Leagues struggle to stay afloat
TORONTO On the North American sports scene the Canadian Premier League is a corner store operation and, like all small businesses that have been hit by the new coronavirus, the future is uncertain.
Last year, the professional soccer league’s first, the eight-team CPL established a toehold in the Canadian sports market but is now hanging on by a thread. The stadiums are empty, the new fans it had painstakingly cultivated are maybe gone forever.
There is no major television deal to pump cash into club coffers and no sign the federal government is ready to throw the league a requested $15-million lifeline.
A successful inaugural season saw the CPL, a league that stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic across four time zones, post an average attendance of 4,279.
Without those fans in the stands, CPL commissioner David Clanachan said it was hard to imagine how the gate-driven league can operate this season — if there is one.
“It would be very difficult,” Clanachan said.
“Live sport requires bums in seats and, rightfully so, there are bigger problems than not having sport, but when it comes to this scenario no people in the stands means no revenue, no revenue means you don’t have a business and no business means jobs go away and that’s a big issue.”
Rugby is facing similar challenges. The Toronto Wolfpack, the transatlantic outfit that plays in England’s Super League, have spent three years climbing to the top tier, growing a loyal following along the way.
With no share of the Super League’s TV deal or access to the $27.1-million loan the British government has made available to the Rugby Football League, the sport’s governing body, the Wolfpack have to rely on ticket sales as their main revenue source.
Wolfpack CEO and president Bob Hunter told Reuters if the Super League does resume play in mid-august, as is the current plan, the club might well not play any games in Toronto if fans are still not allowed to attend.
“No, not really feasible for us,” Hunter said. “We’ll do anything the league asks us to do, but we fly over at our expense, the other team, put them up, feed them and then ship them back.
“So to fly over for an empty stadium game would not make any sense. We would play that game in the U.K.”
For the Toronto Arrows, the only Canadian club in Major League Rugby — North America’s top-level rugby union championship — the season is over. MLR is shutting down and looking ahead to next year.