After weeks of speculation, Canada Soccer has finally released details about the 2024 Canadian Championship. Without further ado, let's delve into it.

The draw will be done in a virtual closed-doors meeting
Unlike the 2022 and 2023 editions, the 2024 Voyageurs Cup draw will be held behind a closed-doors virtual meeting. The reason for this is unknown, though it's very likely that it's because of the CSB/MediaPro situation which has unfolded these past few weeks.

The draw is scheduled for Friday, February 23. We understand that it will be held at 11:30am ET / 8:30am PT. It's unknown if Canada Soccer will post the results as they happen or if they will be published later.

The Vancouver Whitecaps and CF Montréal will get a bye to the quarter-finals
As is usual, the reigning finalists get the bye to the quarter-finals. It's no different this year, despite the CPL wanting Forge (2023 CPL champions) to get Montréal's spot.

The dates
The preliminary round will be held from April 23 to May 1.

The quarter-finals will be held in May.

The semi-finals' 1st-leg matches will be held between 9-10 July, while the 2nd-leg matches will be held between 27-28 August.

The grand finale will be held as a single match between 24-25 September.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be 2-legged series
We reported last month that one of the CPL's proposals to Canada Soccer was to have 2-legged series starting in the quarter-finals. Canada Soccer has accepted that proposal.

For the quarter-finals and semi-finals rounds, series will be played in the home-and-away format, though CSA didn't confirm if the away goals rule will apply.

The preliminary round and quarter-finals will be drawn based on region
This has been a thing for the past few editions of the Canadian Championship, and it'll happen again to reduce travel costs: The preliminary round and quarter-final match-ups will be drawn to reduce travel costs. Here's the breakdown:

In the west, there are 5 clubs:
3 clubs that can host: Pacific FC, Vancouver FC & Cavalry FC
2 clubs that CAN'T host: Valour FC, Victoria Highlanders FC (semi-pro)

In the east, there are 7 clubs:
5 clubs that can host: Forge FC, York United FC, Atlético Ottawa, Toronto FC & HFX Wanderers FC
2 semi-pro clubs: Simcoe County Rovers & CS St-Laurent

To balance east and west, 1 club from the east will be moved to the west, where they will automatically be drawn (and host) against Valour FC, the Eastern-most club in the west group.

Host teams will be decided based on a new ranking
As is done with most competitions around the world, the Canadian Championship will start using a club ranking index to decide which team hosts each match. The ranking will be based on the last three editions (2021, 2022, 2023), with the 2023 edition weighted the heaviest. The index will be used to determine the host teams for the preliminary round through to the semi-final rounds.

For the preliminary round, the highest-ranked club of each match-up will host the single match. For the quarter-final and semi-final rounds, the highest-ranked club of each match-up will host the 2nd leg, while the lowest-ranked team will host the 1st leg.

For the professional clubs (CPL & MLS), points are awarded for performances from the quarter-final rounds all the way to the final rounds.

For the semi-pro clubs (League1 Canada), points are awarded towards their leagues instead of the club starting from the preliminary round.

Example: Simcoe County Rovers' (League1 Ontario) points total after the 2024 Canadian Championship will apply for next year's League1 Ontario representative.

This is obviously done to give the semi-pro teams a better chance of getting hosting rights, which we think is perfect.

How does the ranking look?

1. Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS)
2. CF Montréal (MLS)
3. Toronto FC (MLS)
4. Pacific FC (CPL)
5. Forge FC (CPL)
6. York United FC (CPL)
7. Cavalry FC (CPL)
8. HFX Wanderers FC (CPL)
9. Atlético Ottawa (CPL)
10. Valour FC (CPL)
11. Vancouver FC (CPL)
12. League1 British Columbia representative (Victoria Highlanders FC)
13. Ligue1 Québec representative (CS St-Laurent)
14. League1 Ontario representative (Simcoe County Rovers FC)

Now you may ask... How many points for wins, draws, advancing rounds, etc? It's unknown. Canada Soccer hasn't confirmed that.

Fixtures will be re-drawn starting in the semi-finals
One issue that the Canadian Championship has had in the past few years is that the match-ups were getting extremely predictable and almost always the same. Regionalized match-ups caused it. To prevent this from happening again, Canada Soccer will be re-drawing the fixtures in the semi-finals, but this time, with 0 region-based rules. The Eastern-most team could face the Western-most team.

What's our opinion on this?
We love it. 
It's a shame that the draw can't be broadcast live on OneSoccer, but other than that, it's a perfect format.