Wednesday, February 20, 2019 ~ NATIONAL SPORT / LANGFORD.
~ West Shore Voice News
Less than 10 weeks before kickoff, the Canadian Premier League has announced its media partner with ambitious plans to showcase soccer in Canada.
Spain-based Mediapro has struck a 10-year deal with Canada Soccer Business, which represents Canada’s national teams as well as the fledgling CPL, which kicks off its inaugural season April 27 with its first game in Langford, BC.
Mediapro is investing $200 million into the Canadian project over the lifetime of the deal. Scott Mitchell, CEO of Canadian Soccer Business, calls it “the single-largest commitment any company has ever made in terms of soccer in Canada.”
Langford was the agitator for the CPL to anchor a team here on the west shore of Vancouver Island. Pacific FC games will be played at Westhills Stadium in Langford. Pacific FC is one of seven teams in the Canada-wide league. The league commenced its search for players in cities across Canada in Fall 2018. Pacific FC has rolled out announcements for 11 players so far for its inaugural 2019 roster.
The agreement gives Mediapro global and domestic media rights to the CPL, the Canadian Championship, and rights for all home games of the Canadian men’s and women’s teams. It also includes rights to League 1 Ontario matches, a feeder league under the CPL umbrella.
CPL and Canada Soccer Business officials say the partnership will help grow soccer in Canada.
“It’s easy to define our plan in one sentence — we want to build a home for Canadian soccer,” said Oscar Lopez Garcia, CEO of Mediapro Canada.
Mediapro has already done that in Spain, successfully creating channels full of La Liga content. It plans to do the same in France with Ligue 1 starting in 2020 and sees Canada as a chance to get in on the ground floor with the new Canadian pro league about to kick off.
Seven years ago, Mediapro’s La Liga channel in Spain had 1.8 million paid subscribers. Today, available in several ways, the channel has 4.7 million subscribers. There is a Formula One channel for Latin America, which it operated for four to five years. Today it operates about 15 channels.
Mediapro’s business includes producing soccer games around the world — it handled the Atletico Madrid-Juventus Champions League game Wednesday and has produced games at the FIFA World Cup. And now CPL’s game production will be in Mediapro’s hands.
Mediapro has about 70 production trucks worldwide and currently produces games in 16 different leagues. The initial plan is to have all CPL games available via the league’s app/soccer streaming channel, with some matches for free. Viewers will need to pay to get more.
Mediapro is apparently looking for partners on any platform, having seen a “serious appetite” from Canadian domestic partners. Canada’s sports channels have been losing soccer properties to DAZN, a deep-pocketed sports streaming service, in recent months.
Mediapro says aside from broadcasting, it wants to help “develop the sport further in many different angles which we can bring to the table.”
That includes everything from producing content to consulting with the league on kickoff times and technical issues.
CPL commissioner David Clanachan says the partnership will offer far more than game content. “It’s that human interest, that story-telling that happens around the game,” he said. “That’s what supporters want to see today.”
North American major-league teams, from baseball to hockey, create that kind of content themselves. The CPL will look to Mediapro for it.
Mediapro will also produce all Canadian national team games that fall under Canada Soccer Business jurisdiction. Apparently Mediapro was chosen for its “willingness and ambition” and understanding the need for wide distribution.
Here in Langford, the 11 players who have been named to Pacific FC’s roster so far are Marcel de Jong, Marcus Haber, Kadin Chung, Mark Village, Ben Fisk, Victor Blasco, José Hernandez, Matthew Baldisimo, Terran Campbell, Noah Verhoeven and Alessandro Hojabrpour.
More signings are slated for the coming weeks. Spring training begins in early March with the season officially kicking off April 27 at Westhills Stadium.
The inaugural Canadian Premier League season with seven teams across Canada starts in April. The seven-team CPL consists of Pacific FC based out of Langford/Victoria, FC Edmonton, Cavalry FC (Calgary), Valour FC (Winnipeg), Forge FC (Hamilton), York 9 FC (north Toronto) and HFX Halifax’s Wanderers.
BACKGROUND:
ABOUT PACIFIC FOOTBALL CLUB: Founded in 2018, Pacific Football Club brings professional football to Vancouver Island. Playing out of a renovated, 6000-seat Westhills Stadium in Langford, the club will provide an outlet for young Canadian soccer players to realize their dreams of playing at the professional level. Fans will be able to enjoy the thrilling, fast-paced sporting atmosphere associated with the sport when the Canadian Premier League season kicks off in April 2019. For season ticket information: https://pacificfc.canpl.ca/pacific-football-club-ticketing
ABOUT THE CPL: Canadian Premier League (CPL) is Canada’s professional men’s soccer league set to debut in April 2019. Playing in world-class and unique venues, and partnering with strong community-led ownership groups, CPL is a league for Canadians by Canadians that will bring professional soccer to communities coast-to-coast.
For updates and more information, please go to CanPL.ca . On Twitter: @CPLsoccer and #CanPL
LINKS:
Marcel de Jong is the 11th player with Pacific FC (February 19)
Three more players: Ben Fisk, Victor Blasco, José Hernandez (February 10)
New bleachers under construction at Westhills Stadium (January 31)
Trio signed: Alessandro Hojabrpour, Matthew Baldisimo, and Terran Campbell (January 19, 2019)
Pacific FC signs Marcus Haber for inaugural season (January 9, 2019)
Pacific FC opens downtown Victoria storefront & signs Kadin Chung (November 30, 2018)
For season ticket information: https://pacificfc.canpl.ca/pacific-football-club-ticketing