Pro Woso by 2025: What questions remain.
How much did the CSA know and will they provide financial support?
It was clear from the announcement, that the CSA hadn’t been in the loop regarding the timing of the news, putting a statement out on their website and socials three days late. Unsurprisingly, in that silence, there was tons of speculation about how the CSA would react and whether they would publicly endorse Project 8’s efforts. Many seemed to agree that announcing a league without sanctioning was pre-emptive and naive. Nevertheless, only 6 months after launching, the CSA granted Project8 official league membership at their AGM in May of 2023.
Regardless, of the timing of their statement, the CSA had been aware of Diana’s efforts for at last a year before the announcement. The concept was first presented to the Board roughly one year ago. Breagha Carr-Harris, the Head of Professional Women’s Football at the CSA, and Diana have been in touch since Carr-Harris was hired in Spring of 2022. The CSA ultimately put out a statement, praising Project 8’s efforts and announcing their support of the proposal:
“This is excellent news for our sport and Canada Soccer is in support of the proposal for the launch of a women’s professional league in Canada” - Dr. Nick Bontis (Former CSA President)
“The addition of a Canadian professional women’s league advances the game and player pathways domestically and it strengthens the ecosystem globally. We are excited that our research and strategic planning in the past few months aligns with the vision put forward by Diana Matheson and Project 8.” - Breagha Carr-Harris
The road is still long, but it’s one Project 8 feels confident about and should feel confident about based on initial statements. Breagha Carr-Harris will certainly be an ally in this regard. You also can’t count out the Christine Sinclair factor, as her presence in this venture has brought another level of media and fan attention.
Traditionally, most successful women’s leagues worldwide have relied heavily on the investment or operational involvement of their federation, at least in the first 5-10 years of their existence. The WSL, for example, is operated by the FA and only this year sold the rights, and for the first 10 years the NWSL was managed by the USSF. Same with the Bundesliga, Liga Femenina, Liga MX, the list goes on and on. Dr. Bontis has made it clear that the CSA has no intention of operating a women’s league, stating its role as a governing body rather than an operational entity. This shifts the burden to private investors who will need to step up in the creation of a league. It’s unclear how much money the CSA will be able to put towards the league. They have committed to investing similar amounts in P8 as the CPL (in the ballpark of 3-4 million), but where will that money come from? It’s a good question considering the absolute tirefire of a financial reality the federation faces. Given how small CSA’s budget already is, Carr-Harris’ role will be crucial in securing any eligible FIFA funding, as all requests must be made through federations.
What does this mean for CPL / CSB?
Here’s another stakeholder that was late to the party with their reaction to Project 8’s statements. Four days later, the CPL’s statement came with mixed reactions, many found their statement to be patronizing and vague. To be fair, they used all the right language stating they were aware of the proposal, interested in any initiative that will help contribute to the growth of Canadian soccer, and reviewing all options in the professional women’s soccer space.
Canadian Soccer Business, the mysterious business arm of Canadian soccer which owns the CPL, have been facing the question of whether they’re starting a women’s league since 2019 when the CPL first kicked off. In the early days, they even hired Carmelina Moscato as the Manager of Women’s Professional Football Development. Unfortunately, Carmelina left the organization just over a year later to pursue other opportunities abroad. Based on my information, her time with the organization was frustrating related to the lack of support and resources she received from those in positions of authority. In the three years since the position became vacant, it has not been re-posted and the organization has done little to assure fans they are working on it behind the scenes. The fact is, many expected them to build a women’s CPL eventually, but this announcement changed everything. It’s hard to imagine they’ll compete with Project 8 to build a tier 1 league. They still have the opportunity to build out their existing League 1 Canada system to become a second league, but they missed the boat on building the first division because they did not approach the issue with the sense of urgency or ambition Project 8 demonstrated with their launch.
One more thing to consider is that thanks to CSB’s deal with Canada Soccer, they own the rights to CanWNT games outside of the World Cup and the Olympics. They also negotiate sponsorship deals on behalf of Canada Soccer. Therefore, any money flowing into CSB from the women’s side will not be used to build a top-flight pro women’s league, and that funding is unavailable to Diana and Project 8 as of right now. On the contrary, that money will continue to fund the men’s league and to a lesser extent, League 1 Canada’s women’s and men’s leagues.
Who will the other teams be?
That’s the million-dollar question. We don’t know yet, but you can expect to find out over the month. Sources tell us that the total number of teams will be six, maybe seven, but not eight teams as initially targeted. All those talks have been behind the scenes and kept under wraps. Whitecaps’ involvement certainly put pressure on TFC and CF Montreal to get involved. Unlike the Whitecaps, TFC has never invested in the women’s game and CF Montreal only instituted their girls academy in Summer 2023. Given the resurgence of talented players from Quebec on the National team, and the excellent work being done at the grassroots level through the National Development Center, the PLSQ, and Quebec Soccer, it’s a shame that CFM won’t be involved per their GM. He went on record saying it’s not a priority for the club as they’ll focus on the girls’ game. It certainly looks like there will be a Quebec-based team though. AS Blainville could be a strong candidate for a pro women’s team, and so could other L1QC franchises. Then there’s also the possibility of a new entity investing in the women’s game.
Now, TFC is another matter entirely. When AFC Toronto launched, it became clear that MLSE had once again failed to invest in women’s sports. They have been promising to do something for women in the “next 3-5 years” for the last decade and once again missed the boat. Perhaps they still have their sights set on the NWSL, a much more established American product. Realistically, Maple Leaf Sport & Entertainment, who own the Raps, Leafs, and Argos, is the only entity in the Canadian Sports market left that could easily afford the NWSL’s expansion fee of 50$ million USD (compared to Project 8’s 1$ million CAD fee).
CPL teams have likely been assessing their willingness and ability to invest in the domestic women’s game. Not many clubs commented publicly on their interest in joining this new women’s league, but Scott Mitchell (CEO - Hamilton Sports Group) said Forge is “interested to find out more about the recent developments”. HFX Wanderers President Derek Martin previously stated “We want to be ready when the opportunity [having a professional women’s team] presents itself” when they launched their League 1 Atlantic Women’s team. Now that there’s a team (almost) confirmed in Halifax, one can only hope the two clubs will collaborate. Among other candidates are SixFive Sports who own Pacific and Vancouver in the CPL and could field a third team in the West division. Atletico Ottawa is an option, owners Atletico Madrid have affiliated women’s teams in Spain and Mexico already, and the city has a strong past in women’s soccer dating back to the Ottawa Fury days (formerly played in the W-League). Saskatoon is also an option, as the organization is hoping to strengthen its case for building a modest soccer-specific stadium, but that feels like a long shot.
It will be interesting to see whether any entirely new teams and brands emerge over the next year. There’s no shortage of possible smaller cities that have strong footy cultures, such as London, Hamilton, Quebec City, or even a place like Moncton, hosts of the 2015 Women’s World Cup. We’ve seen down South that entirely new, women-led brands like Angel City, San Diego, and Kansas City immediately lead the way in terms of building successful women’s sports brands and fandoms. Another option could be the addition of a global brand like Man City, Red Bull or aforementioned Atlético, who have sister clubs in multiple countries.
Other innovative models could involve robust fan ownership modelled after concepts in leagues like the German Bundesliga. There’s no shortage of options, but it’ll be interesting to follow along as the rest of the clubs are announced in mid 2024.
Where are we on a broadcast deal?
No word yet on specifics regarding a broadcast deal, but Project 8 has made it clear that visibility is the immediate goal for any broadcast deal the league will seek. It’s important to remember that leagues like the WSL and FAWSL prioritized visibility through free streaming options like the FA Player, YouTube, and Twitch, before signing more lucrative TV deals after 8-10 years of existence. Nathalie Cooke, former VP at TSN who spent 9 years with TSN/Bell and 4 with Canada’s Olympic Broadcaster, is advising the broadcast strategy with Project 8. Cooke was one of the first women worldwide to lead multiple Sports networks. She previously served as the Chair of Canadian Women & Sport, and is currently the chair of their Commercial Women Sport Advisory Group. Given her lengthy list of accolades, it’s fair to say this woman will be able to make this league visible. Whether that’s through a deal with a company like TSN or Sportsnet, our national broadcaster CBC, a streaming service like DAZN or Twitch, remains to be seen. You’d imagine she also has a key skill set in identifying the barriers women’s sports fans encounter in accessing women’s sports, and how marketing and promotion can help create a new level of visibility.
One piece of information we have is that Dome productions is listed as a “Supporting Partner” on the website. An important factor in the success of any sports league is the production quality, as evidenced by the on-going meme about NWSL’s games looking like they’ve “been filmed with a potato”. Dome productions has worked with leading North-American Sports leagues like the NHL, NBA and MLB, meaning they could provide the quality of broadcast needed for the league’s success.
The second production option Project 8 was Mediapro, the company that handles production and broadcasting of most National Team games and all CPL games through their streaming platform called Onesocer. That option may be gone now after Canadians learned that CSB is suing Mediapro over not adhering to the payment schedule. Stay tuned.
What will the League name and branding be?
It would have been nice to have a name for this league already, but they saved that announcement to keep suspense levels high. The branding for the league is expected to be unveiled in March.
The biggest question is whether they include the word women’s in the league name or not. While that may seem like an odd question, leadership will have to consider whether they include it based on who they will include in the league. As we’ve seen in the PHF (formerly NWHL) and in the NWSL, there are athletes who identify as non-binary competing in these leagues. I’m assuming this project takes a similarly inclusive approach toward non-binary players, especially considering our very own National Team star Quinn came out as non-binary in 2020. Similar thought must be given in the creation of a logo and visual brand.
In addition the ‘W’ question is one that remains salient in women’s sport. The fact remains that when we add the W to women’s leagues without adding the M to the men’s leagues, it implies the male version is the default. Christine Sinclair led a campaign in partnership with YWCA of Vancouver about this very issue a few years back. Some people will not worry about this, but it’s something Diana and her team must consider as they decide on the league name and branding.