Frank Myrland
Twenty-two years ago, Canada qualified for their first and only World Cup appearance. The stay was short; three losses in the group stage sent them home. The year was 1986 and Canada was at the high point in their less than distinguished football history.
Since then, the Canadian team has slipped to 81st in the FIFA world rankings. The Canadian national team also struggled to draw crowds to significant events such as World Cup Qualifiers.
So it was out of the blue that Canadian football suddenly experienced a resurgence in popularity with the considerable success of Toronto FC, a club founded in 2006. The Major League Soccer expansion team sold out every single game at the newly constructed BMO Field, including all 14,000 season tickets in 2007. Even a dismal showing in their inaugural campaign couldn’t hamper the clubs profitability, as another 16,500 season tickets were claimed in the following year.
Toronto was one of only three MLS teams that made a profit in 2008, along with David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy and FC Dallas. The immediate success of the club earned a nomination for Sports Business Journal’s Pro Sports Franchise of the Year.
But why is football suddenly so popular in Canada? Perhaps part of the reason lies in their lenient immigration policies and self-professed multicultural society, a wondrous means for establishing a diverse fan base composed of many different nationalities. Though television and media coverage is still dominated by other sports, the number of registered football players surpassed the number of players registered in Canada’s beloved sport of hockey. Recent hosts of FIFA’s U-20 World Cup in 2007, Canada broke the record for total attendance set by Mexico 24 years ago. All this from a nation ranked behind the powerhouse football nations of Burkina Faso and Bahrain.
To be fair, Canada does field a strong women’s football squad. Ranked 9th as of June 2007, the women’s side earned a fourth place finish in the 2003 World Cup and a CONCACAF Gold Cup Championship in 1998. So perhaps it is just the men who are the problem then.
Canada has no real standout stars. Perhaps the most well known Canadian footballer, Owen Hargreaves, plays not only in England for Manchester United, but also for England, choosing to fight for a spot on their competitive national team rather than share his wealth of knowledge and experience with the lacking Canadian squad. Any expansion Canadian clubs would inevitably be hard pressed to find a source of home-grown talent to send onto the pitch.
Commissioner Don Garber seems to be leading the MLS down the route of extensive expansion, hoping to add four teams to the league by 2011. Overexpansion is oft claimed to be the main cause for the demise of the North American Soccer League, the predecessor to the MLS. Already the MLS has seen two Florida squads fold in the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion, perhaps the result of trying to force a franchise into markets known less for football than for baseball or NASCAR.
Yet the MLS remains optimistic that there is a place in America for professional football. Already the association has accepted proposals from the Seattle Sounders FC of the United Soccer League First Division (USL-1) and a new club from Philadelphia. They seem to believe there is a place in Canada for it too.
Several Canadian teams are competing for the remaining expansion franchises offered by the MLS. Two currently play in the USL-1, the second tier of American soccer behind the MLS.
The Montreal Impact is widely considered to be in strong contention for one of the final spots. Montreal’s Olympic Stadium routinely drew more than 30,000 spectators during the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, suggesting that football is alive and well in Quebec. But despite their front-runner status, team owner Joey Saputo has expressed some caution with leaving the USL-1 and joining the MLS as the decision requires an expansion to their undersized stadium. It remains unclear whether Montreal can prove to be a profitable football market.
Across the country on the western side of Canada, the Vancouver Whitecaps are also in the running, supported by billionaire Greg Kerfoot and star Canadian basketball player Steve Nash. The team’s Swangard Stadium has a seating capacity of only 5,000, sufficient for their placement in the USL-1 but a far cry from the demands of the MLS. Anticipating a brighter future for football in Vancouver, plans have been set in motion to build a new stadium with triple that capacity.
The surprise bid came from Ottawa, courtesy of Eugene Melnyk, owner of the city’s ice hockey team. While selling out the majority of games played at Frank Clair Stadium during the U-20 World Cup, Ottawa has no real presence in the football world. Their highest club, Ottawa Fury, currently plays in the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. Despite this, Ottawa has strengthened their proposal with plans for a 20,000 seat stadium.
But there have been protests against expanding the MLS into Canada as well; many followers preferring instead to keep the sport within American borders. Canada does have their own professional soccer league in the CSL, but does not field teams capable of competing with the MLS.
Ultimately, professional football leagues continue to operate ever mindful of the bottom line. If there is a profit to be made in Canada, then the MLS will no doubt be playing north of the border in the near future. Whether this new development will one day be seen as the resurrection of the Canadian football program and bring about a second appearance in the prestigious World Cup remains to be seen.
