TORONTO — The only consensus when it comes to the best way to structure a soccer league in North America is that there is no consensus.

Whereas much of Europe and South America have adopted a straightforward, round-robin format in its highest leagues, crowning the first-placed team at the end of each season the champion, CONCACAF is a somewhat more colourful world.

Only five of the domestic top flights belonging to our confederation’s top 20 national teams follow that “traditional” method, and three of those — Martinique, French Guiana and Guadeloupe — throw in the unusual wrinkle of awarding four points for a win, two for a draw and one for a loss.

And you thought Major League Soccer’s old school, dribble-up shootout was bizarre …

More common in the Americas is a split calendar, with two separate stages — commonly known as the Apertura and Clausura in Spanish-speaking countries — being played in the same year. Then, post-season playoffs can either follow each stage or bring the two together and vary from league to league when it comes to length, venues and rules.

Seven of CONCACAF’s top 10 nations — excluding Canada — currently split the season in two, while only two do not feature playoffs in any form.

Even those two outliers mix in a few playoff-esque ingredients.

In Jamaica’s National Premier League, the table is split in half after each team has played each other three times, creating separate competition between the top and bottom sides down the stretch. In Trinidad & Tobago’s TT Pro League, teams play each other home and away before the third and final set of fixtures goes to neutral turf.

It is on a continent hallmarked by variety but sharing a few common preferences, then, that the Canadian Premier League brings its own concept to the table.

Like Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, and others, the CPL will split each year into an opening “Spring” and closing “Fall” stage.

And like Liga MX, MLS, and the majority of North and Central America, the league tables alone will not be the sole determining factor in deciding a champion.

But that’s where things get interesting.

Instead of adopting a typical playoff format of two- or three-rounds, or sending its top handful of teams into an end-of-season breakaway league, the CPL will become the third of CONCACAF’s top 20 nations to guarantee no more and no less than two teams competing in the grand final.

And it will be the only major league on the continent to give the pair of teams that finish atop its two league tables direct entry into the 2019 Canadian Premier League Championship.

You can see the thinking: First, the CPL will give far greater weight to its league campaigns than other playoff-oriented setups.

The consistent excellence required to end a regular season top of the table is recognized and rewarded.

But secondly, the format also ensures Canadian fans do not miss out on the unmatched excitement of winner-takes-all, knockout soccer.

From a perspective of both fan and commercial interest, bringing the season to a close with a flagship finale simply makes too much sense to ignore.

As with every league, there are compromises. Some have expressed concern about the imbalance between the opening and closing stages, with the former running 10 games and the latter 18. A benefit, though, is it ensures that a CPL qualifier — one of FC Edmonton, Valour FC or Forge FC — will compete in this year’s CONCACAF League and, perhaps, next year’s Champions League.

Still, is a 10-game run enough of a body of work to decide the team that will play in the final?

The immediate upside is that, much like the NFL, there will be little room for a slow start.

Canada Day will arrive quickly and the low-intensity stroll through the early part of summer that can sometimes be seen in MLS will not exist.

And on the topic of Canada Day: the celebration of the nation that accompanies the end of the opening stage of the season will be something to behold.