Just when it looked like there wouldn’t be a semi-professional women’s soccer team in Guelph this spring and summer, the Guelph United Football Club came to the rescue.
GUFC purchased the Guelph Union League1 Ontario women’s franchise to stand beside their Guelph Union FC League1 Ontario men’s franchise. For its first two seasons, Union had been operated by Guelph Soccer.
“The main reason is that I think it's absolutely amazing for the community to have two semi-pro franchises for each gender under the same banner,” said Keith Mason, GUFC’s president and general manager of both teams.
“When we heard that they might be leaving town, we thought it was critical that that didn't happen and we thought it was critical that the women in this community stayed in town, that there's a place for them. They'd already created over the last two years a real good fan base, a real good following and people have showed that they want it. They want Guelph Union in this community and not moving on so when we heard that they weren't going to be coming back under the Guelph Soccer banner and they could be moving out of town, we quickly acted.”
GUFC obtained the Union shortly after the holidays in a transaction that went fairly quickly.
“I contacted League1 immediately,” Mason said. “I contacted the local club and expressed our desire to take them over, to purchase the franchise and make it clear we didn't want to see it leave Guelph. Everybody was very supportive of that and I think everybody was happy that Guelph United wanted to keep them here as well.
"A couple of weeks later it was all done and dusted and they were part of our organization.”
The transaction defines the roles of GUFC and Guelph Soccer in the community.
“I think Guelph United (Football Club) is all about the next level,” Mason said. “The youth club does a wonderful job, but they're all about providing youth soccer and somewhere to play. We're about high-performance, about bringing players to their goals and helping them get even further potentially. Our club is all about focusing on the top end of the athletics in our sport.”
The upcoming League1 Ontario season is a critical one for both the United men’s and Union women’s team. League1 Ontario is to switch to a three-tiered structure for both its men’s and women’s league with promotion and relegation between the tiers.
The top tier Premier Division is to consist of 12 teams in the men’s league and 10 in the women’s league. The middle-tier Championship Division is to consist of 10 teams in the men’s league and eight in the women’s league with the champions moving up a division to take the place of the upper division’s last-placed team.
The lower-tier League 2 division will consist of new League1 Ontario entrants and reserve teams and their champions will also move up a division.
The current existing teams will be assigned to either the Premier Division or the Championship Division in their respective leagues according to points they amassed during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. They’ll be credited with 75 perc ent of their 2022 points and all of their 2023 points to figure out the 2024 divisions.
United finished seventh in the 22-team men’s Premier Division last year with 42 points while Union was 13 th in the 20-team women’s Premier Division with 24 points.
Calculations have 75 perc ent of United’s total at 31.5 points and Union at 18.
“In 2024, all the divisions are going to break into promotion/relegation and our goal for both our teams is to be in the top division,” Mason said. “It's not going to be easy because where the women finished last year comes into play, but we're going to go for it and if it doesn't happen in 2023, that will definitely be our goal to build it as an established top team in the Premier Division. We're confident with the players that we've got that we can give it a good go for this year as well.”
Being in the top division helps teams attract the top talent and also helps attract fans.
“It's what the community wants,” Mason said. “They want to see the highest level and it's what we see our club as being all about. It is a big year. It's going to be a difficult year because there's always transitions of situations with players leaving, players coming, new players in and you add to that us getting the franchise very late.
“We didn't officially take it over until early January and by then some of the players had already committed elsewhere into other communities because they weren't aware that we were around. It has left us with a challenge for this year, there's no question about it.”
GUFC has made the decision to operate a lone Union squad this year. Last year Union had its top team and also a team in League1 Ontario’s reserve division.
“We have made the decision to have only one team and not have a reserve (team) in 2023,” Mason said. “That was purely based on the numbers we had left over and also enable us to focus on that goal of trying to get into the top division for the 2024 season. It allows us to focus on that and it allows us to build so that we can get a full complement and the reserves back in 2024.”
GUFC did have a first session with the Union squad at the beginning of the month and were encouraged by the number of players who attended as they attracted 20. That number didn’t include players who are rehabbing injuries or who are attending universities in the U.S.
There are no plans to have Guelph Union become called the Guelph United women’s team as they are to keep the Union moniker.
“Keeping the name was important to us,” Mason said. “I think it's a name that's been established for two years. There's people walking around with Union shirts on and we think that that's important that they continue to do that and not have to start from scratch again.”
The GUFC business is registered as the Guelph United Football Club while Guelph United FC is the men's branch of the club and Guelph Union is the women's branch.
“I think it's important that both teams have their own identity under our umbrella,” Mason said. “I think that's very important.”
The men are to start their season the April 14-16 weekend and the women’s season is to start the following weekend.
