Excitement building as Saskatchewan gets professional soccer team
By: Rachael Bishop
Soccer fans in Saskatchewan can rejoice: a professional soccer team is finally coming to the province.
With the recent announcement by Living Sky Sports and Entertainment that the Canadian Premier League (CPL) has approved an expansion team in Saskatchewan, pending the availability of a soccer-ready stadium, it is clear that soccer is a growing market in the sports-mad province.
“One of the little-known facts about how popular soccer is becoming, not only in the province, but in the country, was when we did our press release on March 12th in the morning, that afternoon, in Canada, that announcement ranked and trended at number seven on twitter, Canada wide,” Al Simpson, the CEO of Living Sky Sports and Entertainment told the RP Show’s Darren Dupont at the 2020 Saskatchewan Soccer Awards via Facebook Live. “With all the other things going on, with COVID and twitter stuff, that’s pretty remarkable,” Simpson said.
This shows the popularity of the sport in Saskatchewan, a province that is most often thought of as the home of Canadian football, junior hockey, and curling, rather than the “the beautiful game”. And, with emerging soccer talents from Saskatchewan making their mark on the world stage, such as Thomas Hasal- the star goalkeeper for the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer- or Brett Levis of the CPL’s Valour F.C., youth players in the province have a variety of athletic role models.
“I felt this [the professional team] was a great opportunity for kids to begin to develop a pathway to play professional soccer in their home country, perhaps in their own province, and if not, in their own city of birth or otherwise,” Al Simpson said.
It is clear that the CPL expansion into Saskatchewan will help grow the game, but what still remains unclear is where said expansion team will play. With the cancellation of horse racing at Marquis Downs at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon, the grounds appear to be the logical choice for the yet-to-be built stadium that would house the Saskatchewan CPL team.
“It [Marquis Downs] is the logical spot, it’s got all of the infrastructure, so you’ve got the old grandstand, and we can redevelop that, and honour the legacy of the building, built in the 1960s,” Al Simpson said. “Then you’ve got the electricity, you’ve got the utilities there, so it just makes sense.”
However, despite all of the speculation about possible team names, logos and colour schemes, Simpson has assured the general public that Living Sky Sports and Entertainment is focusing on actually getting the facility built first, as the main condition of its expansion agreement with the CPL is contingent on having a soccer-ready stadium before the team begins play.
The current goal of the Simpson’s group is to “have a shovel in the ground by sometime in May of 2022”, in order to begin play in 2023. If this goal is met, there would be another professional sports team in the province in just two years, ensuring that Saskatchewan has professional sports teams in several of the country’s biggest sports: basketball, Canadian football, lacrosse, and soccer.
Where did that drawing come from? Doesn’t it make sense to have the pitch the other way? East/West instead of what’s shown here, North/South?
A empty decaying stadium in Regina needs to be used as it racks up utility bills, professional soccer football can and should utilize that venue.
Every stadium in Canada is currently in that state. Without the CFL Mosaic gets used for High School football, Junior Football and University Football. I think it’s also used an an amateur soccer pitch. Mosaic is 4 years old. It’s not decaying.
That stadium was substantially finished and opened in 2016, its 5/6 years old going on 10 years soon without any meaningful usages, it’s decaying out in the harsh weather elements of Saskatchewan.
Totally needed. So excited!!! For those saying use Mosaic. You need a smaller venue to really capture the atmosphere that will drive attendance. Mosaic is way too caverness!!