Two years ago it was all a hunch: build a national women’s soccer league, keep Canada’s best talent at home, and grow a thriving fanbase across the country.
“This was literally a dream,” said Northern Super League co-founder Diana Matheson.
asserted
Matheson → build → country
As the NSL celebrates the end of its second season with a championship final that saw AFC Toronto defeat the Montreal Roses 1-0 at TD Place in Ottawa on Saturday, that hypothesis is increasingly looking like a proven reality.
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hypothesis → celebrate → reality
This year, the league has attracted more than 250,000 fans across 75 regular season matchups, building on the momentum of its debut season in 2025, which culminated in a TV audience of more than 1.1 million Canadians who tuned in for the final matchup.
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who → attract → matchup
They’ve also secured a $30 million investment from Apex Capital, and they’ve created a homegrown talent pipeline with budding national superstars who are opting to play in Canada instead of heading south to the NCAA or further abroad.
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who → secure → NCAA
“That big, ambitious dream we put together is here,” said Matheson.
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Matheson → put → ?
And according to her, it’s all happening at exactly the right time.
uncertain
it → accord → time
“When we were launching this league, it was kind of 2025 or bust,” she said.
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she → launch → league
Capitalize on women’s sports boom
The timing felt urgent for two reasons.
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timing → capitalize → reasons
Not only did the NSL want to capitalize on the women’s sports boom, but they also knew the calendar likely wouldn’t position soccer as prominently for a long time.
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calendar → want → time
In the summer of 2026, North America hosted the FIFA Men’s World Cup.
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America → host → Cup
In the summer of 2027, the FIFA Women’s World Cup will take place in Brazil.
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Cup → take → Brazil
And in 2028, the Olympic Summer Games will come to North America for the first time since Atlanta hosted in 1996, when women’s soccer made its Olympic debut.
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soccer → come → debut
The NSL is strategically positioned to harness that momentum.
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NSL → position → momentum
“We’re excited to see, for the first time, players on a women’s World Cup team for Canada, who have a Canadian pro club attached to their name,” Matheson said.
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Matheson → ’re → name
“And it will be the first time ever where, following the tournament, Canadians can actually go watch these players on home soil for their pro clubs.”
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Canadians → follow → clubs
One of those is Kaylee Hunter, the 18-year-old breakout star who bypassed the NCAA to head straight to the NSL’s professional ranks when she signed with AFC Toronto ahead of the league’s inaugural season.
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she → bypass → season
Hunter has been among the league’s two leading regular-season scorers in consecutive years, collecting 31 goals and eight assists across all league and playoff matches.
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Hunter → lead → matches
In 2026, she ended the regular season with 41 shots on target — 12 ahead of the next closest in the rankings.
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she → end → rankings
“She’s absolutely a star and she’s not going to be the last that comes out of this Canadian market,” Matheson said.
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Matheson → ’ → market
“One of the most exciting things in starting this league was the players that we didn’t even know existed yet and giving them the chance to come up through a professional system.
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we → start → system
Stop the pipeline going down through the NCAA …
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pipeline → stop → NCAA
That is not optimized for Canadians.
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That → optimize → Canadians
Keep those top, top players, in a professional pathway here in Canada and then just watch the talent emerge.
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talent → keep → Canada
”
Benefits trickle down to grassroots
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Benefits → trickle → ?
The data is showing the benefits of keeping Canadian stars at home trickle down to the grassroots levels of the game.
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benefits → show → game
The 2026 Rally Report from Canadian Women & Sport shows seven in 10 girls identify as fans of pro women’s sports, and half of those say teams and leagues in Canada have increased their interest in playing.
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teams → show → interest
“We had a thesis around that, that the development of professional women’s sport in this country was going to lead to increased visibility for women’s sport, increased celebration, respect, value, things that shift the culture, and then that would have a positive effect on girls in our communities.
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that → have → communities
So obviously very excited to see that start to play out in the data,” said Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, the CEO of Canadian Women & Sport.
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Graves → see → Women
The numbers are important, because they prove Matheson’s hunch is more than just a lucky guess.
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hunch → prove → guess
“The Canadian Women & Sport work has been so important because before them, there was no data on women’s sport in Canada and it was really hard to argue against the naysayers because there were no numbers,” Matheson said.
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Matheson → be → naysayers
The report does note that girls are still participating in organized sport at a lower rate than boys, especially in their teens; just 66% of girls aged 13 to 15 report involvement in organized sport, and that number drops to 55% for those 15 to 18.
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number → note → 18
Matheson said NSL teams are hoping to be part of changing that with their community involvement and activation.
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teams → say → involvement
That, like everything she’s doing, will take time and energy.
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she → do → time
“It’s a grind,” she said.
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she → ’ → ?
It’s a startup.”
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It → ’ → ?
While there’s still work to do, she’s ready to admit she’s proud of what the league has accomplished in its first two seasons, both in the way it has impacted grassroots fans and in its place in the larger women’s sports business ecosystem.
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it → ’ → ecosystem
“These are really small dedicated teams behind the scenes that are putting this all together, but we’re really encouraged with where we’re at, at the end of the year two,” she said.
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she → put → year
The Aporia
