HFX Wanderers FC have been announced as the newest professional sports team to arrive in the city.
The announcement was made at Halifax’s Nova Centre Friday afternoon by the Canadian Premier League (CPL) in front of hundreds of enthusiastic fans.
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The CPL is hotly anticipated throughout the country, and commissioner David Clanachan likely said it best when he told the crowd, “You can’t be a league coast-to-coast without Halifax.”
Sports and Entertainment Atlantic president Derek Martin – who was instrumental in bringing a soccer club to Halifax – said whether or not the fans existed in Halifax to support a team was never in question.
“The fans have been behind us from the very get-go,” Martin said on Friday. “That’s really what makes these things happen, when you know that your risk isn’t really that high. Because you can see the excitement. You can see the energy.”
“We’ve had thousands and thousands of people that are ready and thirst to see this come to life, and we can’t wait to give it to them.”
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Work has already started on a pop-up stadium that is planned to house nearly 7,000 fans at Wanderer Grounds.
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The organization says the next step is to hire a team coach and general manager.
The league is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2019.
— With files from Jeremy Keefe