CPL announces full 2023 regular season schedule presented by WestJet

Toronto, ON – (January 30, 2023) – The Canadian Premier League today announced the regular season schedule, presented by WestJet, for its milestone fifth season in 2023, which will include 112 matches from coast to coast as teams battle for the title of regular season champion. 

All eight CPL teams will compete in 28 matches over a balanced schedule, playing 14 games at home and 14 away. Each team will meet all seven of its opponents twice at home and twice on the road over the course of the season. 

Pacific FC, Atlético Ottawa, Forge FC and York United FC were previously announced as hosts for the League’s slate of opening weekend matches, to be played between Friday, April 14 and Sunday, April 16. 

Valour FC will begin its home schedule during the second weekend of League play, when Phillip Dos Santos’ side host reigning regular season champion Atlético Ottawa at IG Field in Winnipeg, Man. on Saturday, April 22 at 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET. 

The third weekend of League play will see a return home to Wanderers Grounds for new head coach Patrice Gheisar’s side, as Halifax Wanderers host expansion team Vancouver FC on Saturday, April 29 at 3 p.m. AT/2 p.m. ET. Cavalry FC will also host its home opener that weekend, set to welcome Valour to ATCO Field at Spruce Meadows on Sunday, April 30 at 3 p.m. MT/5 p.m. ET.

Vancouver will wrap up this year’s slate of home openers on Sunday, May 7 at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET, hosting Cavalry in the first CPL match to be played at the club’s new stadium at Willoughby Community Park at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C. 

Vancouver’s inaugural home match will mark an exciting day in Canadian soccer with the official opening of its new soccer-specific stadium, a key component to the continued growth of the professional game and the sport nationwide.

The 2023 regular season, the fifth in CPL history, will wrap up the weekend of Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7. The League’s 2023 playoff schedule will be announced prior to the beginning of the regular season. View the full regular season schedule here.

This season will mark the second year the League officially recognizes a regular season champion. CPL Commissioner Mark Noonan announced plans to honour the best team over the League’s 28-game regular season schedule in September 2022. The club that finishes in first place after those 28 league matches will be crowned regular season champion and earn a financial reward of equal value to the reward for winning the playoff championship. A new trophy honouring the CPL’s regular season champion will be introduced this year.

The 2023 regular season champion will also earn one of the CPL’s two spots in the new expanded Concacaf Champions League, with the League’s other spot going to its playoff champion. The Concacaf Champions League, which will now include 27 clubs and more than 50 matches, will kick off in 2024.

The Canadian Premier League season will be broadcast on dedicated soccer channel OneSoccer, available to all Canadian households through OneSoccer.ca, via Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV devices and with the OneSoccer app for iOS and Android devices. OneSoccer is also available to more than one million Western Canadians as a linear channel on Optik TV (Ch.980), the pay-TV service operated by Telus, one of Canada’s ‘big three’ telecoms companies, as well as on streaming service fuboTV Canada, where it sits alongside a range of other premium sports offerings, including English Premier League and Serie A channels. The 2023 season will also be available to fans abroad through Fox Sports in the United States as well as through other selected broadcasters worldwide and globally through the OneSoccer website and app.