‘We finished the foundation’: Northern Soccer League looks to build on first season

For those at the forefront of Canada’s first women’s professional soccer league, the goalposts are shifting heading into the second season.

Season one was all about launching the Northern Super League, said Diana Matheson, the league’s founder and chief growth officer.

Now, on the cusp of season two, the focus shifts from making history to creating a legacy.

“From our perspective at the league and all the clubs, it just feels really, really stable,” Matheson said.

“The goal of year one was really exist — kick off and exist and get through the year. And we were so happy with where the year ended. I think we set ourselves pretty high expectations and goals, but we hit them. … We finished the foundation, and now it’s about accelerating growth for the future.”

The NSL will kick off its second season Friday with the defending champion Vancouver Rise hosting AFC Toronto in a rematch of November’s final.

Many lessons learned during the inaugural campaign will be put into action this year, said NSL president Christina Litz.

“I think we were truly a startup in all senses of the word last year,” she said.

“You’re definitely building the plane while you’re flying it. And so we were operating a lot by instinct. We were operating a lot with the great story of bringing a (women’s) pro league, pro soccer to Canada.”

Each of the league’s six teams played 25 games in 2025, starting on April 16 when the Rise took a 1-0 victory over the Calgary Wild in front of more than 14,000 fans at B.C. Place.

More than 275,000 tickets to NSL games were sold over the next seven months, with the league averaging almost 4,000 fans in the stands across the season. More than 1,000,000 people tuned into November’s final.

Those numbers show that there’s a market for women’s soccer in Canada, Litz said, but there’s still room to grow.

“We’re not satisfied with that,” she said. “We definitely want to see attendance get to some of the big men’s pro league attendance. But we believe that as we continue to grow, that that is achievable.”

The league has already announced plans to add a seventh team in 2027.

On the field, play remained competitive throughout the NSL’s first season, with an average of 2.6 goals per match and 85 per cent of games being decided by two goals or less. Across the league, 65 players scored.

Several players were scooped up by other leagues over the off-season, including former Toronto midfielder Emma Regan, who was transferred to the NWSL’s Denver Summit, and Vancouver standout Holly Ward, who joined the Seattle Reign.

Seeing players move to other league is a “great sign of things to come,” said Matheson, a former member of the Canadian national team.

“The reality is, soccer, it’s different than most big North American Sports, right?” she said. “It’s a global market, and all the top leagues in the world are buying and selling leagues. And that’s what we are, too, at the NSL.”

Ward was a relative unknown before becoming a star with the Rise last season, Matheson added, and there are other young talents waiting to emerge with the NSL.

“There was no doubt we had the depth of Canadian talent, but it’s so exciting to see the players come through that we wouldn’t have known had it not been for this league,” she said.

“Someone like a DB Pridham that has now made her way into the national team because of her stellar performances with the Ottawa Rapid. It’s been great to see that piece of it come to life with real names behind it.”

There’s work to be done on ensuring future waves of players make their way to the NSL and other leagues, Litz said.

The federal government announced in November that it would contribute up to $5.45 million to support the league and the growth of women’s professional soccer in Canada. That money is being used by each of the league’s six clubs to improve the facilities where they play and train.

“The soccer infrastructure, the training infrastructure in this country needs to improve,” Litz said. “And we built a league, so we’re naive enough to think that we can play a part in improving that side, too. So we’re hard at work in making sure that we’re also putting in place the elements that will make that ecosystem stronger.”

For Matheson, growing the NSL — and soccer in Canada — isn’t simply about what happens on the field.

“The building of this league was always about a lot more than just soccer,” she said. “Yeah, we want to have soccer outcomes — we want to develop more players, win a World Cup, create jobs for players.

“But it was always about creating the whole industry around it in women’s pro sport and creating opportunities for players and refs and women in business and sports science and sport media. And it’s been incredible to see that piece come to life.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026.

Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press