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Atletico Ottawa, the newest franchise in the Canadian Premier League, will have a month on the road before finally playing a soccer game at home.

That could be a very good thing, according to Jeff Hunt, a strategic partner for Atletico, which opens its regular season April 18 in Hamilton vs. Forge FC. Subsequent road games will be played in Halifax (April 25), Winnipeg (May 2) and Toronto (May 8) before Ottawa has its home-opener May 16 vs. HFX Wanderers FC.

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“I’m very pleased with the schedule,” said Hunt. “I like the fact we’re able to push out our home-opener to as late as possible – it gives us a lot longer runway to start with a bang in our home-opener. It’s more time to sell tickets and create excitement. By the time we open, we should be near early mid-season form.

“I think it’s good for a new team that’s just come together to play road games. I know (former Ottawa 67’s junior hockey coach) Brian Kilrea always liked to start with a long road trip, it gave his teams a chance to bond. In this case, we’re going to have four road trips before we present ourselves for the first time for our fans at TD Place. Hopefully we’ll have had some success by that point and build on that at home.”