As teams from Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league head into the playoffs, its founder reflects on the inaugural season.
The Northern Super League (NSL) comprises six teams: Vancouver Rise FC, Calgary Wild FC, Halifax Tides FC, Montréal Roses, Ottawa Rapid FC, and AFC Toronto. The inaugural season kicked off in April 2025 at BC Place.
Diana Matheson, Northern Super League founder and former professional soccer player, said they are exactly where they want to be after Year 1 and that they have a lot to be proud of.
“From what we can benchmark against other leagues, in revenues, attendance, viewership, and player salaries, we’re already where we want to be in terms of fourth to eighth in the world in Year 1,” Matheson said. “There is still a lot to do; it’s still a startup, tons to build, but for Year 1 benchmarks, we’re really proud of what we’ve done this year.”
The first league match was played at BC Place in Vancouver on April 16, 2025, in front of 14,018 fans. The Vancouver Rise FC defeated the Calgary Wild FC 1-0.
Matheson said she felt a wave of relief wash over her before the start of that first match.
There had been a lot of stress and uncertainty in the three years leading up to that day, so there were a lot of feelings when stepping on the field with Christine Sinclair for a ceremony before the match started. It all became real and was no longer just a hypothetical.
Matheson could feel the energy and excitement of everyone in the stands.
The league’s fan reception across the country this season has been excellent, and Vancouver Rise FC fans were no exception.
“Vancouver has always had a pretty high bar, knowing the women’s soccer and soccer history in this city, and they’ve delivered,” she said.
The vibes at Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium during matches are “fantastic,” Matheson said.
Matheson has heard from countless young girls and parents about the league’s impact on them.
Many have shared that they have decided to stay in Canada to continue playing, rather than attend a university in the States, because of the NSL.
One of the challenges the league faced in its first year was scheduling.
She knew they would face challenges in the NSL’s first season, especially given the “lack of sport and soccer infrastructure in Canada” and its impact on multiple aspects, including the need to share stadiums.
“Making the schedule in our league is just such a challenge because we’re second, third, fourth tenant, and what a big impact that had on everything, even maybe more than we thought,” she said.
For instance, Rise FC is the third tenant at Swangard Stadium, and its impact is evident in the scheduling of matches.
“The fact that the first leg of the semifinals for Vancouver is on a Tuesday (Nov. 4), that is not priority one,” Matheson said. “We couldn’t secure weekend dates in Vancouver and in Ottawa, we couldn’t secure a Sunday, so literally, worst-case scenario in terms of those two teams having to do the travel and the turnaround, not the priority, but it was because we’re a new league, we didn’t have priorities of venues.”
As a new league, they hope to build on the partnerships they have with the facilities they use.
“Swangard, in the city of Burnaby, is a great example,” she said. “Not everyone knew what we were going to be. We were pretty clear on what we were going to be, but how is anyone else supposed to know until you see it?
“I think after this year, you can see what the Rise did in that stadium with the community. I think there’s going to be really strong conversations going on next year with the City of Burnaby and that stadium to make sure we can get that consistency of schedule.”
There is still more work to be done, Matheson said.
“We’ve got a job to do, to invest in building more soccer infrastructure in Canada so we can move the needle across Canada and venues,” she said. “The ideal would be to have consistency of game time, of game day, and even more so, to have the right sized venues, control all the revenues in those stadiums, which we just simply don’t have, and we won’t have until we start to build more soccer infrastructure in Canada.”
In early September, the league announced it was seeking to add a new team for the 2027 season.
Matheson told Black Press Media Friday (Oct. 24) that there has been significant interest so far for the next club from potential investors or owners in Canada and internationally.
“There has especially been a lot of international interest,” she said. “Folks looking at Canada, rightfully, as a leader in women’s sport, and it is a strength that we’re an independent league where every dollar we get to make the decision that’s best for the growth of women’s football.
“That’s not the case for most women’s leagues around the world. They’re still very tied to men’s football and men’s football owners, so we’re very well positioned for growth in Canada, in a country with one of the best women’s sports markets, whether that be player pool or fans.”
When considering where to expand, the league is looking at cities that want to help grow the league.
“We’re already very proactively looking at target markets and having conversations with those cities and those provinces to make sure wherever we go, there are the people in place who are going to help us either invest in existing infrastructure to make sure it’s ready to go in Year 1 for women’s soccer, or look to build as well.”