Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa and Montreal.
Organizers remain hopeful that Edmonton investors can be convinced to come on board, but relationships there are strained.
Due to confidentiality agreements, the names of the investors are being kept under close wraps. However, it’s been strongly suggested that much of the money is linked to the CFL. The Calgary Flames have also been rumoured to be involved in that city.
The investors in the three MLS cities are not attached to the MLS sides. There is no suggestion that the MLS teams will be pressured to leave, with investors preferring a “Welsh model” of sorts to the Canadian pyramid – a few teams separate from the C-League competing in a foreign league (i.e. Swansea City in the Premier League), while maintaining a top flight Canadian league as well.
The NASL teams are the biggest question. It’s thought that the investors would prefer to launch with both NASL sides coming on board, but neither has 100 percent committed to moving. It’s unclear whether the Ottawa market has a second set of investors ready in case the Fury opt to stay in the NASL. As of right now, the investors would prefer to entice the NASL sides to join, rather than to force them.
Ottawa President John Pugh appeared to be open to a move without committing to one in a recent interview with the Apt 613 blog.
Edmonton has proven to be a much harder sell. There, owner Tom Fath is deeply involved in the NASL and is said to feel “unfair pressure” to abandon that league after the amount of effort and investment he’s put into it.
Clarifying previous CSN reports, the C-League would be fully professional and would aim to operate at a higher level than he USL. The MLS reserve teams would likely remain in USL.
The salary budget for each team would likely be between $1-m and $1.5-m Canadian. That would roughly work out to an average salary of between $40,000 and $60,000 Canadian. The USL average is around $20,000 USD and the NASL pays an average of about $40,000 USD.
Despite previous suggestions that the announcement may be fast forwarded, the investors have instead decided to slow the process down in an attempt to possibly convince both NASL sides to join. They are said to believe that they can wait as long as January 2016 to make the official announcement.