Post-World Cup, Canadian Premier League wants to build on the country’s good soccer vibes

Although they had given everything in steering their country into the round of 16 at the men’s World Cup for the first time, a handful of Canadian players were still looking to pay it forward once they got back home, pointing the way for compatriots looking to deepen their connection with the sport.

“It’s important to go out, support your local teams,” said Tani Oluwaseyi, fresh off a plane near Toronto last month.

Ali Ahmed was even more specific in directing newly minted soccer aficionados toward this country’s leading domestic men’s competition, the Canadian Premier League.

“I hope there will be more eyeballs on the CPL because there is some young talent there,” he said. “It’s a league of opportunity, a league of hidden talent. Some players could be playing for our national team in the next World Cup.”

While the CPL is happy to see national team players throwing the gauntlet down in its direction, the challenges in front of it are manifold.

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Established in line with Canada’s bid to co-host the World Cup eight years ago, the CPL has had its share of teething problems. It kicked off with seven franchises in 2019, and while the Edmonton and Winnipeg clubs have since fallen by the wayside, three expansion franchises have pushed the league’s current footprint to eight clubs across five provinces.

That will be increased to nine for 2027, and 10 for 2028, helping to cement one of the three pillars of success that CPL commissioner James Johnson has outlined, alongside the commercialization of the sport and distribution of content.

“We’re down to the 89th minute on our 2027 expansion plans,” Johnson said, without divulging where the league’s ninth franchise would be located. “The reason we want to do that is it allows us to enter a new market at a time where football interest is high, and we’re expecting a big uplift in the participation of players for the 2027 community season.”

Although he envisions ultimately reaching 16 teams and doesn’t rule out a return to either Edmonton or Winnipeg – “the CPL needs to be in those markets,” he said – he adds that the key to any successful expansion project is going to where there is not only a big population, but also a high participation rate in soccer, as well as infrastructure.

Like most in the soccer ecosystem, Johnson welcomed the $1-billion that Prime Minister Mark Carney committed to sports infrastructure in the days following the completion of this summer’s World Cup.

He added that another of his immediate concerns is getting the right commercial partners to help not just inject cash into the coffers, but also to support soccer’s growth among mainstream media. It helps that as the chief executive officer of Canada Soccer Media and Entertainment, which controls the commercial rights of the CPL as well as those of the men’s and women’s national teams, Johnson can package them up in whichever way he sees fit.

“We’re in the fortunate position where we can be creative with the types of packages,” he said. “Where we can package together the men’s national team rights with the CPL, or the men’s national team, the women’s national team and the CPL at a time where we’re heading into the 2027 Women’s World Cup. So it’s a nice time to have that portfolio of rights that sit together.”

Earlier this year, CSME renegotiated its existing deal with Canada Soccer, a heavily criticized pact that had topped out in giving Canada Soccer just $4-million a year. The new deal recognizes that the revenue pie is growing for both sides, so both the CPL and Canada Soccer will be benefiting from increased cashflow.

“It was a bit of a handbrake, not just for the CPL, but on the sport,” Johnson said. “So we’re at a point where the framework’s in place. We’re incentivized to work with Canada Soccer and vice versa. So, no matter who is in charge, the deal works.

“So the revenues are growing. They’re growing for Canada Soccer. They’re growing for CSME, and they’re growing for the CPL.”

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In terms of broadcasting – the third of Johnson’s three pillars – the hope is the resolution of the league’s ongoing dispute with Rogers Communications back in March, which will see Rogers now carrying CPL broadcaster OneSoccer on its linear packages, will bear fruit.

“That’s really important for us now as part of the legacy of the World Cup,” Johnson said.

Coming out of that tournament, the CPL had offered fans a buy-one-get-one-free ticket promo to select matches in August, but the take-up has yet to truly spike attendances. While both Vancouver FC and the rebranded Inter Toronto FC have better average attendances than last season, all the other clubs save for Laval’s expansion Supra FC are down year on year. The league average stood at 3,783 after last weekend.

CPL executive vice-president Costa Smyrniotis is hopeful that continuing to forge a connection between Canadian communities and their local teams – and hopefully producing exciting young talent – can help encourage more fans to go to matches in person. The World Cup was an all-time high for watching and talking about soccer in this country. Smyrniotis is hopeful that Canada’s communities can keep those conversations going.

“You can watch any game anywhere in the world now,” he said. “The one thing you can’t really do is actually enjoy a game live in person. The only way you can do that is through your local club, your domestic club, right?

“That’s the opportunity ahead, and you’ve got to find that balance of making those ties real, ensuring that although I can watch Real Madrid in the afternoon, at the evening we can all get together at the Inter Toronto game and talk about both and support both.”

Another key challenge for the CPL is helping to launch talent into the Canadian pipelines. While just one former CPL player – Joel Waterman – was on Jesse Marsch’s 26-man senior squad this summer, the recently wrapped under-20 CONCACAF championship had four CPL players among a Canadian squad that lost in the semi-final to host Mexico. In reaching the final four, the team qualified for the under-20 World Cup for the first time since Canada hosted it in 2007.

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Smyrniotis believes there is plenty of talent in this country, and he should know. After all, he was one of the co-founders of the Sigma Academy in Mississauga, which helped produce World Cup mainstays like Cyle Larin and Richie Laryea. However, they came through a system well before the CPL came into existence, and their success was achieved largely in spite of the Canadian soccer system, not because of it.

“We’ve been able to achieve what we have through this cycle with this tremendous generation of players coming through a system without this,” he said. “We have a situation now in the last eight years where we now have 200-plus professional players in this country that didn’t exist before.

“You start doing the numbers and with expansion and as we grow, and as the whole system grows, then we’re leaving it less to chance that good things will happen.”

He mentions 18-year-olds such as Emrick Fotsing of Vancouver FC or Sergei Kozlovskiy of Atletico Ottawa, who both performed well at the under-20 CONCACAF championship this month. He also points to Atletico Ottawa as a club as further proof of that belief.

“There’s a reason we have one of the biggest clubs in the world that owns a club in our league, in Atletico Madrid,” he said of the Spanish giant that bought the CPL team in 2020. “I’m sure one of the reasons was, ‘Okay, well, the next big talent coming out of Canada, we want to come through our system.’”

Smyrniotis’s brother, Bobby, who is the head coach of Forge FC in Hamilton, says that providing that talent pipeline is just a natural fit for Canada at this stage in its development as it continues to grow into a veritable football nation.

“We want to see more players … coming through the academy, through our second team into the first team, and then being able to move on,” he said. “That’s the natural food chain that we have until you get to the top. And I always say we can argue who’s at the top, but until you get to Real Madrid, Manchester City, you got to think big and keep on dreaming big.”