Digging deeper with Hamilton’s premier soccer club, Forge FC
Founded in 2019, Forge FC has made considerable progress in becoming one of Canada’s fastest-growing soccer clubs, representing Hamilton in the highest spotlight
This past January, the Silhouette covered Forge FC’s rise in popularity in the region and beyond. Although their season is about to end, the club has achieved considerable success in the past few months that should not go unnoticed.
Their most noticeable success story comes from the high mountains of Mexico, where the club from Hamilton had the opportunity to compete in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football Champions League against one of the largest clubs in the continent, Cruz Azul. Although Hamilton’s best couldn’t force an upset, losing zero to one and one to three against the Mexican giants, they managed to make a statement to foreign clubs there is a new force in southwestern Ontario.
“It has been a busy season. We have hosted tens of thousands of fans over 17 home games, including our first-ever Champions League tie and Canadian Championship Final losing to [Toronto] FC on penalties. It has been a strong season, something we are used to by now, but that has been positively reflected in our growing crowds and supporters,” said James Hutton, one of the Sales Leaders at the club.
More recently, men’s Canadian soccer has also taken a rise in popularity. In March this year, the team managed to end a 36-year drought of not qualifying for the World Cup. To get to the grand stage in Qatar, the team won against big names such as the United States, Mexico and Costa Rica among others.
“On top of the club success, being able to leverage the men’s World Cup run has been big in shifting soccer interest locally, specifically with our growing league, [ the CPL],” explained Hutton.
With the regular season behind them, Forge are ready to move into the playoffs and fight for another Canadian Premier League (CPL) title.
“We want more postseason success! Since the league was founded in 2019, we have been in the finals every year. We have two big games against Calgary, which we beat in the inaugural finals. We are away in Calgary this weekend, then host them in the second leg on the 23rd for a place in the finals. With some luck, the top seed Ottawa will slip up and we will host the finals as well,” said Hutton.
As Forge is a new club, promoting the club brand means a lot to the reputation of the club. This includes activities such as engaging with the community, game activities and more.
“It takes a strong mix of many things such as game activities, reaching out to different communities, and spreading the Forge brand around. We hosted hundreds of kids at our Skills Clinic, run by Forge players. Just last week we hosted our first Spark Summit, connecting professional women in sports business and inspire conversations around fostering gender equity in sports. Finally, in November we are looking at leveraging the World Cup games to help convert soccer fans in Canada Red to Forge Orange. . . We need to keep doing everything we can to drive fans to supporting Forge.” said Hutton.
While more fans start getting familiar with the new club around the block, the players and the staff at Forge do not fail to impress. Having already made an appearance on the continental stage, the club aims to make even further progress in the coming years.
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