This is a very big year in Canadian soccer.
And in other news, water is wet.
The national women’s team plays its qualifying matches for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, the women’s U-17s have already advanced to November’s World Cup in Morocco, and the Northern Super League begins its second, pivotal, season as the professional peak of the country’s women’s pyramid.
On the men’s side: The Canadian Premier League will open its eighth season, with Forge FC hosting Ottawa Atlético at noon on Saturday, April 4, and yes, that’s less than two weeks away; the national semi-pro level has been consolidated and rebranded, with League1 Ontario, the CPL’s top feeder, now known as the Ontario Premier League; Canadian Soccer Business has reorganized and enlarged into Canadian Soccer Media & Entertainment and OneSoccer has significantly thickened its content and streaming/broadcast reach.
And, then, of course there’s the men’s World Cup which will be played in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada (Toronto/Vancouver) from June 11 to July 19.
Right off the top let’s all remember this. Without the construction of Hamilton Stadium, Bob Young’s investment and Ticat CEO Scott Mitchell’s fierce commitment, there would be no Canadian Premier League. Without the CPL Canada could not have been a co-host of the World Cup because FIFA requires each host nation to have an active, viable premier league. And in Canada that’s the CPL, not the U.S.-based MLS even though three Canadian teams play in it.
“This will be the largest sporting event in the history of Canadian sport,” Mitchell, Hamilton Sports Group’s managing partner and chairman of the CPL and CSME, told a large gathering of Forge’s season-ticket holders at the Wentworth Sports Complex last week. “And all CPL teams have rights to put on watch parties.”
Those parties will form just one of the branches of Forge’s multi-pronged World-Cup-season approach. Nicole Demers, Forge’s Vice President of Business Operations, says the club has several programs and projects in the works to maximize the impact of The Beautiful Game’s biggest stage and details will be revealed throughout the next few weeks. But, in general, expect World Cup themes: surrounding International Night against HFX Wanderers on June 10, the night before the world tournament opens, and against Vancouver FC on Canada Day, the only two home games the Hammers have during what will be, for the most part, a month-long CPL hiatus during the World Cup.
She points out that Forge and the CPL weren’t created just for the World Cup— although that was a propellant—and that growth will, and must, continue beyond the big season. The club and league will be capitalizing on a flash point when so many people who aren’t traditional fans and don’t normally pay attention to the soccer world are temporarily but passionately invested in the sport.
Among the forms that will take in Hamilton is the return for the first time since the inaugural season of 2019 to the “360-degree experience” allowing fans to sit on both the east and west sides of the stadium, all in the lower bowl where they are closer to the playing field. There’s also the creation of the Captain’s Lounge, a premium game experience on the stadium’s west side which includes seats at centrefield, priority stadium-area parking, interaction with the players as they walk through the lounge (the Caretaker’s Club during Ticat games) on the way to kickoff, an elevated menu and extended beverage-service hours.
There will also be a focus on the biggest games, like Champions Cup, Canadian Championship ties with MLS teams rivalry matches, playoffs and the annual School Day Match which set a CPL attendance record of 17,971 last year.
The target this year is a new record of 18,000 or more and school interest is trending toward that.
“The other piece is how do we do our part in maximising participation in the game?” Demers adds. “From the grassroots level all the way up to the pro pathway, supporting that structure with great relationships in our region and even outside the province through our technical staff’s connections. To help develop the next wave of talent for our national teams, for the CPL, for those going abroad to play for big contracts, and be a hub for developing that talent.”
So, Forge will emphasize its long connection to Sigma FC, the academy owned by Hamilton head coach Bobby Smyrniotis and his brother Costa which has sent many players to the national team, high-paying leagues in Europe and North America and to full scholarships at U.S. colleges.
The HSG Foundation will help fund participation in grassroots and elite programs for kids whose families can’t afford fees, the in-stadium playground will be accessible before and during soccer games for the first time since 2019, and players will make their usual multiple community appearances at children’s events.
The goal is to create what is known in sports as “stickiness”; the emotional glue that bonds youngsters to the team they choose to support, often for a lifetime.
“So a lot of our focus is on youth,” Demers says. “A lot of kids establish who their favourite team is, in all sports, by the time they’re 8 or 9. That’s what builds the sport in general; that’s what builds family traditions like the Ticats have had for generations. You have good experiences that attach you to the game.
“And from a marketing standpoint we want to tell our fans’ stories, let them tell us about the team they follow--the national team or a team back home--and how they have adopted Forge as their own.”
So there’s a lot on the near-horizon, with a long-term view in mind, and the Hammers and their throbbing fan base are justifiably proud of their team’s central place in this new era of Canadian soccer, which includes seven trophies in seven seasons, including a record four overall titles.
And this is the season to take advantage of World Cup fever, at every door. Plus every window, roof, basement and patio.
The CPL enters the season with its first expansion team in six years—FC Supra du Québec, whose first signing was Forge legend David Choinière— and Mitchell indicated at last week’s “Members’ Kit Night” that further expansion is anticipated for 2027.
“I think the league has done a great job in just growing in many very different ways,” says Tristan Borges, Forge’s all-time leading scorer who will make his 190th appearance in a club uniform on Opening Day.
“Players have done a great job of showcasing what they can do quality-wise and being very confident with their opportunities: whether it’s playing with the national team, going overseas, or playing in other leagues.
“There’s a lot of things that we can talk about as to why our league has grown: you have players who have been sold for a lot of money and gone away and done well, which is ideally what the league has wanted to do. And I think having the World Cup here, looking at what the national team has been able to do, the quality that they have, is something that Canada has never seen before with players playing at the biggest clubs all around the world.
“Having everybody’s eyes on it now, everybody will see how big a sport soccer really is. It’s something that brings all these countries together. As the years go on, people are going to have their things to say; people are going to want more from the CPL, people are going to want more from Canada Soccer, but you have to build it, you have to do it day by day, you have to have the right people in charge which I think we’ve had since the league started. Obviously Forge has been very very successful; they’ve built a great identity here, and something that will be able to last. I think it will be nothing but positivity moving forward, and the CPL will continue to improve in quality.
“And I think the World Cup does help by bringing attention to it.”