Soccer league documentary highlights P.E.I.'s 'wonderful' hospitality in 2020

The Canadian Premier League won't be back in Prince Edward Island to play games this summer, but league commissioner David Clanachan says he'd love to bring teams back someday.

This year, Winnipeg will play host to the CPL for the first 32 games of the 2021 season, starting June 26, with each of the eight teams playing eight games in a stretch that will run through July 24.

Clanachan said representatives from other countries were asking to host the Canadian Premier League this year, as well as five provinces "with six cities here in Canada there were kind of courting us, so to speak."

Winnipeg quickly became the front-runner, he said, because there is a club based there and the provincial government and city were "very welcoming and wanted to see it happen" — much like their experience on P.E.I. during the first summer of COVID-19 public health restrictions, he added.

The league did think about coming back to the Island this summer, but Clanachan said he prefers to return at a time when there can be thousands of people watching games in person.

"There was so many highlights of what we saw last year, and it was such a great format to go through," he said. "They were all fantastic, not even to mention the chief medical officer and her staff, Dr. Heather Morrison … it was a perfect blueprint on how to handle yourself.

"The people of P.E.I. were so welcoming."

Easing back to regular play

The games in Winnipeg will work similarly to how the league operated on P.E.I. last summer.

But once Canada begins to open up as more people are vaccinated, Clanachan said, he expects the teams to return to their home cities and the league to slowly begin looking like it had before the arrival of COVID-19.

"I've been very clear: I won't be satisfied unless we start to see our fans and supporters in the stands," he said. "We saw a little bit of that in P.E.I. last year, I wish we could have done a lot more, but the times were what they were."

Island Games led to documentary

A documentary on the league's experience playing on Prince Edward Island during the COVID-19 pandemic was posted Sunday on the league's YouTube channel. It's called Rise Above: The Island Games Documentary.

Clanachan said the documentary was a nod to everyone involved and put Prince Edward Island hospitality on display.

"It also allowed us to kind of cap off how wonderful [it was] and showcase P.E.I. as a wonderful province," he said.

David Edgar, defender for last year's league champion's Forge FC, said in the documentary: "I'm going to miss the bubble. Thank you to P.E.I., and thank you to everyone in the CPL for having this, because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

The documentary is available for viewing on the league's YouTube channel and on its website.

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