While the eight teams will all be playing at IG Field for at least the first chunk of the campaign, some will be dealing with an uneven playing field.
"Last year all the teams kind of went in at the same preparation rate," Smyrniotis said of last summer's Island Games. "The teams had the same time on the pitch. We were all doing the same things ... I think this year you'll see a little bit of variance in that, with some of the teams who have been fully training for the last two to three months."
The Manitoba capital will host the first 32 games of the campaign with each of the eight teams playing eight games in a stretch that will run through July 24. The league is committed to teams playing a full 28 regular-season match campaign, in a single-table format, and is planning to return to home markets after the Winnipeg portion.