Commissioner confident with CPL season set for kick off

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This article was published 24/06/2021 (1566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Canadian Premier League hasn’t played a match in front of paying customers since their inaugural season came to a close on Nov. 2, 2019.

For an upstart league that doesn’t have a multi-million dollar TV deal to fall back on, you’d think that would be a death sentence — but it hasn’t been.

On a Zoom call on Thursday, CPL commissioner David Clanachan spoke to the media for over 40 minutes, two days before The Kickoff begins at IG Field, and addressed the health of the league.

“We will survive. I’m very confident the country is going to come out of this in the right way, but we also have contingency plans,” Clanachan said

“We know what we can do. Listen, there’s too much at stake here. we need this league. This game needs this league in this country and we’ve heard that loud and clear from every corner of the country.”

Even though the pandemic has given the CPL no shot at being profitable for the time being, the league has still found ways to play. The pandemic began last year right as CPL teams were starting training camp. The season was scrapped and replaced with a single-site tournament in Charlottetown, P.E.I., called The Island Games. This year, Canada’s third wave has forced the league to play in a bubble once again, except this time, it’s in Winnipeg and being tabbed The Kickoff. All eight teams have officially arrived in town and are settled into the Radisson Hotel downtown.

A second straight year of flights, hotels, meals, buses, signage, and everything in between without any ticket revenue is a steep price to pay. So, how’s the league making it work?

“A lot of it is commitment from the clubs, there’s no doubt. You got to invest in your business and that’s what happening in businesses right across Canada,” said Clanachan.

“It also means you’ve got the Government of Manitoba and tourism in Winnipeg and economic development there, they’re also helping as well. They saw what we did at The Island Games and they saw how much we were able to promote the province and the city of Charlottetown out there. It was millions of dollars of value that they got out of it so that worked well. I won’t say it’s dollar for dollar, they’re not giving us that level of contribution, but they’ve stepped up for sure.”

CPL teams will play eight games at IG Field, starting this weekend and running until July 24, before returning to their home markets to play the remainder of the 28-game season. At least, that’s the current plan. Clanachan is staying positive but said if a fourth wave prevents them from executing that plan, the league is prepared to make whatever adjustments necessary to finish the season.

“We’re ready for it. Sure, we wouldn’t be happy about it, but you get creative, you pivot, you get nimble, you do what you have to do,” he said.

“You’d probably agree we’ve done that in our short term that we’ve been around for.”

There won’t be any fans at IG Field this weekend, but the league, and Valour FC, are hoping that they’ll be allowed in some capacity during The Kickoff.

“I am very hopeful for it. Having said that, I will be very clear, it’s up to the provincial health ministry and Valour FC along with the City of Winnipeg to make that decision,” Clanachan said.

“We’ve been very clear with our club there that it’s their call because after all, they have to follow all the protocols and everything else that happened, but I can tell you right now that (Winnipeg Football Club president and CEO) Wade Miller and his group there are excited to do that if there’s an opportunity for us. I can guarantee this: if there’s an opportunity to do it, we’ll be doing it.”

The commissioner also unveiled the format for the season on Thursday. At the end of the 28-game regular season, the top four clubs will advance to the playoffs. The semifinals will be a single match playoff with the two winners playing a winner-take-all match for The North Star Shield. If the 2020 season came to fruition, the playoffs were scheduled to feature three teams, with the team at the top of table earning a bye to the finals.

“We looked at it and because of the unbalanced schedule, it would be fair to add a fourth club and change the format that way… We also looked at the time of year that we’d be finishing because we have always been focused on getting the full season in and getting as much soccer in front of our fans and supporters as possible.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31