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Canadian Premier League with teams in Winnipeg, Hamilton officially announced

After long speculation, it has officially been announced that Canada will be getting its own professional soccer league.

While MLS, the USL, and the NASL already have a presence, there was has been no Canadian top flight league since the collapse of the Canadian Soccer League in 1992. The Canadian Premier League was approved by a unanimous vote at 2017 Annual Meeting of the Members of Canada Soccer and will seek to begin play with a truncated schedule in August 2018.

The league’s founding cities will include Hamilton and Winnipeg. The Canadian Premier League has also received bids from 10 other Canadian cities which will be assessed in the next 60-90 days.

“The leadership of the Canadian Soccer Association has shown an outstanding commitment to its vision for the future of soccer in Canada with today’s decision to ratify the Canadian Premier League,” said Scott Mitchell, CEO of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who has spearheaded the effort among potential ownership groups. “The CPL will fill the existing void in Canada’s national soccer development platform by operating a world-class professional league, both on and off the field.”

The league wants to partner with community-led ownership groups from cost to cost which will be key in the sustainability of the league.

“Today is an historic day for soccer fans, aka footie followers, in our country,” said Bob Young, Caretaker of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. “This day is only possible thanks to the unwavering support of soccer fans across Canada, such as our own Barton Street Battalion supporters.”

Comments

  1. to gunwister: there is no damn way that the supporters in the TO, montreal and vancouver MLS markets would agree to a watered-down version of ‘professional’ soccer- we like the rivalries that exist; vancouver, for example, has a long history with seattle and portland- sorry, but a game vs regina or halifax isnt as enticing as these 2 MLS teams; and there will be no damn way that the owners- who have invested millions of $$$$$$$$$$$- would ever succumb to a CSA directive to drop MLS and attach to a CPL that is sure to loose significant money and supporters- do you see a court case??

    and the supporters could also wave goodbye to such talent as bradley, giovinco, altidore, piatti, ciman,ousted and montero

    your idea is full of holes- good luck to the fledgling CPL- its going to need a lot of money and luck to succeed- at best, it will be a semi-professional league, akin to USL- the CSA would have been better to support another 3-4 cities to the USL with the direct plan to extensively play young canadian talent

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  2. The Canadian Soccer Association should force all of their pro NASL and USL teams to join this new pro league. Make one national league for all 2nd division teams. The league will be more stable. The CSA won’t have to rely on constantly changing US leagues like the NASL and the new Canadian league could survive the inevitable folding of teams.

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  3. I really hope this succeeds. It’s time for Canada to be more of a world player again, and this will also help push and develop MLS and US soccer in general…

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