UNews - Duane Rockerbie

Economic health of new Canadian Premier League based on groundwork from Rockerbie

trevor.kenney — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 21:56:55 +0000

As the Canadian Premier League — Canada’s new Division II professional soccer circuit — continues to gather momentum in its inaugural season, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge economics professor Dr. Duane Rockerbie is justifiably proud of its success.

Dr. Duane Rockerbie was in on the ground floor when the Canadian Premier League began to form.

Rockerbie has been researching the economics of sport for the better part of two decades and in 2010, began working on the first of two reports for the Canadian Soccer Association to provide an economic analysis of the feasibility of a new Division II soccer league for the country. Working with former Canadian national team and professional player James Easton (now the Vice-President of Football Operations for the CPL), the reports laid the groundwork for the formation of the league and charted a path to economic success.

“Maybe the most important aspect of it was finding the right investors,” says Rockerbie. “The owners they have are very committed. Some of them already own Canadian Football League teams, so they are not inexperienced people in this realm and that’s what was needed, people with good credentials. They also have a 10-year commitment to the league, even if they lose money, they are in it for 10 years.”

Focusing less on startup and more on longevity, Rockerbie says the CPL did the right thing in carefully plotting out its game plan.

“The interesting thing with this league is we developed a model for them to use, complete with potential revenue sources,” he says. “What happens so often in start-up leagues is they focus on the cost side of running the league because that is something they can control, and the revenue side they ignore.”

The initial report (which was presented to the CSA in 2012) focused on the feasibility of a league, and included recommendations to appeal to FIFA (the international governing body of soccer) for a men’s World Cup to be played in North America (it was awarded jointly to Canada, the United States and Mexico in 2026). The follow-up 2016 report narrowed in on the nuts and bolts of how the league would operate.

One of the big recommendations was to create two connected but distinct arms, a soccer league (CPL) and the Canadian Soccer Business (CSB). The business is the rights-holder to all the league’s marketable assets such as media rights, apparel, logos and so forth.

“Each investor is a shareholder in the CSB and they can take a dividend from it every year or they can leave it in and reinvest it,” says Rockerbie.

And while the CPL was established more than two years ago, the first games were played just this spring. Currently, the CPL’s top franchise is Cavalry FC in Calgary, where Lethbridge products Nik Ledgerwood and Nico Pasquotti are playing.

“That’s the key thing, to get it right,” he says. “So often, what these startup leagues want to do is play games and they think people will just show up. When they don’t, you fail. For every league that exists in the world now, there are dozens and dozens that have failed very quickly.”

A 10-year media rights deal is in place with MEDIAPRO (one of the largest soccer media distributors in the world), while major sponsors such as NIKE, Volkswagen and WestJet are also on board. The WestJet deal is integral to the league’s survival as it provides economical travel for teams across the country.

From the specific locations of its seven initial franchises to salary-cap structure, player dispersal, living allowances, playing venues and marketing strategies, Rockerbie and Easton detailed every aspect essential to league survival — and it’s working. The great benefit is a massive development gap in Canadian soccer is now being filled, allowing players who graduate from the U-17 ranks to continue playing and advancing their games on home soil.

Rockerbie says that only a steadfast and focused investor group could make their recommendations come to life.

“Their commitment is such a big thing — they understand that they may have to absorb losses in the short-term. All the owners have other business ventures so they can use those businesses to subsidize losses, but I’ve got a feeling they are not going to have many. These people are in it for the duration and FIFA is behind them, so they are not in it on their own,” he says. “We stressed, if you just want to make profit, don’t do it, because Canada is not a huge market. You have to do it because you are committed to it and you want to build it slowly. The focus has always been on developing Canadian players.”

The long-term goal will be realized when the Canadian national team takes to the pitch in 2026, and where the fruits of their labours hopefully become evident.

2010 faculty research awards

trevor.kenney — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:36:52 +0000

External SSHRC Grants
(Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council)

Paul Vasey and Martin Lalumiere (Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences in Canada) $23,663
Claudia Malacrida is a co-applicant on a $1 million CURA through the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta

Independent Foundational Grants

Fangfang Li $4,800
Duane Rockerbie $4,000
Ed Wasiak $3,000
David Gregory $11,780
Malla Stavroula $11,500

CREDO Applications
(Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities)

Kiki Benzon
Robin Bright
Lynn Kennedy
Kevin McGeough
Janice Newberry
Claudia Steinke/Helen Kelley
Wei Xu

CIHR
(Canadian Institutes of Health Research)

Ute Kothe
Igor Kovalchuk
Gerlinde Metz
Paul Vasey
H.-J. Wieden
Kelley Williams-Whitt

AGRI
(Alberta Gaming Research Institute)

Noella Piquette-Tomei, $10,000
Robert Williams, $44,000

Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions
(formerly AHFMR)

Igor Kovalchuk

ARDN
(Alberta Rural Development Network)

Noella Piquette Tomei
Steve Ferzacca

NIH
(National Institutes of Health)

Bruce McNaughton (2 grants awarded by NIH to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Arizona were successfully transferred to the U of L)

Alberta Cancer Research Institute

Roy Golsteyn

Sport Science Association of Alberta

Jennifer Copeland

Alberta Family Wellness Initiative
(Norlien Foundation)

Noella Piquette-Tomei

NSERC CREATE Grant

Phil Teillet, Physics $1.5 Million over 6 years

NSERC Discovery Grants
(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)

Robert Laird, Biological Sciences (Developing and testing the evolutionary reliability theory of senescence) $24,000
Rene Boere, Chemistry & Biochemistry (Redox-generated free radicals: basic science to nanomaterials) $40,000
Paul Hayes, Chemistry & Biochemistry (Organometallic complexes of new pincer ligands: Structure, reactivity and catalysis) $61,000
Steven Mosimann, Chemistry & Biochemistry (Structure and function of PTP like inositol polyphosphatases) $31,000
Nathan Ng, Mathematics & Computer Science (Prime numbers and L-functions) $15,000
Aaron Gruber, Neuroscience (Dopamine modulation of neural dynamics and behavioral flexibility) $27,000
Brian Kolb, Neuroscience (Brain plasticity and behaviour) $105,000
Artur Luczak, Neuroscience (Neuronal population patterns - studying interactions among hundreds of neurons) $26,000
Deborah Saucier, Neuroscience (Neural and hormonal bases of sex differences in spatial ability) $42,000)
Masami Tatsuno, Neuroscience (Quiescent dependent memory consolidation: memory-trace replay during REM sleep) $23,000
David Euston, Psychology (Neural mechanisms of decision making in frontal cortex) $23,000
Martin Lalumiere, Psychology (The nature and functions of genital sexual arousal) $27,000
Paul Vasey, Psychology (The comparative biopsychology of non-conceptive sexuality) $30,000

NSERC Equipment Grants

Aaron Gruber, Neuroscience $96,373
Rene Boere, Chemistry $22,024

* We are unable to post SSHRC winners at this time as SSHRC has not officially announced its award recipients. They will be published once they are made available.

Long service awards and honoured retirees

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:27:38 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ recently honoured 83 employees at the annual Long Service Awards and Retirement Recognition Ceremony.

Employees who have completed 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years of service, as well as 18 retiring employees were all honoured at the ceremony.
Following is a list of those employees.

Retirees
Lynn Arnold, Judith Droessler, Eileen Ferguson, Peter Haney, Marilyn Hawryluk, Helen Henderson, Beatriz Housley, Luke Kwong, Ian McKenna, Linda Nicol, Ron Perverseff, Terry Prociuk, Lorraine Schimpf, Hiroshi Shimazaki, Helen Smith, Sara Stanley, Johnel Tailfeathers, Marie Yolland

Long Service Recipients

40 Years | Michael Kubara and Frank VandenHeuvel

35 Years | Lynne Brown, Gary Cunningham, Rose Helmer and Barbara Wolstoncroft

30 Years | Doris Kostiuk and Wendy Vogel

25 Years | Doran Anderson, Deb Bullock, Hank DeRidder, John Federkeil, Carol Gaetz, Ken Nicol, Stewart Rood, Linda Sebastian, Penny Secretan, Jerzy Szpakowski and Guy Vervoort

20 Years | John Bain, Allan Besplug, Craig Bullock, Cynthia Chambers, Helena Danyk, Lisa Doolittle, Marty Gadd, Andrew Hakin, David Kaminski, Luke Kwong, Judy Lavorato, Ian MacLachlan, Edward Malinsky, Duane Rockerbie, Gloria Samuels, Michael Stingl, Carrie Takeyasu, Pat Tanaka, Barb Thomsen, Gitte Villiger, Kathleen Willms, Shelly Wismath and Sajjad Zahir

15 Years | Jim Booth, Teresa Heyburn, Joan Kendall, Rob Kern, Richard Lutwick, Ron Schreiber, Terri Thomas, Nicholas Wade and Judith Whitehead

10 Years | Andrea Amelinckx, John Bronk, Adam Carter, Yllias Chali, Margaret Cook, Robert Cooney, Dennis Fitzpatrick, Fred Greene, Shauna Haag, Geoffrey Hale, Susan Hill, Shahadat Hossain, Charlene Janes, Harold Jansen, Randy Joseph, Edward Jurkowski, Catherine Kingfisher, Laurie Martin, Cathy Newman, Margot O'Donnell, Steve Patitsas, Michele Roberts, Chris Robinson, Debi Sandul, Stephane Simard, A. William Smith, Mike Spiteri, Stuart Thomas, Dawn-Ann Thys, Edwin Wasiak, Cheryl Wheeler and Jim Wills

Long service awards, Wednesday

trevor.kenney — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:52:19 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is holding its annual Long Service Awards and Retirement Recognition Ceremony on Wednesday, May 6, beginning at 1 p.m. in the Students' Union Ballrooms. A total of 83 employees who have completed 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 years of service, and 18 retiring employees will be honoured at the event.

All employees are invited to the ceremony and reception to honour the award recipients listed below. The reception will include light refreshments.

Retirees

Lynn Arnold, Judith Droessler, Eileen Ferguson, Peter Haney, Marilyn Hawryluk, Helen Henderson, Beatriz Housley, Luke Kwong, Ian McKenna, Linda Nicol, Ron Perverseff, Terry Prociuk, Lorraine Schimpf, Hiroshi Shimazaki, Helen Smith, Sara Stanley, Johnel Tailfeathers, Marie Yolland

Long Service Recipients

40 Years

Michael Kubara and Frank VandenHeuvel

35 Years

Lynne Brown, Gary Cunningham, Rose Helmer and Barbara Wolstoncroft

30 Years

Doris Kostiuk and Wendy Vogel

25 Years

Doran Anderson, Deb Bullock, Hank DeRidder, John Federkeil, Carol Gaetz, Ken Nicol, Stewart Rood, Linda Sebastian, Penny Secretan, Jerzy Szpakowski and Guy Vervoort

20 Years

John Bain, Allan Besplug, Craig Bullock, Cynthia Chambers, Helena Danyk, Lisa Doolittle, Marty Gadd, Andrew Hakin, David Kaminski, Luke Kwong, Judy Lavorato, Ian MacLachlan, Edward Malinsky, Duane Rockerbie, Gloria Samuels, Michael Stingl, Carrie Takeyasu, Pat Tanaka, Barb Thomsen, Gitte Villiger, Kathleen Willms, Shelly Wismath and Sajjad Zahir

15 Years

Jim Booth, Teresa Heyburn, Joan Kendall, Rob Kern, Richard Lutwick, Ron Schreiber, Terri Thomas, Nicholas Wade and Judith Whitehead

10 Years

Andrea Amelinckx, John Bronk, Adam Carter, Yllias Chali, Margaret Cook, Robert Cooney, Dennis Fitzpatrick, Fred Greene, Shauna Haag, Geoffrey Hale, Susan Hill, Shahadat Hossain, Charlene Janes, Harold Jansen, Randy Joseph, Edward Jurkowski, Catherine Kingfisher, Laurie Martin, Cathy Newman, Margot O'Donnell, Steve Patitsas, Michele Roberts, Chris Robinson, Debi Sandul, Stephane Simard, A. William Smith, Mike Spiteri, Stuart Thomas, Dawn-Ann Thys, Edwin Wasiak, Cheryl Wheeler and Jim Wills

UNews - Duane Rockerbie

Economic health of new Canadian Premier League based on groundwork from Rockerbie

Related Topics

2010 faculty research awards

Related Topics

Long service awards and honoured retirees

Related Topics

Long service awards, Wednesday

Related Topics