I have to admit, I was not planning on writing a CPL Corner this week.

With everything going on at Canada Soccer and Dronegate taking all the headlines, my heart just isn’t in it.

But I’ve decided that we need something a bit more positive, so let’s have some fun talking CPL!

Did you know the MLS All-Star Game was Wednesday? I completely forgot about it until the day after. The Liga MX All-Stars ended up thrashing the MLS side 4-1, winning for the first time..

An All-Star Game in football seems so unbelievably strange and uniquely North American.

MLS has tried several different variations over the years. They’ve done the classic East vs West, MLS US vs MLS World , MLS vs top clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, and they even faced the USMNT in 2002.

Could an All-Star Game be a good thing for the CPL? Would anyone actually care and come out to watch an event like that?

I’ve soured on the All-Star Game  concept over the past few years mostly because the majority of them aren’t competitive in any way. But, I think that if you were to bring the best stars of the league together and make a spectacle out of it, you could actually draw in some fresh eyes to the CPL and drum up some interest. 

But what format would work best for a hypothetical CPL All-Star Game ? I think there are three possible options:

Option #1 – East vs West. 

The best of Pacific, VFC, Cavalry and Valour on one side and Halifax, Forge, Atletico and York on the otherThe upside to this format is that we keep all positions  on the pitch reserved for actual CPL players. The downside  is that the bar for being an All-Star is lower and the effort level of the match may not be too  high without any stakes.

Option #2-   Play a team from Europe. 

Picture it… a team of CPL All-Stars sharing the pitch with Ismael Kone and Marseille. The upside of going this route is you can bring in a major club with brand recognition and that will make marketing the  match  so much easier (especially  if you bring in a club with a Canadian on the team). The downside is that you run the risk of being absolutely embarrassed by a top club and the fans may not even get to see that club’s top players.

Option #3-   Take on an All-Star team from another league.

 In this option, my guess is you would have to make your opponent the USL Championship All-Star team. It may be Level 2 on the U.S. pyramid but I think this is the best league to test ourselves against. The upside of going this route is you have all your players with a common goal ina winnable match. The downside is the USL isn’t a sexy pick and it would be much more difficult to market and sell towards the fans. 

Personally, I would want to see where we measure up compared to the USL because I think the leagues are similar in talent level.

But what do you think? Do you want to see a CPL All-Star Game and what teams do you want to see on the pitch?

It couldn’t hurt to just try it out once, right?