With 2026 World Cup on horizon, Canadian Premier League seeks further credibility in soccer landscape
Saturday's championship match a new opportunity to showcase growth in Canada
After nearly six complete seasons, the Canadian Premier League finds itself at an inflection point.
The league has enjoyed its fair share of wins — the success of Hamilton's Forge FC, the steadily increasing player salaries and rising attendance numbers are just a few. But some hardships have been present too, with the league's fraught position amid the Canada Soccer Business-Canada Soccer fracas and the pandemic chief among them.
At this moment, though, ahead of the championship match on Saturday, Nov. 9, it appears as though there's some stability — and, consequently, an opportunity to further establish the league's place within the rapidly growing soccer landscape.
Smyrniotis has worked in the league from its first day, joining as Forge's director of football and business in 2018 before moving into his current position last year. His brother, Bobby Smyrniotis, remains head coach and sporting director of the Hamilton franchise.
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Before the CPL even existed, the Smyrniotis brothers witnessed firsthand the increasing levels of soccer talent in Canada through their Sigma FC academy.
They also watched as the cream of the crop fled Canada for greener pastures and more realistic paths forward in the sport.
"We just never had a platform for them to be able to do it within our own country," Costa said.
Smyrniotis doesn't appear to have misconceptions about his league — he acknowledged it is a stepping stone for players, coaches and even front-office staff. It's just that before the CPL existed, Canadian hopefuls didn't even have a stone on which to step.
"That's the opportunity that we had in front of us was really to start building the game in Canada. And when I say building the game, I mean, it's also building the football industry, something that we didn't have before, right?" he said.
"And our game allows us to do that. It's that connection from our communities to the global game. That's what our sport is."
Maintaining on-field product
Still, the CPL must exist as a viable business for it to remain that intermediate level of competition for Canadians.
The key there, Smyrniotis said, is that the on-field product remains strong.
He pointed to the CPL's success is club competitions like CONCACAF Nations League and the Canadian Championship as reasons for optimism in that regard.
"What we see is our clubs, it's not just about participating, they want to win the event. And they're very competitive in the event. So that's something we're very proud of," Smyrniotis said.
Marvin Ryder, a business professor who specializes in sports at McMaster, agreed that the on-field product is the biggest factor in the league's growth and future success.
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However, if the league hopes to expand in the near future — something the commissioner has said publicly — the player talent could end up being spread thin.
"This will be their challenge because if you start adding teams, suppose 10 years go by and you have a team somewhere in the league that has not either made the playoffs or hasn't been in the finals or hasn't won a championship, why do the fans keep supporting it?" Ryder said.
Still, Ryder said his outside view of the CPL is that it has found its place — especially, he noted, as Canada continues to become more culturally diverse.
Ryder added that the biggest challenge is getting potential fans to buy tickets to that first game, but that once they're in, and if the product is good, they should be hooked. Plus, for now, a CPL match remains a relatively inexpensive night out compared to other pro sports.
And there is one more thing that could push even more people into CPL fandom: the 2026 World Cup.
It's an event Smyrniotis said the league is already planning around.
"It's connecting ourselves to the world's game. We are obviously the national league here as well. So we'll have a role to play in terms of that overall picture," he said.
"But it becomes aspirational. We know what happens. It's moments throughout that tournament, maybe moments of players that come through our competition as well, or have come through our network of clubs, that are taking part or on the cusp of doing it."
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Ryder cautioned that the World Cup isn't an automatic win, though he agreed it is undoubtedly an opportunity.
"You want to shine the spotlight brightly on them to say, look, you could have seen that person locally for, I don't know, $10 a game or something. Now he's playing in the big leagues and you have to spend $300, but we've got tomorrow's stars today still playing here," Ryder said.
For now, all the focus will be on the pitch at Calgary's Spruce Meadows, where the host Cavalry will meet Forge after its 1-0 semifinal win against Atletico Ottawa on Saturday.
Smyrniotis said he just wants to see "good football."
"Ultimately that's what we like to talk about, where there's good matches, there's exciting matches. What we've seen and what we've come to expect in this league is always competitive matches.
"You gotta watch right till the end."
