It’s a peculiar way to start a new league by announcing only two franchises. The proposed and as-yet unnamed Canadian women’s professional soccer league will clearly be a work in progress as it develops.
London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics bronze-medallist Canadian player Diana Matheson, in an interview on TSN on Tuesday, said she hopes for teams “from Vancouver Island to the Maritimes” as she looks ahead to a proposed 2025 launch.
Matheson and Canadian national team captain Christine Sinclair are spearheading the bid for the new league, which aims to start with eight franchises. So far, however, only teams for Vancouver, associated with the MLS Whitecaps, and Calgary, associated with the USL-2 Foothills, have been announced.
“I believe negotiations are on-going across the country and would hope that the MLS teams in Toronto and Montreal also step forward as ownership groups,” said women’s soccer coach Dave Dew of Victoria.
“It’s definitely got to happen because of what’s happened on the men’s side with the Canadian Premier League.”
Dew noted the Whitecaps have long had a women’s team in various leagues. Dew coached the ‘Caps women for three seasons. He also noted that Foothills FC has an existing women’s team playing in a U.S. league so are “positioned for this.”
Dew also coached the old Victoria Highlanders in 2010 and 2011 in the semi-pro W League, based mostly in the U.S.
But whether there will be an Island team in the new Canadian women’s league to match Pacific FC in the men’s pro CPL remains to be seen.
“I can’t see that at the moment, especially with the PFC ownership group starting a new CPL men’s team next year on the Lower Mainland [Vancouver FC],” said Dew.
PFC co-owner Rob Friend and managing-director Paul Beirne could not be reached for comment Tuesday. According to the CBC, the cost of a franchise in the proposed Canadian women’s pro league is expected to be between $8 million to $10 million, so the investment will not be insignificant.
“Financing is the big issue, but if you follow the CPL model with sponsors such as WestJet and CIBC, and now there is also streaming as a big option that didn’t exist before,” said Dew, former World Cup assistant coach for sa国际传媒.
The cost appears steep, but a women’s pro league is needed, say those in the game.
“This women’s league will create opportunities and pathways where they didn’t exist before, especially for players not on the national team, and who are coming out of universities,” said University of Victoria Vikes head coach Tracy David, a former national team player.
But only two investor groups have jumped at the chance so far across the country.
“It takes guts and vision,” said David.
“Maybe a league for women run by women is a better place to be.”
sa国际传媒 is the defending Olympic women’s soccer champion from Tokyo, yet without a pro league of its own. It is estimated more than 100 Canadian women’s players are playing pro soccer in the U.S. or Europe. Island players playing or to have played overseas include Katie Kraeutner, Mariel Solsberg, Jaclyn Sawicki, Liz Hansen, Emma Fletcher and Puck Louwes.
The idea is to repatriate those Canadian players and give them a home-grown option to play soccer for a paycheque. Also proposed is having at least one national-team player on each club.
