Valour FC kickoff was several years in the making Bombers president and CEO first heard of plan in 2014 By: Mike Sawatzky Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 30, 2019 Last Modified: 7:07 PM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 30, 2019 Updates

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This article was published 29/04/2019 (2069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wade Miller’s introduction to the idea came at a meeting of interested movers and shakers during Grey Cup week in Vancouver during the fall of 2014.

Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani and Hamilton Tiger-Cats CEO Scott Mitchell were making a revolutionary pitch — the establishment of a Canadian professional soccer league, a concept that had previously withered and died with the demise of the Canadian Soccer League in 1992.

Miller, a former Canadian Football League player and now president and CEO of the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers, was intrigued by the idea of a national league that could provide a tenant at Investors Group Field, which had opened a year earlier.

But he needed to know more.

“It was interesting and it built with time,” recalls Miller, admittedly a soccer neophyte in 2014. “When you look at the story of Canada’s soccer — not being able to qualify for the World Cup, there’s not enough Canadian players being able to play at a high level of professional soccer in the world. So, that’s the reason we needed a Tier I domestic league in Canada. And that’s what the Canadian Premier League will be kicking off.

“Over the course of time, there was a lot of work to create this league, build it and find the right partners across the country to make sure of its success.”

Developing Canadian talent at home is a noble aim, but Miller also demanded a framework for financial viability. Otherwise, getting the Winnipeg Football Club into the soccer business would be a waste of time and money.

By 2017, Miller and the WFC were convinced, securing an expansion franchise and 13 months later announced the hiring of general manager and coach Rob Gale.

On Wednesday night, Valour FC will make its long-awaited debut against Pacific FC in Victoria. Three days later, Gale and the members of his meticulously constructed roster will play on their home turf against FC Edmonton.

For Mitchell, who remains Ticats CEO while also serving as the CEO of Canadian Soccer Business (commercial arm of the CPL), the inception of a new league has been sometimes agonizing process.

At the urging of Ticats owner Bob Young, Mitchell was beating the drum for a pro soccer in 2011 and found a like-minded accomplice in Montagliani, now president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, the continental governing body for association football in North America.

“I do think one of the things that Wade and I and some of the others talked about was this was coming in one way, shape or form, in terms of professional soccer, it was coming to Canada,” says Mitchell. “The unfortunate thing would have been if it wasn’t a Canadian league. Clearly, if you look at international soccer, it’s almost impossible to be successful without a domestic Tier I league in your own country.

“Really, what I think caught the eye of multiple people and owners, was a unique business model that was an opportunity to invest in soccer and have a legitimate investment beyond the team operations. Two, it was the opportunity to make a difference in Canadian sport in the only truly global game, and that’s soccer.”

Mitchell believes a high-level domestic league is crucial, asserting the top 60 soccer-playing countries in the world all have one. What’s more, the success of countries such as South Korea, Japan and Australia on the international level was directly related to the start of a domestic league. Canada, once on the competitive level of those countries in the 1980s, has fallen well behind.

For 41-year-old Gale, an African-born Englishman who has played and coached at various levels in England, Canada and the U.S., believes the CPL is part of a better, co-operative movement for the game in Canada.

“I’ve said this before — we eat our own,” says Gale, who moved to Winnipeg in 2001. “We don’t seem to thrive on each other’s successes in the past. If he’s doing it, I’m not going to get behind it. There were too many splinters…. Everyone’s protecting their own patch. What I see now is a willingness to move the game forward. Maybe it’s new ownership, fresh blood? Definitely new leadership at the Canada Soccer Association.

“I think we’re injecting new blood into provincial bodies and people are saying, ‘Hey, look, we love this game, we need this now. If we don’t do it, then when’s it gonna be?’ That’s the biggest change I’ve seen. It’s not the old CSL. We’ve got a media deal. The games are on CBC.”

But who will watch?

“They’re going to be millennials, first- and second-generation Canadians that have grown up with the world’s game — the beautiful game, as they call it,” says Miller. “That’s who you’re going to see. And people that just love a great day out at Investors Group Field. It’ll be a great match-day experience, which is driven by the fans and different than other sporting event.”

The early numbers are encouraging.

Forge FC drew 17,611 to its debut at Tim Hortons Field last week and Mitchell believes attendance between 6,000 and 8,000 per game would be encouraging. Miller is anticipating between 3,500 and 7,500 fans for 14 home dates at 33,324-seat IGF in the first season.

“In general, any team in the CPL averaging those numbers, it will be successful in Year 1,” says Mitchell. “I think people forget, even though soccer has 200-plus countries as part of FIFA, if you average 10,000 to 12,000 per game you’ll be one of the top 15 leagues in the world. That is certainly what we aspire to.”

Sales for Saturday’s Valour home opener are believed to have exceeded the 6,000-ticket mark.

“We have built this in a way that will make this sustaining and ideally, over time, and we’re going to walk before we run as a league,” says Miller. “And more importantly, give Canadians a chance to play professional soccer. It’s a league for Canadians, built by Canadians. It gives these kids a chance to play at a high level and hopefully, over time, develop a pool of young, talented players that have the ability to get the men’s national team back to qualifying for the World Cup.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14

Mike Sawatzky
Reporter

Mike has been working on the Free Press sports desk since 2003.

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