The long awaited kick-off press conference of the Canadian Professional Soccer League (Ontario Division) took place on Wednesday at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Woodbridge.  This long overdue event showcased the release of the league schedule, finalized cup format, club logos, and a very sharp red, black, and purple league logo.

Also officially announced was the participation of three major sponsors.  Adidas has agreed to provide team uniforms to all clubs while Labatt’s and Coffee Time have also come to terms with the infant eight-team loop.  Coffee Time, owners of Toronto Olympians, will serve as an outlet for league publicity and pocket schedules through their very successful franchises while details of Labatt’s participation were not announced.

The league will kick-off on Sunday, May 31st at 7pm as London City plays host to St. Catharines Roma Wolves at cozy Cove Road and Mississauga makes the trek to Aurora to play the York Region Shooters at Highland Park.  Each club will play seven home and seven away league matches as well as a guaranteed six matches as part of the League Cup.

In addition, the top four finishers in the league will take part in a play-off championship in a first vs. fourth – second vs. third format on Sat. Oct. 10th with the final taking place on Thanksgiving Day Monday.

The venue for this mini-tournament has yet to be announced but league sources tell Canada Kicks that Centennial Park, Kitchener is high on the list of possibilities.

The League Cup is formatted into two groups of four clubs with Group A consisting of Glen Shields, London City, North York Astros and Toronto Croatia while Group B consists of York Region, Mississauga, Toronto Olympians and St. Catharines.  The top clubs from each group will play a two-legged crossover semi-final on Wednesday, August 12th and Wednesday August 26th with the cup final to be held on Sunday, Sept. 6th.

The first cup match of the season takes place at Etobicoke’s Centennial Park as Toronto Croatia plays host to Glen Shields.  Kick-off is at 8:00pm.

The only sour note to the day was the non-presence of the A-League’s Toronto Lynx who just happened to be practicing on the Soccer Centre’s full size artificial turf field as the press conference took place.

It’s unfortunate that the owners of the Lynx could not attend as a sign of support for a CPSL that may one day be sending a steady stream of talented young players to the A-League and beyond.

Next Week: An in-depth look at Harry Gauss and London City S.C.