Atlantic Summer Series Set To Test Soccer Waters Out East

A new soccer exhibition series in the Maritimes hopes to elevate semi-professional football on the east coast while paving the way towards a more permanent League1 Canada competition.

Called the Maritime Super Series, three Atlantic teams will participate in the exhibition series, testing the viability for interprovincial competition throughout the east coast.

The exhibition series will involve the three provinces of Novia Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, with event organizers hoping to see it prove as a litmus test for a permanent League1 Canada semi-professional league.

The teams involved are Suburban FC (Nova Scotia), Picaroons Reds (New Brunswick), and the Winsloe Charlottetown Royals (PEI).

It was less than two months ago when League1 Canada President Dino Rossi took a trip to the Maritimes, opening dialogue with east coast clubs about the potential for a League1 Atlantic. His organization was ‘excited by the potential to deliver a competition in this part of the country’.

Interview: Rossi On Growing The Game From Coast-To-Coast

There are a number of amateur teams who call the east cost home, and there’s certainly been a growing call to help the Atlantic’s grassroots soccer scene grow like it has in central and western Canada – something that must be done in a careful, sustainable manner.

We’re told the upcoming exhibition series will start on the small scale in terms of the number of teams involved, and they’ll focus on players like Atlantic U SPORTS athletes and local hopefuls aiming to put themselves on the pathway to professional football out east.

In professional soccer, only one soccer club calls the east coast home: the Halifax Wanderers. The Canadian Premier League club routinely sells out for its home matches, enjoying the boisterous support of some 6,000 Haligonians who nicely represent a city that has truly embraced the team.

While the branding certainly aligns itself with the Maritimes, right now it seems that there won’t be a team from Newfoundland and Labrador – it’s a bit like how the Canadian Premier League has no club in Quebec at the moment.

Instead, the three aforementioned clubs will participate in head-to-head matches over a span of three weekends, testing itself in an east coast interprovincial affair. We’re told the tournament will kick off in late May.

There’s a similar litmus test going in with the League1 Alberta exhibition series, something seen as a precursor to a more permanent league competition in the coming years.

While there’s no timeline on the Atlantic’s upcoming soccer exhibition series, further news is expected to come in the near future.