Advertisers and sports fans alike should know Sports Illustrated’s intentions towards Canada early in the new year, says one of the magazine’s top executives.

Alvaro Saralegui, general manager of the New York-based weekly, says Sports Illustrated is continuing to study the feasibility of coming north of the border, and although nothing is confirmed, some indication of the magazine’s intentions should be known in January.

Saralegui says early indications about a Canadian venture are ‘quite positive.’

He says Sports Illustrated has investigated the possibility of coming here ‘every three years,’ and he is surprised there is so much interest about this now.

Saralegui says this time around, two things are different.

Sports Illustrated can publish some Canadian issues without putting its u.s. subscription rate base at risk (Sports Illustrated is 95% subscription), and there has been a positive ruling by Investment Canada, the federal agency that evaluates foreign investment here.

Saralegui confirmed Sports Illustrated has obtained printing quotes from at least one Canadian printer, Quebecor Printing in Richmond Hill, Ont., which prints TIME Canada, part of the Time-Warner conglomerate that also owns Sports Illustrated.

The Canadian Magazine Publishers Association is not enthusiastic about Sports Illustrated’s look north.

A source says lawyers for the magazine and the association are already involved.