6ix on a Wave: How do we feel about the 2020 Canadian Championship format?

Toronto, Canada. August, 14th, 2020. 9:33am.

What a difference 48 hours makes. Only two days ago, we were joined by the esteemed James Grossi on Episode 5 of Footy Talks x Waking The Red Live, and we engaged in all manner of mental gymnastics as we tried to divine Toronto FC’s future.

2 days later. We have our answers:

In a data dump the likes of which we haven’t seen in a dog’s age, the internet exploded.

TFC is back! BMO Field’s days as an ersatz all-inclusive-resort for the NHL Bubble are over!

But that’s not all, folks. We have a cute phrase in “film-land” to describe how most of your days on-set go down: “Hurry up and wait,” and never in my time on the TFC/CanSoc beat have I found a better situation to shoehorn that tidbit.

In one heck of a one-two punch, we also found out about how the Voyageurs Cup will go down, and it’s VERY 2020.

Let’s lay this out, for clarity.

TFC will be playing Vancouver and Montreal in an endless (well, 6 games each, but “endless” has more zing) round-robin, towards both regular season points ...

AND

... the winner of this round-robin will face the winner of the Canadian Premier League’s Island Games in a one-and-done, to the victor goes the spoils face-off for all the marbles. In this case a berth in the Concacaf Champions League.

Most of you will know that TFC lost this spot to Montreal last year, in the beforetimes, and abandoned the chance to capture it via their capitulation to NYCFC at Disneyland.

I know you have advanced-level questions about what this means in terms of who participates in the Concacaf League, etc. etc. etc. Trust us, we do as well.

The truth is, we don’t have those answers, and we’re pretty sure no one else does, either. CPL Comish David Clanachan, when pressed about specifics during his presser, suggested that his league walks away with both the CCL and CL spot if they win the final, which cannot be right, can it?

As late as 11:00pm Thursday night, there were inclinations that the one-and-done final could be split into a two legged affair, or even opened up to more than the two teams.

2020 is wacky, folks, and it moves on you fast. Keep it locked on WTR for the changes and updates, you know we got you. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, yet. Let’s unpack this info-dump en masse.

What do we think of this scheme? Is it fair? Does it matter in 2020?

To the comments!!!!

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST:

Is a mess, kinda like this first-draft plan. Any shouts and recommends are always appreciated.