Professional football in Canada
Only one professional football league has a permanent presence in Canada: the Canadian Football League (CFL), an organization founded in 1958 to accommodate the ongoing trend of professionalism in the Canadian football ranks since the 1940s. The CFL, like most amateur Canadian football leagues, plays on a larger field using a rulebook with several significant rule differences compared to the game as it is played in the United States. The league is composed of two divisions and nine teams in most of the largest Canadian markets, with at least one team in each province between British Columbia (BC Lions) and Quebec (Montreal Alouettes) inclusive. The only presence in Atlantic Canada is a semi-regular series of games in Moncton (Touchdown Atlantic) and a smattering of earlier preseason contests. The CFL operates a two-week preseason beginning in June, an 18-game season from July to October, and a six-team playoff tournament, culminating in the Grey Cup on the fourth weekend of November.
Soccer in the United States
Major League Soccer (MLS) is the professional first-division league in the United States. It currently has 24 teams — 21 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. With careful cost controls and the construction of soccer-specific stadiums, some MLS clubs became profitable for the first time in the mid-2000s, and "Forbes" magazine found that three clubs were already valued at $40 million or more, with the Los Angeles Galaxy worth $100 million. 
The establishment of the Designated Player Rule in 2007 has led to the signings of international superstars such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry, and Cuauhtémoc Blanco.