LANGLEY, BC – On Wednesday, the township of the Langley CPL team was officially the ninth team in the league thanks to people like SixFive Sports & Entertainment LP and Rob Friend. They are also the second expansion team and the third professional top-tier British Columbian soccer team.
The Langley CPL team is official
Vancouver ➡️ Canadian Premier League#CanPL l @SixfiveSports pic.twitter.com/pZkt8Gacg4
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) April 13, 2022
Last year, Metro Vancouver was awarded the rights to get a CanPL team. Now, it is official. Langley is the latest expansion team in the Canadian Premier League. They are also the second pro soccer team in Metro Vancouver. The other team, the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, currently playing in MLS since 2011 at BC Place.
Willoughby Community Park will be where the Langley team will play. They join the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Fraser Valley Bandits and the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants.
What this means for the Canadian Premier League
NEWS: @SixfiveSports and the @LangleyTownship announce Willoughby Community Park as location for Vancouver 2023 CPL club#CanPL l @LangleyEvents
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) April 13, 2022
In English Canada, the CPL officially expands to the second-largest city in Canada. It also gives Pacific FC, current North Star Shield champions, less travel and a new provincial rival to face in the CPL.
It also gives Whitecaps fans another team to cheer for if they want to support another mainland BC team. This is what former CanMNT international player, Rob Friend (president of the Vancouver 2023 project), said about the journey to get a team according to Charlie O’Connor-Clarke, Digital Content Editor of CPL:
Yes, it is not a new soccer market. However, it is still strategically, a very important market. The CPL is now in two of the three biggest cities or more accurately, census metropolitan areas in Canada. There will also be at least nine teams next year. Also, it is great timing as today, FIFA announced that Vancouver is now back in the 2026 FIFA World Cup bidding process.
It is unclear, whether either Saskatoon or Windsor will officially get CPL teams in 2023. If there was a 10 team though, it will most likely be Saskatoon as Windsor is aiming to come to the league anywhere from 2024-26.
According to Statistics Canada in 2021, Langley has a population of 115,835 with the largest minority population’s being South Asian (4.4 percent), Chinese (4.2 percent), and Korean (3.1 percent) and also a 3.7 percent Aboriginal population. Also, the total population of the Fraser Valley region is 295,934 people in 2016 according to Statistics Canada.
