It’s fitting that Vancouver and Calgary met for the inaugural Northern Super League (NSL) match on April 16, 2025. This event marks a significant milestone for two franchises that took the initial risk on a new Canadian women’s professional soccer league. The NSL launches at a boomtime in women’s professional sports, a surge that has been a long time coming for those who have advocated for it. The impetus to invest is most apparent in the cause, a chance to lay the foundation for Canadian women to earn a living playing pro soccer at home. The lasting impacts of that are positive in every way.
Making it sustainable long-term is about making it profitable. Six teams paid a CDN $1 million franchise fee, and each is expected to invest eight to ten times that amount over the first five seasons, according to the Canadian Press. When co-founder and Chief Growth Officer Diana Matheson announced the vision for the NSL (then Project 8) in December 2022, Vancouver and Calgary were already on board. Matheson estimates it would be five to ten years before franchises become profitable. “This is not a tech investment, it’s not going to pay you back in six months,” Matheson said. “You want to have your money in this for a decade.”
The Calgary Wild are owned by a group of shareholders that are spread out over North America and Europe. There is currently no controlling shareholder, and they are approaching the venture as a sports startup. As is common with successful startups, the big payday is on the exit. “We are running this to become cash positive at the end of year four,” said Deanna Zumwalt, Board Chair. “Right now, women’s sports is already an interesting alternative asset class. [With the NSL] you can get in at a price point that is manageable, not only for deep-pocketed billionaires, but [comparatively] modest millionaires as well.”
Sinead King, Chief Business Officer of Vancouver Rise, explained that jumping in from the outset was enticing for several reasons and cited the exponential rise in franchise fees with the U.S.-based National Women’s Soccer League. In January, Denver’s ownership group paid USD $110 million to become the NWSL’s 16th franchise, the largest expansion fee ever paid for a U.S. women’s professional sports team. King pointed to the current valuation of Angel City FC, which was listed at $250 million in July 2024. They paid an expansion fee of $2 million to join the league just four years earlier. “There is a huge opportunity for those that are willing to take the risk,” King said. “You look elsewhere and this franchise fee is relatively low.”
The NSL enters a landscape that did not exist for women’s professional sport in Canada prior to 2024. Three of the six Professional Women’s Hockey League teams are based in Canada - Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto - with expansion within our borders a definite possibility. Next year, the Toronto Tempo will become the first Canadian WNBA franchise. Both leagues can provide examples of sustainability for the NSL and also present competition for the upstart venture. AFC Toronto, playing in Canada’s largest market, will have to contend within an ecosystem that has options for women’s sport in person and on TV.
“I am rooting for the NSL but it’s going to get super competitive over the next two to three years,” said Michael Naraine, Associate Professor, Sport Management at Brock University. “Diana and the NSL are banking on the fact that women’s sports is hot, there is demand in the country and demand from corporate Canada to invest. To be an engaging product, it’s going to have to resonate with the end consumer.”
There are over 50 corporate partners at the league and club level, including Air Canada, BMO, Canadian Tire, and Toyota, and broadcast deals have been inked with CBC and TSN along with ESPN in the U.S. The influx of investment has allowed for employment opportunities for not only the roughly 130 players who enter a league that has a minimum salary of $50,000 but also for approximately 370 more across operations, sales, marketing, and executive-level positions.
The long-term benefits at the individual level that are born from and can extend beyond the NSL are one of the aspects Matheson is most proud of. “What feels different is there is a clear and important purpose behind this thing, there are wider societal benefits, not just jobs, but careers available for those who haven’t found a place within the men’s game in this country.” For the NSL, purpose must lead to profit, and to that end, the reward of making dollars will have started with a risk on driving change. “We believe in the purpose and believe in the business,” Zumwalt said. “Our investors believe in this alternative asset class that is not turning around but continuing to grow.”
As the match kicked off at B.C. Place Stadium, emotions ran high for retired Canadian soccer icon Christine Sinclair, a co-owner of Vancouver Rise FC. “We have literally waited our whole career for this moment and to see this next generation of Canadians have this opportunity…all the young kids in the stands that can dream a different dream than I had growing up,” she said. “Right now, I'm a little emotional.”
The league consists of six Canadian-based teams in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax. Each team roster boasts both Canadian and International talent, including Team Canada veterans Quinn, Desiree Scott, and Erin McLeod. This diversity in talent aims to elevate the level of play and provide a platform for aspiring athletes in Canada.
As the NSL aims to grow, it also seeks to create a supportive environment for players. Expanded maternity leave, guaranteed contracts, and players not being waived or traded without their consent are historic gains built into the NSL’s standard player agreement. “It shouldn’t take seven years to have a good relationship with your players,” Matheson said. “We’re already leaps and bounds ahead of what the NWSL was in year one, even in terms of just having our own space, the conversations we’re having, facilities being built.”
International players are a key ingredient in elevating the caliber of any club or league. However, Matheson emphasizes that the priority remains on developing Canadian players to broaden the field of talent for the national team. The goal is to have approximately one-third of Canada’s World Cup roster playing in the league by the 2027 tournament in Brazil.
Looking ahead, future growth depends on building an audience. Matheson said they have metrics showing there’s been a solid Canadian fanbase following women’s soccer since at least 2012, and sponsors are ready to get on board. In 2015, when Canada hosted the Women’s World Cup, 20.8 million Canadian viewers tuned in, nearly a third of all households in the nation.
The next steps involve monetizing media rights. As a new league, they invested $3 million into game production to start, with the goal of reaching as many people as possible by airing games on TSN and CBC in Canada and on ESPN+ in the U.S. Much of the funds for investments come from corporate partners — a C$1 million per annum injection from Canadian soccer and the NSL franchise buy-in of C$1 million.
The branding of the NSL is key to its success as well. The league intentionally doesn’t use the words “women” or “Canada” in its name. Players who don’t identify as women are welcome. Matheson noted that if you look at the world’s top sporting leagues — the Premier League, the NFL, the NBA — none of those specify gender or nationality either. “We want to be inclusive. We want to be women-led. We want to be really, proudly Canadian. And we also want to be an internationally competitive women’s sports league,” Matheson said.
With former players Christine Sinclair, Mary Bowie, and, of course, Matheson all part of leadership, there’s a sense they are making a playing environment they wish they’d had for themselves. How that shakes out over the next few years remains to be seen, but a standard has been set, and as the eye of politics increasingly scrutinizes women’s sports, it’s clear that the players come first. “For me, what this league is about is making a place for those future stars we don’t know yet,” Matheson said. “And I’m excited to see who those are, and for Canadians to meet them.”
