Professional arena soccer is coming to Mississauga and the brains behind the movement are doing what they can to gather support.

On Wednesday, June 21, Canadian Arena Soccer Association president Joe Vaccaro and Sergio Giancola, described by Giancola as the visionary and driving force behind bringing the arena game to Canada, made a formal deputation requesting support from Mississauga council.

The Hershey Centre recently became the newly formed CASA’s home as Canada gets ready to field a team in preparation for the 2018 World Arena Soccer Championship in Mexico.

“CASA believes Mississauga is the right place with the right history to establish a grassroots player program for ages eight to over 18 to build the arena game in Canada,” Vaccaro said inside council chambers.

“From there, we’ll bring all the energy and excitement of the outdoor game into a fan friendly, six vs. six arena format.”

More information will be released during a news conference on Tuesday, June 27 at city hall. There, the CASA will formally announce the technical director and head coach of the national team while also unveiling the Team Canada uniform.

The team plans on hosting a number of international friendly games at the Hershey Centre as well.

Canada’s entry in the 2018 World Arena Soccer Championships comes two months after the announcement of a Toronto area team entering the Major Arena Soccer League, set to debut out of the Hershey Centre in the fall of 2018. Giancola will serve as CEO of that team.

Like Vaccaro, he feels there’s a lot of excitement and energy around the arena game that Mississauga can harness.

“We have approximately 62,000 registered kids about 20 to 25 minutes from (the Hershey Centre) that will have an excellent opportunity to see terrific professional players, very skilful players,” Giancola said.