing markets. Even the big three could have higher profiles in their market, yet.
Let’s end this positively, however. Many people didn’t give this league any chance. It’s survived a pandemic and doesn’t seem like it is about to collapse. There’s work to do to make it stronger, but the biggest hurdle was getting to this point. Everyone who has been part of the league to now has made that happen, including Mark Noonan.
Let’s celebrate that, while also striving to take the next step.