Nothing truly new was revealed in the Spectator story, save, perhaps, that the league would be headquartered in Hamilton. Bob Young has long been known to be involved, but outside of CSN that was first time it was reported outright. For the record, I’ve also been told that the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Group (owners of the Calgary Flames, Stampeders and junior hockey's Hitmen) and the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (Ottawa Fury, RedBlacks and junior hockey's 67s) are also involved. I’m less certain of True North Sports and Entertainment Limited’s (Winnipeg Jets and AHL’s Manitoba Moose) involvement, but that has been suggested to me on more than a few occasions.
Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver’s ownership is up in the air. It’s universally speculated that the Saskatchewan Roughriders will somehow be involved with a team in Regina, but as a community owned team that situation is a bit murky.
Regardless, it’s important to understand that yesterday wasn’t planned. It was simply a local story about a municipal government motion where a reporter was able to connect the dots to something bigger. The CSA has purposely avoided oversharing on this topic until it had concrete details to share. They know there is cynicism and that any perception that this is a fly-by-night operation will doom the project out of the gate.
I’ve long speculated that even the fact that I’ve been able to get as much information as I have about this league is calculated – as a niche journalist my reports are reaching an audience that is the most desperate for movement on this and is the most willing to give a new league the benefit of the doubt. The average Canadian sports fan doesn’t have CSN bookmarked and isn’t listening to the Two Solitudes podcast. I’m not speaking to those that are most likely to be the most negative.
In short, I’m a safe place to indirectly leak information to. The Hamilton Spectator is not and the reaction yesterday demonstrates that. Now, the CSA is officially on the clock and the pressure has increased significantly. For the first time, the CSA now has people not only asking ‘Can this work?’ but also people wondering ‘Why are you even trying?’.
Let’s look at those questions, starting with the latter one.
Although a league cannot survive if its sole purpose is to develop players – it has to also exist as a viable sports entertainment option for fans on its own merits as a professional league -- it’s clear that without a significant increase in professional clubs in Canada things are never going to get much better than that horrible day in Honduras. There might be blips – hell, maybe even enough luck in a cycle to get back to a World Cup – but to become a consistently successful program there needs to be legitimate professional infrastructure in Canada that is not beholden to the United States system.
Will it work?
We don’t know, but what we do know is that the current situation isn’t working. So either we moan about it, or we try and do something about it. The CSA and its partners are trying to do something about it.
Bottom line: If you truly care about the state of Canadian soccer (beyond the wins and losses of your local MLS or NASL team) then there is no debate to be had about this – you support the initiative and cheer like hell for it to succeed.
However, it won’t be that simple. Outside of hockey, Canadians have long rejected the value of our own sport culture. The CFL is the only example of a Canadian league that’s had any long-term success and even it struggles to be taken seriously in the major urban centres. The issue the CFL faces there is the same one that the Can-PL will face – perception that there is a better American equivalent for fans of the game. In soccer’s case that issue will be confounded by the fact that A) that American alternative will be directly operating in the market with an already established fan base and b ) the English Premier League is already more popular than the American alternative (not to mention Serie A, Bundesliga, etc).
So, this is not going to be easy. But, as the old adage says, nothing worth doing is.