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6ix on a Wave: Hey MLS, why not Canada?

As The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke pointed out on the latest installment of WTR Weekly, should MLS consider Canada as a potential “hub” for the remainder of the 2020 season?

By Jeffrey P. Nesker

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Canada v New Zealand: Group E - 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup France
June 15, 2019—A Canada fan flies a flag prior to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup France group E match between Canada and New Zealand at Stade des Alpes in Grenoble, France.
(Johannes Simon FIFA/FIFA via Getty)

Toronto, Canada - 1:13PM Tuesday July 28, 2020

The Season Finale of Waking the Red Weekly is in the books, earlier than we expected, and here I sit, still marinating in rage following that “game” on Sunday.

Not gonna lie, it was downright therapeutic to take to the interwebs and rant all things Toronto FC with Mitch, Michael, and our special guest, Joshua Kloke of The Athletic. Be sure to catch the full episode here.

While we didn’t get to ask him about it, Josh’s book, “Come On You Reds” is an easy nomination for a core text in any TFC syllabus, and it goes without saying that we’re hoping for a sequel. If you hadn’t had the chance, it’s a very deep dive into the fascinating history of our beloved Reds, and pulls zero punches. It’s absolutely required reading.

When the time came to ask Josh about the league’s plans to resume the regular season following the conclusion of the MLS is Back Tournament Final on Aug. 11, he had a quite an interesting take—one that I feel merits it’s very own community discussion.

For those unclear on the plan, as first reported by The Athletic, what we know so far is that the league plans to resume the regular season at some point in mid-August, adopting an in-market, fan-free scheme akin to what we’ve seen in Europe. There is one significant snag, though, as we experienced with the Toronto Blue Jays and the MLB restart shenanigans: the border between Canada and the USA is not nearly open enough to allow for this.

MLS’s solution is reportedly to limit the three Canadian sides to an infinite round robin (well, six games at time of printing) while waiting for the situation at the border to relax.

Joshua Kloke took it very much exponentially further when he suggested MLS make Canada its new home, and play out the balance of the regular season with the Canadian markets as hub cities. Essentially, something akin to what the NHL is doing, which at present, seems to be reducing BMO Field to a tailgate party.

Are they playing SPIKE-BALL on my beautiful SYSGrass?????!!!!

It’s a bold take from Josh, to be sure. What do we think?

Should MLS consider moving the league to Canada for the remainder of the 2020 season?

Alas! Off to the comments!

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST:

Is Empty, beyond the ‘Oh, Canada” title. I will endevour to do better. Watch the tracklist grow all day, and gimme your shouts!!

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