First stop for CPL On Tour? Kelowna! Here are 5 more cities we'd love to see host matches
The inaugural edition of the Canadian Premier League’s ‘On Tour’ series is set to kick off on Sunday, when Vancouver FC take on Cavalry FC some three and a half hours east of Willoughby Community Park, at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna, BC.
Expansion talk in the Okanagan Valley is something of a staple of the league at this point, and the aim of ‘On Tour,’ is very much to weigh that talk against some tangible attendance number that might look attractive to an investor.
So, while footy fans take in CPL soccer in Kelowna this weekend, what other venues might the league visit in the upcoming years?
Quebec City, QC
Montreal’s CS Saint Laurent have thrust themselves into expansion discussions by besting Halifax at Wanderers Grounds, and then by drawing a crowd of 6,500 when Toronto FC came to town. The owners of the Ligue1 Quebec club have been their own best spokesmen, sharing their ambitions at every opportunity.
🚨#CanPL à Montréal?🚨
— Quentin Parisis (@QParisis) June 10, 2024
Dans le magazine Québec Soccer à paraitre la semaine prochaine, sous la plume de @MarcTheSparc, les dirigeants du CS Saint-Laurent expliquent qu'il y a eu "plusieurs rencontres" pour évaluer l'implantation du club en CPL
Ce n'est pas tout
🧵👇
A Saint Laurent club would mark the first case of that pseudo pro-rel system hardcore fans seem to clamour for, where semi-professional sides might stake their claim to a CPL club with a positive showing in the Voyageurs Cup.
Others have argued la belle province deserves a clean slate - a fresh new team in an untapped market. That not so hypothetical market is Quebec City - Canada’s largest metropolitan area without a (real) professional sports team. The closest are the Ramparts in the QMJHL and the Capitales in the Frontier League. Most L1Q teams are scattered around the Montreal area, but Royal-Sélect de Beauport have been around for 50 years, and they finished second in the league last season.
Whether a legitimate stadium exists is another question. PEPS has room for 13,000, but it’s the home of the Laval Rouge et Or, who have some of the most dedicated fans in all of U Sports. For a one-off match, though, it should be pretty perfect.
Windsor, ON
We haven’t gotten an update on the next would-be expansion side in a little while, but the ball is still rolling as far as we can tell. David Clanachan stepped down as commissioner with the explicit goal of bringing professional football to his hometown, and though the signs are relatively sparse, they seem to be pointing in the right direction.
It’s been a year and a half now since Mayor Drew Dilkens committed to upgrading the turf at McHugh Park. He kept his promise, and a budget was approved earlier this year with the McHugh upgrade being allotted $3 million.
Windsor certainly isn’t the largest metropolitan area on paper. Kitchener-Waterloo, the other highly touted avenue for additional Ontario expansion, has 150,000 more people. The advantage is that it’s relatively remote, and barring a quick hop across the border to Detroit, Windsorites only have the Spitfires of the CHL to keep them entertained. An On Tour visit seems the best litmus test, assuming we’ll have time for one before the club enters the league. Perhaps an appearance from Leamington native Stephen Eustaquio would help do the trick!
Saskatoon, SK
Saskatchewan represents a giant swath of province that ought to have a pro soccer team.
Mosaic Stadium, where the Saskatchewan Roughriders play, has hosted soccer before - once, it was even a potential World Cup venue for 2026. It’s Saskatoon that’s been mostly neglected, with only a lacrosse team and a CEBL franchise to call its own. The Rush in the NLL do pretty well for themselves, albeit over a considerably shorter season, boasting an average of 8,000 fans per game
And, while Saskatchewan hadn't yet held a firm place on the Canadian soccer pyramid – where Quebec and Windsor do, for instance – that all changes in the spring of next year when League1 Prairies is set to kick off.
League1 Canada to explore the opportunity to launch League1 Prairies in 2025.
— League1 Canada (@League1Canada) June 20, 2023
Info sessions are scheduled for late June and early July for those interested in learning about a proposed new multi-provincial Pro-Am League.
Find out more: https://t.co/3pWmlEwUZk#L1CA #RiseAsOne pic.twitter.com/tJxCjTMTTP
Saskatoon doesn’t really have a workable stadium yet, but SMF Field or Griffiths Stadium, where the Huskies play, would suit a one-off.
Kitchener-Waterloo, ON
K-W have sat perpetually near the top of any and all expansion discussions, and for good reason. It’s a metropolitan area the size of the city of Hamilton. It’s the perfect distance from Hamilton and from Toronto to inspire even more local rivalry without clubs having to duke it out over the same fans. Waterloo also boasts the only L1O club branded around its European affiliation – that actually has an official European affiliation (cough St. Catherines cough). BVB Waterloo were relegated to the second tier of L1O, but also, they have David Edgar now.
RIM Park is a nice facility, but it’s not developed enough yet for a CPL game. Once again, someone will have to make that investment for expansion to be on the table - and once again, that probably leaves a university stadium as the only viable option for an On Tour visit. That could be U Waterloo’s Warrior Field or Wilfrid Laurier’s University Stadium.
If it isn’t obvious yet, existing infrastructure will always be a recurring theme in these sorts of talks.
Moncton, NB
Everyone has a dream city they like to make kit designs for, and this is mine. Croix-Bleue is technically another university stadium, but it’s also one of the prettiest, and it holds a lot of people. It hosted seven Women’s World Cup matches in 2015 and it’s the CFL’s favourite Touchdown Atlantic tease for a franchise they’ll never award.
Moncton is waaaay down the list in metro population, behind Regina and St. John’s and uh… Sudbury. But if one Atlantic team can casually bring out the most wonderful fans in the league, then why not another?
It’s worth a try! Please try it. For my amusement.
Big stadium for a big game.@athletics_lhhs warms up ahead of this morning’s @NBIAA_ASINB varsity girls soccer semi-final.
— Andy Campbell (@fredcityandy) November 6, 2021
Lions and Mathieu Martin kick-off at 10:00am at Stade Croix Bleue Medavie, in Moncton.#golions pic.twitter.com/QyXYnfxdHQ
