Vancouver FC played Calgary Cavalry FC at the Kelowna Apple Bowl, June 16, 2024.

(JESSE TOMAS / iNFOnews.ca)

Kelowna is one of the cities being considered for a Canadian Premier League soccer franchise following the big turnout for a match earlier this year.

The Canadian Premier League is planning on adding two new teams to the league in 2026, and Kelowna might get one of them.

The league’s commissioner Mark Noonan said Kelowna is on a short list for expansion.

“We have laid an incredibly solid foundation, and we're going to build a beautiful house on top of it. In the near term, our goal is to add two new teams for our 2026 season, and we are in discussions with several potential investor groups and municipalities in this regard,” Noonan said at a recent news conference.

The other cities on the league’s shortlist are Edmonton, Laval, Kitchener-Waterloo, Quebec City, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and some in the Greater Toronto Area. 

The league is still young, it was founded in 2017 and has eight teams. Noonan said it’s important to be careful about expansion.

“We need all the right conditions to expand, and it's very important that we expand at the right time and the right place,” he said.

READ MORE: iN PHOTOS: Thousands came out to the Canadian Premier League’s first match in Kelowna

The league held a match between Vancouver FC and Calgary FC at Kelowna’s Apple Bowl, June 16, and nearly 6,300 fans attended.

The match was a way for the league to gauge the community’s interest in the sport.

“In addition to the fans, we were warmly welcomed by Kelowna's local government, businesses, and soccer community,” Noonan said.

Kelowna’s Mayor Tom Dyas told iNFOnews.ca in a previous interview that he was optimistic about the prospect of the city getting its own team. He said the city is preparing a report on what kinds of facilities Kelowna needs in order to host a team.

“Everything is pointing in the right direction to look at having a franchise within this community for the 2026 year,” Dyas said previously. “I'm hoping that we're able to have the report at the beginning of December for public knowledge.”

READ MORE: Can Kelowna support a professional soccer team? The mayor thinks so

Although the specific requirements for a Canadian Premier League team aren’t public knowledge, Kelowna’s Apple Bowl has a comparable capacity to other stadiums in the league.

The Apple Bowl can comfortably host more than 6,000 fans which is more than the 4,000 seats at York Lions Stadium where York United FC plays home games in Toronto.

Canadian Premier League teams HFX Wanderers, Vancouver FC, and Cavalry FC have stadiums with similar capacity to the Apple Bowl.

2026 is still a long way off, and whether Kelowna will be chosen is still up in the air.

“I firmly believe there's not a better time to be invested in the Canadian Premier League specifically and Canadian soccer generally,” Noonan said.

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