The Montreal Impact drew ~56000! fans to the Olympic Stadium last night Montreal defeated Santos (a top division Mexican team) 2-0 to take a lead in their the CONCACAF Champion league Quarter Finals So for all you soccer haters between this and the sold out crowds that Toronto FC are pulling in, and the soon addition of the Vancouver Whitecaps to the Top Division. Soccer in Canada is here to stay
I would imagine that soccer now rivals or surpasses Hockey as the dominant sport played by kids in many towns/cities in Canada. It is no wonder why attendance is so huge! Good on them.
I know here on the island it is HUGE. They are building a fantastic indoor field in Stratford as we speak.
I've thought for a while now that if Nova Scotia were ever going to have a major leauge team of any kind...it might well be Soccer. I come from the valley where soccer is VERY big.
My neighbour and I have been watching the CONCACAF champions league games since last year. Montreal has been performing better then the MLS teams. Yes some of that is due to the closeness of MLS playoff games and these champs league games, but still, MTL has done well. Montreal makes a bid to become a MLS franchise and I believe it was 48 million for an entrance fee by the league. Why the hell would they not want a team that can come into the league and compete, along with the fact that they can put asses into seats. Something doesn't add up there.
I had tickets to this match but couldn't make it to Montreal Great news for the sport in Canada though. Ryan_NS
I highly doubt there are more soccer players than golfers in Canada. Edit: Oh, do you mean kids? Or participation in general?
participation in general based on players registered with a governing body and playing within in the accepted rules the number of register soccer players in Canada is around 900k
That's more than I expected. Based on the RCGA's 2006 participation survey, there are 360,000 members of RCGA golf courses in Canada. That doesn't count the members of the non-RCGA golf courses. There are 5.9 million golfers aged 12+ in Canada.