'Never been a brighter time' for Sask. soccer after Canada's historic World Cup berth

Lee Kormish was a teenager when he was cut from Saskatchewan's provincial baseball team.

Dejected and uninspired, Kormish went home and turned on the family TV to see Brazil and Italy playing in the final of the 1994 World Cup.

The fans, the flags, the chants and the sport itself captivated him. From that moment on he was hooked.

"I fell in love with the game. And it's been a passion ever since," Kormish said.

His love of soccer has since taken the Saskatoon soccer superfan to 33 different World Cup stadiums and 62 different World Cup matches over the past 20 years.

What a young Kormish couldn't imagine in 1994 is that after all those miles, screams and celebrations in the stands, that he would one day be cheering on his own national team on soccer's biggest stage.

"I mean, I'm trying to find words for it but it's a little bit difficult," he said hours after Canada qualified for its first World Cup in 37 years.

Kormish wasn't going to let anything stop him from seeing the Canadian men's national soccer team earn its place in the World Cup, so he travelled to both San Jose, Costa Rica and Toronto over the weekend to cheer the team on.

A still from a YouTube video Lee Kormish made that got the attention of World Cup organizers. (YouTube/Lee Kormish)

After Canada lost 1-0 against Costa Rica, Kormish joined the more than 29,000 fans at BMO Field in Toronto for a celebration of a lifetime when Canada defeated Jamaica 4-0 and qualified for the World Cup in Qatar in November, its first World Cup since 1986.

"It was pandemonium," he said of the scenes in Toronto. "We were celebrating with about 15 minutes left. It got louder, louder, louder. It was elation. We didn't want it to end."

Doug Pederson, the executive director of the Saskatchewan Soccer Association, said no matter how you look at Canada's win on Sunday, it's going to have a massive ripple effect across the country.

"It's always incredible when kids can see their own dreams in action, he said. "It's never been a brighter time for interest in soccer across the country."

The expected surge in popularity couldn't come at a greater time for grassroots soccer in Saskatchewan. Registration numbers dropped during the pandemic from roughly 40,000 down to about 26,000.

Pederson doesn't expect that problem to continue with both the men's and women's national teams winning their biggest games. Registration numbers are already improving with smaller communities that have previously been without soccer programs looking to join up.

"You can feel the momentum and sort of the passion for the game growing. Obviously, that's going to generate interest and registrations will follow, we think," Pederson said of the second-most played sport in Saskatchewan.

Capitalizing on that momentum and interest is where Alan Simpson comes in.

The president of Living Sky Sports and Entertainment (LSSE) struck an agreement with the Canadian Premier League, the country's top flight of professional soccer, awarding exclusive expansion rights to the province. The only problem is no up-to-standards soccer stadium.

"Well, our issue in Saskatoon isn't really so much fan support. The big hurdle for us right now is to have the City of Saskatoon participate in the project," Simpson said.

Simpson and his group have targeted Prairieland Park as a suitable location to build a soccer stadium. Last year, the non-profit corporation shocked the greater community when it permanently cancelled live thoroughbred horse racing at Marquis Downs, ending a 50-year relationship with the horse racing community at the southern edge of its fairgrounds.

Prairieland has a memorandum of understanding signed with LSSE to make a soccer stadium at the former horse racing track a reality, but the missing component is the financial contributions from the city.

"We've had many meetings, we've had numerous discussions, but nothing that would take us to what I would call that level of discernible public interest in trying to get a project done," Simpson said.

While Simpson is confident the project can materialize soon, he's hoping a historic win captivating the country can be a nudge in the right direction.

Pederson said the landscape of soccer has already drastically changed in the last 10 years with the women's national team winning Olympic medals, the creation of the Canadian Premier League and Canada being a host nation for the 2026 World Cup.

Who knows what the next 10 years could bring?

"There's stuff that was never considered possible. Things are on the uptake right now. We're really excited about it," Pederson said.

After nearly three decades of cheering on Canada through double-digit defeats and repeated failures, Kormish is now able to continue his World Cup journey in Qatar, not as a neutral fan talking about Canadian hockey, but as a proud supporter of a World Cup team.

"It's all I've ever wanted," he said. "The Canadian leaf will never be flown prouder than it will in the Persian Gulf in November."