Canada is a big country – 2nd biggest one in the world, to be exact.

Football isn't big here. While it is the most played sport, the local footy doesn't get as much attention as European football.

When you combine those 2 things, you get a very small amount of away fans. In other football-mad countries, you get at least 2,000 visiting supporters per match. Not just because they love their football, but because they are in much smaller countries which allow for easier travel.

Anyways, enough talking. My point is clear: Away support is rare here in Canada.

While official numbers are never released, there's been very little times where a Canadian club brought more than 2,000 fans to an away game. Toronto FC brought over 2,500 fans against the Columbus Crew in Ohio back in 2008, roughly an 8-hour drive. Around 5,000 TFC supporters also made the trip to Montréal back in 2013 – though it should be mentioned that tickets were free for season ticket holders, while about 500 fans also got free travel by bus. Regardless, 5,000 is unbelievable for Canadian footy, no matter how you spin it.


Roughly 2,500 TFC fans in Columbus back in 2008. Photo credit: Unknown

Next month, we might see over 2,000 visiting supporters again, and not from an MLS or CPL side, but rather, a League1 Ontario team. 

Meet the Simcoe County Rovers, a semi-professional club based out of Barrie, Ontario, just over an hour north of Toronto.

The Rovers play in League1 Ontario, where they were crowned champions in 2023. In doing so, they qualified to this year's Canadian Championship, where they were drawn with none other than 2017 MLS champions Toronto FC, who will be facing a League1 Ontario team for the first time in their 18-year history.


Photo credit: Martin Bazyl / League1 Ontario

With just over a month to go before the match at BMO Field against Toronto, the club has 2 clear goals: Compete for a result, and bring over 2,000 away fans to pack the stand behind the north end net.

Scoring the first goal will definitely be a tough nut to crack for the semi-pro team, but the second one? Totally doable. And is probably going to happen.

As of the time of writing this article, they've sold over 800 tickets over the last 24 hours in a pre-sale window for club members only. The count keeps increasing every hour. The club expects their current allocation to be sold out by Saturday, before the general public even gets access to the tickets.

The Barrie side were allocated 925 seats in total, and there are more sections on standby for when those fill up.

"... we are aiming to have the largest number of travelling supporters in Canadian club soccer history, excluding MLS teams. The likelihood of accomplishing this historic milestone is great" said Peter Raco, Co-founder, President & CEO of the Simcoe County Rovers. 

While an official number hasn't been published, the record for a non-MLS club in Canada belongs to York United (then known as York9 FC), who filled more than 1 section at Tim Hortons Field back in the inaugural Canadian Premier League match in April of 2019. It's estimated that around 1,000 York fans made the trip to the Hammer.

Should the Simcoe County Rovers accomplish their goal, they'll break that record.

"Part of our responsibility as a new club in the Canadian soccer landscape is to push the game forward, on the field with the type of environments, support, and training that we're providing players at the division 3 level, and then off the field, we want to break records." said Raco. "We want to create a new standard and push this game forward in a positive direction."

For the Rovers, this game will be special for many reasons.

In the club's leadership team are 4 familiar faces for Canadian soccer fans: Cyle Larin, Doneil Henry, Atiba Hutchison & Janine Beckie. All 4 of whom are both co-owners and club members of the League1 Ontario champs.

On the other side is John Herdman (now coach of TFC), former coach of the 2 Canadian national teams, where he was able to train these 4 players in his time there.

It will also be a special game for Julian de Guzman, Co-owner and former Simcoe County Rovers President, who played for Toronto FC from 2009 to 2012.

This game will also hold significance for another reason: It will be the first time in history that a team in any sport from Barrie, Ontario, faces a professional tier 1 team from the city of Toronto.

"When we started the club, it was important that we rooted everything we do back to the community to build a community foundation that would propel the club forward for years." Peter told TrueNorthFoot. "The outcome of that – the tremendous support for the club – Not only did we have the largest away travel to the League1 Championship in September with over 700 fans, but we've become part of the fabric of the community. And we’ll have around 2,000+ supporters to the Canadian Championship to write history for our young club and League1 Ontario. It’s a great sign and illustrates how well the Rovers are now woven into the community of Barrie."


Photo credit: Martin Bazyl / League1 Ontario

The match will be very challenging for the club. Of course, apart from facing an MLS team, it will be the Rovers' first game of the season, with their league opener coming just 4 days later as they return to the pitch which saw them lift their first official trophy in club history.

The last time they played in a competitive match? September 2, 2023. Over 200 days between that match and the meeting against TFC.

To prepare, the Simcoe County Rovers will face multiple professional opposition in exhibition matches, including 2 CPL sides in York United and an unnamed second team. Additionally, they will compete against fellow League1 Canada participants CS St-Laurent (Ligue1 Québec champions), who are slated to meet the HFX Wanderers in the Canadian Championship, and another unnamed club. Training started in February, giving the squad over 2 months of preparation before the highly-anticipated cup clash.

On April 24, 2024, BMO Field will be filled with blue, as the fans of League1 Ontario champions Simcoe County Rovers cheer on their team to pull off what would be the greatest upset in Canadian club history.