CPL will play season, though details sketchy

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This article was published 26/01/2021 (1714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian Premier League commissioner David Clanachan admits he’s been known to be an eternal optimist.

He proved that to be the case last week when he wrote an open letter to league supporters saying the professional soccer league sees a number of possibilities that will have teams back on the field in their home markets.

Clanachan also added the CPL is gunning for a full 28-game season with a May 22 start date, assuming health authorities give their stamp of approval.

Some might say a targeted kickoff in less than four months is wishful thinking. The commissioner can see why, but he thinks things are trending in the right direction.

“If we follow what the health people are telling us and what the government is telling us right now, I truly believe that our country will look a lot different three or four months from now than it does today… Obviously, if we get our arms around the vaccine and everything else, I think there’s a good chance at it,” Clanachan told the Free Press on Tuesday from Burlington, Ont.

“Having said that, at the end of the day, I’d be a fool to say, ‘Oh I’m confirming we’re starting on May 22.’ It’s our target date, it’s not an official announcement, but I think it’s important that people realize we’re going to push hard for it. No matter what, we’re very clear that we’re gonna play and we want to play in our home markets and wherever possible we want to have fans in the stands.”

With the vaccine rollout being an extremely slow process, the CPL will likely have to think outside the box if the league’s eight teams, including Winnipeg’s Valour FC, are going to be playing across the country.

“We’ve talked about doing something where we split east and west in that first part of the season before we start crossing over to cut down on travel,” Clanachan said.

“Do we try to string games together so teams aren’t travelling so often? Like a three-game road trip instead of travelling back and forth? So, we’re looking at all those different variations.”

In 2020, the pandemic forced the CPL to scrap its season and replace it with a single-site bubble tournament in Charlottetown, P.E.I., that was dubbed the Island Games. Clanachan said they proved they can pull off a bubble successfully, but they’d rather not go down that road again. They want, and need, fans in the stands. The CPL is monitoring what other leagues around the world are doing with fans and trying to learn what does and doesn’t work.

“First of all, we want fans in the stands. The reason why is it’s our greatest source of revenue… If your revenue is dependent on people putting their bums in seats and watching your games, that’s a bit of an issue for you,” he said.

“Having said all that, we also know if we’re not allowed to be at full capacity and we have to do something different, or God forbid that we get to a position where we’re not allowed to have fans for a while or for a portion of the season or whatever, then we have to be creative about how we do it. How do we make it entertaining as possible so our supporters and fans enjoy it?”

The Island Games, which were won by Hamilton’s Forge FC, was an entertaining product, but it sure didn’t pay the bills as no fans were allowed and the CPL doesn’t have a lucrative TV deal to rely on. The CPL’s inaugural season was in 2019.

“We made a hefty investment last year. I don’t look at it as a loss, I look at it as an investment into our future. We got a long road in front of us, so investments are OK,” Clanachan said.

“The key thing was our owners recognized in your second year of our operation, in any year of our operation, you can’t go dark. You can’t close up shop and go dark on people. Once you’re out of the mind’s eye, you’re forgotten… We had to work hard for the opportunity, we had to invest in it, but it was well worth it because people are talking about this Canadian Premier League not just here, but outside of Canada.”

Whether it’s wishful thinking or not, Valour head coach and general manager Rob Gale said the league voicing its intentions for 2021 is appreciated.

“I think it shows the determination and the will of the ownership group and all the clubs to get a full season,” Gale said.

“We’re all excited what that could look like and we showed last year we’re capable, that we can make something happen. I think that bolstered the will, the determination and the belief that we’ll be able to do something again this year, no matter what that looks like.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31