Amway Canadian Championship announcement has no mention of Sportsnet By Steven Sandor Posted on January 8, 2016 1 0 912 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Sometimes, what isn’t said in a press release is more important than what is said. On Friday, when the Canadian Soccer Association announced the schedule for the 2016 Amway Canadian Championship, there was no mention of network television coverage. What the release does state is this: “Fans are encouraged to follow @CanadaSoccerEN on Twitter using #canChamp for tournament updates, but also to connect with the five Canadian professional clubs involved for live match coverage (@OttawaFuryFC, @FCEdmontonNow, @impactmontreal, @torontofc,@WhitecapsFC). Match highlights and reports will be available on canadasoccer.com/championship as well as on CanadaSoccerTV.” The announcement indicates that it’s on the participating teams to provide coverage of the games. There’s no mention of Sportsnet, which has been the tournament’s official broadcaster since it, well, became a true tournament. Actually, there’s no mention of a broadcaster at all. Last year, the CSA and Sportsnet agreed to put an early end to their contract on Canadian men’s and national team games. As well, the Amway Canadian Championship has been plagued by poor ratings and the fact that it gets buried because many of the games go up against the Stanley Cup playoffs. This year, while the tournament has been pushed back a little, the play-in games between Ottawa and FC Edmonton will be held in May. So, once again, the tournament won’t shake itself from hockey’s media-dominating grasp. Sportsnet didn’t show the preliminary round games in the past; those games were streamed through Canada Soccer. Here’s the schedule: (home team listed first) May 11, 2016 Preliminary round – first leg FC Edmonton v Ottawa Fury FC May 18, 2016 Preliminary round – second leg Ottawa Fury FC v FC Edmonton June 1, 2016 Semifinal 1 – first leg Ottawa Fury FC/FC Edmonton v Vancouver Whitecaps FC Semifinal 2 – first leg Toronto FC v Montreal Impact June 8, 2016 Semifinal 1 – second leg Vancouver Whitecaps FC v Ottawa Fury FC/FC Edmonton Semifinal 2 – second leg Montreal Impact v Toronto FC June 21 or 22, 2016 Final – first leg June 28 or 29, 2016 Final – second leg
