Adedokun Waliyu 
Despite having two teams taken over by the league in the past six months, Mark Noonan says the CPL is well positioned for long-term success.
The league tried to ride the wave of momentum of being born on the heels of the domestically hosted 1994 World Cup, but no amount of fun ad campaigns nor shootout gimmickry could make the job of overcoming soccer’s little league perception in the U.S.
The league lost upwards of US$300 million in its first five years, and then contracted from 12 teams to 10 in 2001 when they folded both the Miami Fusion and Tampa Bay Mutiny, each of which had sustained heavy financial losses.
Mark Noonan had a front-row seat of the struggles as a member of the MLS front office, a young league trying to find its footing in a difficult sports landscape. He even penned a press release in case of the league’s demise. But 20 years later, MLS is more than stable — it’s a behemoth.
The latest expansion team, Charlotte FC, paid US$325 million for the right to become the 29th team; either Las Vegas or San Diego will pay significantly more to be No. 30 later this year.
That’s why Noonan, who was named the commissioner of the five-year-old Canadian Premier League last year, isn’t worried about his league having to fold one franchise and take over another in the span of less than six months.
FC Edmonton had been run by the league after taking it over from Tom and Dave Fath in 2021, then terminated the franchise last fall, citing poor performance, low attendance and low revenue. Last week, Canada Soccer Business, the entity comprised of the team owners of the CPL clubs, took over operation of York United FC from the Baldassarra family.
“Building leagues is hard, and I have some perspective here,” said Noonan, who was the executive vice-president of marketing and fan development for MLS during its early days.
“We folded a couple teams, we went from a 12-team league down to a 10-team league … and that set the foundation for the future growth. That’s what we’re doing here.
“Edmonton was a distressed situation. We literally had to come in and operate the team because the current owner wasn’t capable of doing it. In this case (York), we made the decision with the current owners that we believe that the Toronto market needed to be in other hands that were more capable of operating and developing the club. So this was a joint decision where Canadian Soccer Business bought the asset, because we think that asset is underperforming and can be far more valuable for the league (with) a new ownership group.”
Noonan is also the CEO of CSB, which is currently embroiled in contentious negotiations with the national teams, but that situation was wrought by Canada Soccer’s short-sighted decision to sign a lucrative contract with the business-savvy CSB. Well, lucrative for CSB.
But it will help strengthen the CPL — and perhaps a new women’s league — by the time the 2026 World Cup comes to Canada and the other hosting countries. Noonan wants the CPL to have 10-14 teams by then, up from its current eight, to 16-20 in the next decade. He wants a second division, perhaps a pro-rel. (promotion and relegation) structure.
Vancouver FC, the newest team that will play out of a new 6,600 seat stadium at Langley’s Willoughby Community Park, has its first home game on Sunday, May 7. They already have a charged cross-strait rivalry with Pacific FC, and a new team in Kelowna has been ready to join the provincial soccer party as soon as they can get their development proposal rubber-stamped by city council.
“The most important thing that we need in Canada, for the sport, is facilities,” said Noonan, who pointed to the league’s hiring of Marni Decker as a massive step forward in that area.
“We’re working really hard in all of our markets to make sure that we’ve got the right facilities for our teams to play in.”
“But it starts with the product and making sure that we’re doing a great job working with the grassroots in Canada to develop more and better soccer players, because without that, you don’t have anything.
The game has always got to come first. So we’ve got to work hard on increasing the pipeline with the amount and quality and quantity of players.
“(But) I’m feeling great. Every year we move a step in the right direction. It’s a milestone season for us. The fact that we made it to season five, made it through a pandemic, and made it through so some challenges at the local level. I’m feeling really good about the product on the field, the growing attendances, and the culture that we are creating for Canadian soccer.”
Pacific FC’s Josh Heard, right, tussles with a Vancouver FC player during the CPL season opener for both clubs at Starlight Stadium in Langford on Saturday.
