New soccer body offers unique hook for investors
CPL boasts separate entity to oversee all business interests
There’s “no question” the Canadian Soccer Business (CSB) will dump untold sums back into Canada’s premier soccer properties, the CSB’s head honcho said Wednesday.
Set to launch in 2019, the Canadian Premier League (CPL) revealed this week the formation of the CSB, a sports entity representing commercial assets for the CPL and Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) ahead of its inaugural season and, potentially, the 2026 World Cup.
The CPL’s new marketing wing says it could produce an explosion of funds not just for an upstart league bolstered by big investors, but Canada’s national teams — both of which have room to grow into global entities, according to the group’s leaders and marketing gurus.
“We had to come up with a different business model for the (CPL) that was going to attract the right type of league owner,” CSB CEO Scott Mitchell said.
“For us, the CSB is that vehicle that allows the owner to contemplate a long-term commitment to the league because they’re investing in more than just a team. They’re investing in a soccer entity they think has great growth value.”
In addition to representing a coast-to-coast, all-Canadian league, featuring around 10 undisclosed inaugural clubs, the CSB now represents the CSA’s corporate partnerships and broadcast rights, as well as a Canadian championship Mitchell refers to as a “big property.”
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats executive called the CSB a “linchpin to legitimizing ” what the CPL is trying to do: Develop a Canadian game nowhere near reaching its ceiling.
“If it wasn’t about that, we wouldn’t be doing this,” Mitchell said.
The attractiveness, industry insiders say, is nothing else compares. Marketing expert Chris Lang, who boasts more than five decades of marketing experience, believes the CSB has an edge over other Canadian sports properties due to emerging demographics and a top-to-bottom structure that’s all-encompassing.
“(This property) offers three things: Local, national and international,” Lang said. “No other property gives you that. You can’t get that in hockey.
“I’ve never seen a package like this in my life — one that has all those pieces.”
The closest comparison is Soccer United Marketing (SUM), the enterprise that oversees the United States Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer, which operates three clubs in Canada: Toronto FC, Montreal Impact and the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Whether this chips away at Major League Soccer’s stranglehold remains to be seen.
It’s the culmination of a process former CSA boss Victor Montagliani set in motion four years ago when he said the CPL’s success wouldn’t depend entirely on “butts in seats.” The FIFA VP’s vision was to build a Canadian soccer industry to improve all facets of the game — including coaching, refereeing and administration at the top level.
Having already confirmed Hamilton and Winnipeg as the CPL’s flagship teams, the CPL will reveal six to eight additional inaugural clubs within the next two months.