Here I am in the Canada forum! This thread is an expansion of the "MLS expansion into Canada" thread. Many posters there from both sides of the border said Canada should have its own league. What has the CSA said about that possibility? Where is there enough interest to support teams? Could you start with 2-4 teams who play each other for the national league and mix in games in MLS until they can get 10 teams, or is ten teams just never gonna happen in Canada?
It would be nice if Canada had its own league, but I don't see it happening any time soon. Right now the best option is try to get a few more teams in the A-League. Right now we have Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal.
I understand that Vancouver does very well, maybe well enough to guarantee at least 15,000 fans. Supposedly even though Toronto has over 5 million people and won an award for the world's most diverse city, the A-League team is not profitable. Are the other teams growing their following? I think you're right about getting more A-League teams. That would expand the soccer footprint around the country. After 10-12 A-League teams are going in Canada, they could form their own league.
You wouldn't likely need that many teams to start a league in the first place. One could get away with possibly half the league starting from scratch.
That was the plan... that was floated a couple of years ago as a way to get the Canadian game moving ahead but it was a lot of talk and no action. They were even unable to set up a tourney to crown a national champion. The CSA is still contentedly stroking themselves after the succesful show in Edmonton and don't seem to be taking action to grow anything but their girth. Came up with a wonderful plan where the they were going to put up a small sum of money to get a national soccer stadium built for TO that could then be used for MLS. Hopefully the announcements of US exapnsion have finally put a stake in that pipe dream and they can concentrate on supporting those teams that laready exist and produce players.