TORONTO — It's not yet full of people, but it's full of ideas.

The Canadian Premier League has been quietly operating out of its downtown Toronto office — located near King and Sherbourne Streets — since early July.

There are now 10 employees, including acting CPL president Paul Beirne, working in a hip, open-concept space that Beirne says will eventually house about 25 staff.

Scott Mitchell, CEO of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats who will own Hamilton's CPL team, says there will also eventually be a CPL office in Hamilton.

The impending pro soccer league still has to announce its start date — they're still aiming for next August — and full team roster beyond the two confirmees Hamilton and Winnipeg, but establishing their new headquarters, and doing its business from there, brings a 3-D sense of reality to the entire project.

"It's about what we're going to be," Beirne says. "Today, it's mostly empty but it's aspirational. It's a beautiful office and well-situated in the downtown core.

"We're trying, on the one hand, to be prepared for explosive growth, and on the other hand to be as prudent as possible onlimited resources."

Beirne has received about 200 inquiries about work opportunities in the CPL, and has spent a lot of face-to-face time with aspirants, although he says that hands-on experience will get less frequent as the league moves toward a launch next summer or in the spring of 2019.

"We've been very consistent (on launch discussions)," he says. "We're not going to make any announcement until we're ready. We're working very hard with all the parties.

"We've said we won't start until we're ready; we've said we won't start with fewer than six teams; and if we do start with six teams we'd want to know who numbers seven or eight are and we'd want them to come in year two or year three."

Beirne says the CPL office is dealing with three "buckets" of preparation work for the new league.

"Part of it is the marketing and corporate sponsorship part, the revenue-driving side of the business," he says.

"Then there's the football league part of the business: we've got to figure out how we unravel this puzzle of launching a league in a country that hasn't had a pro league for a while, and has players all over the world, and youth players all over the country. How are we going to manage all that in a manner that provides a high quality of play for the fans, and also in such a manner that it is taking the appropriate steps for providing a place for people not just to play, but in an environment to improve?

"The third is just the pure administration of this thing: the minutia of governance, and dealing with our partners in CSA, CONCACAF and FIFA."

Beirne calls the mostly-empty office a "base camp" but says it will eventually ramp up to full capacity.

"People other than me have spent years getting us to a place where we can articulate a vision of a pro league in this country," he said.

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And Beirne reminds soccer fans that as well as building a league and giving an opportunity for Canada's young players to develop, "we're creating an industry. That means head coaches, and technical directors and physios and media people and kit men, all of that. There will be hundreds of jobs across the country.

"That's a very positive byproduct."