The Canadian Soccer League, launched in 1926 as the forerunner National Soccer League and re-branded several times until adopting its present name in 2006, is entering a new era.
It will all begin on June 1 with the appointment of Primetime Sports Marketing Inc., a Canadian sports management company, to administer and market the longstanding semi-professional CSL with its reputation for attractive football and its ongoing contribution to the Canadian game while Canada attempts to be competitive on the world stage.
It’s worth repeating that Canada’s soccer historian Colin Jose described in his book ON-SIDE published in 2001, that the league was born out of turmoil in the tumultuous 1920s to survive following triumph and failure, while others folded with monotonous regularity across Canada. Since those early times, the CSL has continued to survive as mentioned by various media from time to time, including former Toronto Star soccer writer Bob Koep when he described in the June 2011 issue of Inside Soccer that the CSL was looking ‘better than ever’ following a three-year period when 40 players from the CSL first division were selected for various national teams. At that time Canada’s top flight professional teams in Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver were competing in two U.S. leagues and the CSL was Canada’s only domestic pro league.
The addition of the Canadian Premier League, which kicked off its inaugural season with seven teams in 2019 and which added an expansion team the following year, is a welcome addition to provide more professional soccer based in Canada. It is generally accepted that a healthy pro game in qualitative and quantitative terms is necessary for a country to have a competitive edge on the world stage.
The Canadian Soccer League is poised and determined to increase its presence in the Canadian soccer community and the engaging of Primetime Sports Marketing with principals Phil Ionadi, Peter Kovacs, Jordan Kotsopoulos and Berenice Urban, a team strong in sports administration and marketing is expected to meet the objectives necessary for a successful CSL future, a future that will include a 100 years anniversary in 2026, which coincidentally is World Cup year, the finals to be staged in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Phil Ionadi, the president and founder of Primetime Sports Marketing Inc., has a considerable and popular presence in the Canadian soccer community as a former Canadian national team player, professional player in Ontario and Quebec, followed by 15 years’ experience in sports management, marketing and business expansion from academy management through to the professional level, while the highly regarded Peter Kovacs is similarly well-known following several decades promoting amateur and professional soccer events, guiding the business interests of professional and community organizations in soccer and holding several management and executive positions in the soccer community. Kovacs is the founder and president of Go Enterprises, a successful sports marketing agency which partners with Primetime Sports Marketing Inc.
Jordan Kotsopoulos holds an MBA Sports Management degree from Spain and an Economics and Finance degree from Wilfred Laurier University and has international sports marketing experience in the United States, Ghana, Spain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, while Berenice Urban, who is one of the founding members of Primetime Sports Marketing, majored in International Relations at Mexico City and has 10 years of International Relations experience after holding a Business Development Director position in Mexico and Latin America.
In announcing the engagement of Primetime Sports Marketing, CSL president Dragan Bakoc explains that while CSL teams have many Canadian players, some of which attract the attention of overseas clubs, the league is unique in its diversity with many temporary high level import players signed each year from Europe and this results in a high level of attractive soccer. “We are pleased to welcome the Primetime Sports Marketing group to the CSL to build on our present structure, to develop and increase our fan base, to assist the league and its teams make an even greater contribution to Canadian soccer”, he said.
The CSL is seeking clarification from the Ontario government and the City of Toronto while preparing another abbreviated four-month long season to be played on a single site stadium in Toronto. Further details will be released shortly.
Stan Adamson