The way to keep growing soccer in Canada is to support local teams from the grassroots level to the professional game.
It’s time for local support for local clubs to grow across Canada, from fans to broadcasting networks to reporters.
The landscape of the sport has changed drastically over the past 15 years. In 2010, Toronto FC was the only Canadian club in Major League Soccer (MLS), and Canada had no dedicated professional league in the men’s or women’s game.
Since then, there have been two new Canadian MLS franchises in Montreal and Vancouver, the Canadian Premier League (CPL) began play in 2019 as a top-flight men’s professional league and the Northern Super League (NSL) will begin play in 2025 as a top-flight women’s professional league.
On the semi-professional side of things, League1 Canada has affiliated with or founded men’s and women’s leagues in Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and Alberta.
These domestic leagues are the key to growing the sport of soccer in Canada. Having locally grown clubs at the semi-pro and professional levels gives more opportunities to Canadian players to play important games and move up the worldwide pyramid of soccer.
However, these leagues need support to succeed.
The CPL averaged about 4,000 fans per regular season game in 2024, a number the NSL should target to keep pace with during its inaugural season next year.
League1 Canada attendances fluctuate heavily, but Simcoe County Rovers took a reported 2,000 fans to their away game at BMO Field against Toronto FC on April 24 of this year.
Getting fans to come out to the games is ideal, but clubs need to build awareness and hype to get fans out. A good way to do that is through getting games on television.
The NSL may have a leg up on the CPL in this respect, as the CPL is exclusively on OneSoccer, a streaming service which does not have a channel on Bell or Rogers cable, despite an ongoing legal battle between Rogers and OneSoccer’s parent companies to achieve this feat. OneSoccer has managed to get a channel on FuboTV and Telus Optik, but not on the big boys.
Meanwhile, the NSL has struck a multi-year deal to be featured across CBC/Radio-Canada and TSN/RDS to broadcast games across their networks.
This is a huge deal for the league, being able to catch the eyes of casual viewers or people who aren’t looking to spend money on a whole streaming service just to watch soccer, which is what OneSoccer is.
However, The OneSoccer feed of the 2024 CPL final was simulcasted by CBC, where it reached more than 600,000 viewers.
Numbers like the ones listed above show support is there for domestic soccer when it’s available to fans. People love the national teams when they succeed, and it’s time for that support to grow for these new leagues focused on developing Canadian talent.
The three MLS teams should continue to push for success in the league and grow their academies to help produce more elite Canadian talent.
The CPL and NSL should aim for new heights, build professional clubs in passionate communities across the country and develop the infrastructure needed to support true top-flight professional leagues.
League1 Canada should continue to fill the gaps in smaller communities and succeed in their goal to develop players to push them up the ranks of soccer in Canada.
The pyramid of soccer has been established in Canada. But these leagues and clubs are nothing without support from fans in local communities.
Soccer fans in Canada: it’s time to get out and support your local club.
