Beirne can say all he needs to say about not wanting CanPL to be compared to MLS. But he knows, deep down, that this will always be the first place fans will go to. There are three Canadian teams in MLS. MLS games are on Canadian national TV. And, of course, American fans will look at neighbouring Canada as it begins to unravel itself from the U.S. soccer system. They will ask: “If Canada can have single-table, why can’t we?” And we know the fervent anti-MLS factions that exists in the U.S. will use Canada as an example as they continue to fuel their self-destructive Soccer Warz.

Of course, as Beirne will be shaking hands, meeting and greeting, over the next two days, a lot of topics will be covered. We talked about a few Wednesday night.

The CanPL will debut in 2019. This letter offers some insight to why the Canadian Premier League will be so important to soccer families in this country.

But I worry that supporters groups will gather in same soccer bars, talking to the same soccer people, about how excited they are for the dawn of the CanPL. They’ll encourage the same people who bought season tickets a week ago to, well, buy season tickets.

If FC Edmonton, which left NASL at the end of the 2017 season, is to field a pro team in the Canadian Premier League in 2019, the club needs its fans to rally. It needs a massive ground game to sell season-ticket commitments. And, maybe, if the team is to survive, Wednesday’s night’s meeting of soccer supporters will be remembered as the Alberta Capital’s very own Tennis Court Oath, soccer style.

It could become our annual cold-shaming-of-teams-from-other-parts-of-CONCACAF festival. Oh, hi there, Mexican champs! Welcome to -20 C! Oh, hello L.A. Galaxy. Welcome to Winnipeg in February. No, this isn’t “bad” weather to us. This is NORMAL weather to us.

Easton shared some thoughts on how he sees the league, and what the long-term goals are when it comes to developing Canadian players.

With FC Edmonton not running a professional program in 2018, Ledgerwood had a conundrum. He needed to find work, he had a possibility of returning to Europe to play, but with a wife and young son, his family circumstances had changed since he last played across the Atlantic.

As CanPL moves toward its 2019 launch as this country’s division one, despite the presence of three Canadian sides in MLS, it will be interesting to see what the league takes away from MLS — and what it stays away from.

The new commissioner of the Canadian Premier League prefers the independent club system. He dreams of a time when Canada has a Premier League, a second division and a third division — and teams are promoted and relegated through those leagues. He envisions Canadian pro soccer teams from coast-to-coast.