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“For us, the CSB is that vehicle that allows the owner to contemplate a long-term commitment to the league because they’re investing in more than just a team. They’re investing in a soccer entity they think has great growth value.”

In addition to representing a coast-to-coast, all-Canadian league, featuring approximately 10 undisclosed inaugural clubs, the CSB now represents the CSA’s corporate partnerships and broadcast rights, as well as a Canadian Championship Mitchell refers to as a “big property.”

The Hamilton Ticats executive called the CSB a “linchpin to legitimizing” what the CPL is trying to do: Develop a Canadian game that’s nowhere near reaching its ceiling.

“If it wasn’t about that, we wouldn’t be doing this,” Mitchell reiterated to Postmedia.

The attractiveness, industry insiders say, is that nothing else compares right now. Chris Lang, who boasts more than five decades of marketing experience, believes the CSB has an edge over other Canadian sports properties due to emerging demographics and a top-to-bottom structure that’s all-encompassing.

“(This property) offers three things: Local, national and international,” Lang told Postmedia. “No other property gives you that. You can’t get that in hockey.

“I’ve never seen a package like this in my life – one that has all those pieces.”

The closest comparison is Soccer United Marketing (SUM), the enterprise that oversees the United States Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer, which operates three clubs in Canada – Toronto FC, Montreal Impact and the Vancouver Whitecaps.