Ward 4 Councillor John Kovac, who along with Ward 9’s Pat Saito introduced a motion at Council in April 2018 to study the feasibility of building a major soccer stadium, said he’s cautiously optimistic about both a stadium and CPL expansion team.
“Some momentum (for a CPL team) was lost due to the pandemic, but I’m hopeful,” said Kovac, adding he’s aware of CPL’s continued interest in Mississauga as an expansion site. “Soccer is very popular in Mississauga…and (getting a CPL team) would be a unique opportunity.”
Ditta said Mississauga’s soccer community is excited about talk of a new stadium. That conversation has been “on-again, off-again” since the summer of 2017, he noted, adding SCC has been one of the driving forces behind the push, along with several councillors.
“We’re very happy to see this conversation back on the docket and being discussed openly,” said Ditta, adding a multi-purpose stadium would likely be the best way to proceed given the costs involved.
In addition to the Mississauga interest, the "Port City" trademark registering may actually be for Mississauga. There is an area of the city called "Port Credit", which is on the lake and does have arenas, including hosting multiple local hockey teams. There is a marina and general tourism thrust behind the area, and the area is aptly called the "Village on the Lake" with its high degree of tourism.
I'm leaning towards either Fraser Valley (based on their tweet), or Mississauga. The latter of the two makes more sense to me at the moment though for a variety of reasons, including the sheer volume of people in the Peel region area.
My understanding is that this will announce Fraser Valley, although it's not a full on expansion announcement. The project has been in the works for years.
The sheer volume of people that live in the GTA and lower Ontario makes more teams a very likely chance. With forge and York, you basically have Hamilton and Toronto. Mississauga is smack in the middle. You could probably even get away with teams in Niagara, Kitchener and London as well.
CPL commissioner David Clanachan announced on Wednesday that the league has officially awarded an expansion club to Vancouver, BC, to be owned and operated by SixFive Sports and Entertainment LP. The Vancouver club will be the ninth team to officially join the CPL, expecting to begin play in the 2023 season.
Very neat! I do like the general "Vancouver" appeal, as the metro area is rife for a team. Taking a ferry to Victoria to see a game is not an option for most mainland fans. Wouldn't surprise me to see the team placed in Richmond or Surrey if not further into the valley such as Abbotsford or Langley.
Interview with David Clanachan... some interesting insight. They're talking with 4-6 other potential clubs (locations?) across Canada, and on top of that, L1O teams including Electric City FC are looking to eventually get into the CPL.
Interesting they call it the 9th team. Guess Saskatoon isn't progressing very quickly. Regardless, good to see the league growing. Would love to see a team in Quebec (either Quebec City or Laval), another in the GTA (Mississauga or similar) and one in the BC interior (Kelowna?).
There are a number of conditions that have to be met for the Saskatoon team, if I recall. Probably just making progress on it, but nothing to report. I like the potential for a Kelowna team as well; I think there is a market there for sure, especially since it would be Kelowna's first national pro sports team and they can also draw on other municipalities around the Okanagan that can pad those numbers too.
Note that the ownership group of this club also owns Pacific. IIRC this group was actually supposed to launch a team in the lower mainland in 2019, but they ran into some issues in getting up and running, so the group got involved with Pacific.
Note that the ownership group of this club also owns Pacific. IIRC this group was actually supposed to launch a team in the lower mainland in 2019, but they ran into some issues in getting up and running, so the group got involved with Pacific.
So are they gonna split the sale amongst the group to have sovereign ownership then?
What do we recon is the natural size for the league. 14 seems like a nice whole number, especially if they make the season 26 games. Every team twice would make darby games much more compelling.
Forgot that there was a Cavalry / Forge game tonight. Cavalry are resting a lot of key players. Carducci, Klomp, Camargo, Farsi, Mason, Fisk all not making the trip.
Novak scores in the 3rd minute to put Cavalry up 1-0.
We’ll be there Saturday. Still on a high from the CanMNT games and hoping for a great result for Cavalry!
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In addition to the Mississauga interest, the "Port City" trademark registering may actually be for Mississauga. There is an area of the city called "Port Credit", which is on the lake and does have arenas, including hosting multiple local hockey teams. There is a marina and general tourism thrust behind the area, and the area is aptly called the "Village on the Lake" with its high degree of tourism.
I'm leaning towards either Fraser Valley (based on their tweet), or Mississauga. The latter of the two makes more sense to me at the moment though for a variety of reasons, including the sheer volume of people in the Peel region area.
Ya know, Abbotsford could be the team that coined "Port City" too ya know..
