Managing Expectations: The Canadian Premier League

The past couple of months have certainly seen much slower media coverage of the Canadian Premier League following the big announcement on May 6. We've had quite a few teasers, rumors and cases being made for cities like Halifax, Saskatoon, Surrey, and Kitchener-Waterloo to get teams. While Hamilton and Winnipeg have had franchises confirmed, it's great to see the league is taking shape. The fact that soccer is continuously growing and coverage of the game is about to increase should be a huge source of excitement for us footy fans in Canada 😆! 

However, there's a certain weight of expectations that naturally comes with the implementation of a new footy league across the country. Here are two aspects of the league that will have big expectations attached and how can we manage them.

League Structure

There have been suggestions about the league being one-tier or two-tier with room for promotion and relegation. Talk of this is a tad too soon and while I'd love a promotion-relegation systems, I think the focus should be on getting a one-tier system right before focusing resources on another division. Once the league is in full gear, talks of an additional tier can certainly resume. 

Player Development

Player development is an interesting topic for the Canadian Premier League. Expectations for high quality of homegrown talent to be developed under the new system will be plenty. While there are positives to be gained from setting those expectations early (i.e. improving the prospects of the national team), the actual way that this will look is still up for debate. The question of whether new franchises will be required to run academies to develop this talent or borrow from existing local teams is something we'll have to adopt a wait and see approach for. 

Looking forward to what #CanPL has in store for 2018! In the meantime, check out our growing footy resource list.