A new team is coming to town and along with it, a new stadium to be built on Toronto’s Exhibition grounds slated for spring 2007. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) is bringing soccer to Toronto via a yet-to-be-named team under the New York-based Major League Soccer (MLS) umbrella. The Toronto team’s new home, a 20,000-seat stadium, is searching for naming rights by way of sponsorship now.

‘The new team will play in the MLS league,’ explains VP, corporate sales and service Dave Hopkinson. ‘[The league] has just finished its tenth year and is growing in the U.S. with 12 teams in the league. Toronto is the thirteenth team and the first international franchise. There are 16 home matches planned in 2007 and the new stadium will open by hosting one of the biggest soccer events in the world – the FIFA World Under 20 event. This is third biggest [mass audience sport event], behind the World Cup and the Olympics, with a global TV audience in the 500-million range.’

Hopkinson says MLSE is currently at the initial round of conversations with interested parties. As part of the sponsorship package, the stadium’s corporate sponsor will have prime real estate via a large sign visible from the Gardiner Expressway, much like the Rogers Centre and the Air Canada Centre.

Hopkinson says a soccer team in Toronto makes sense as it takes advantage of the April to October season, stoking sports-hungry fans orphaned by the hockey season. ‘Plus, it’s an affordable sports event geared toward families and the ethnic market, with the average ticket price in the $20-30 range.’

Increasing their cachet, the new Toronto soccer boys will also be playing against English Premiere League teams such as Manchester United in exhibition games, or ‘friendlies’ in soccer parlance.

According to numbers from the Canadian Soccer Association (a partner with MLSE), there are more than 825,000 Canucks who play the sport; 700,000 of which are kids.