Rollins: 2020 CPL Season Announcement Coming Soon

Duane Rollins has revealed that he expects information about the 2020 Canadian Premier League season to be released in the next few days.

The Canadian soccer reporter took to Twitter last night to reveal the rumour. The 2020 Canadian Premier League season was originally scheduled to kick off in April and run for 28 games, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to suspend the season and come up with new plans for a modified, shortened campaign if it wanted to give fans any on-field product this year.

The shortened season is expected to begin in late July to early August. All eight clubs have resumed training in order to prepare for the league’s second season, with sides now shifting to phase two of training sessions which allows for small group exercises.

Given that Atletico Ottawa is expected to reveal at least one new signing today, fans shouldn’t expect the 2020 Canadian Premier League season news to come out immediately.

If Rollins’ source is correct about an announcement coming out in the next few days, that makes Canada Day the most likely announcement target, though nothing is confirmed as of yet. In the inaugural season, Canada Day marked the final matchday of the spring season and saw the league celebrate the occasion with special t-shirts and all but one club playing over the holiday.

In the interim, the league is giving away some of the previously mentioned t-shirts and Cavalry FC has teased what appears to be a new hat to celebrate the occasion. New rumours also indicate that some supporters have been contacted by the league to produce fan-made videos for Canada Day, with the CPL evidently planning something for July 1.

While CPL Commissioner David Clanachan hadn’t previously wanted to rule out the possibility of home matches, the modified season is expected to be hosted in a single city. Victoria, Charlottetown, and Moncton have been the rumoured destinations, with Rollins stating that his source had mentioned Victoria without a high degree of certainty.

If Victoria is indeed the official host of the 2020 Canadian Premier League season, that means Westhills Stadium will be quite a busy field this summer. It’s unclear at the present time if the infamous hydro pole that previously prevented a higher camera view of the pitch would still be an issue: the second phase of stadium renovations will see the pole removed, but there’s no telling when that phase of construction will be.

With the season expected to start in roughly a month and the Canadian Championship due to take place after, that means clubs will have had about a month and a half to train – though some new international signings weren’t able to arrive to Canada before the borders closed. To that end, it is expected that some CPL sides will shore up their rosters with some domestic depth signings.

Source: Duane Rollins (Via Twitter)