The Northern Super League is here!
Montreal and Ottawa sign on.
Wow!! Hope you’ve all recovered from the massive news day around the launch of the Northern Super League brand. What a historic and thrilling day it was for all those involved with the women’s game in Canada. I thought I’d take a second to summarize all of the news and notes that came out across several reports yesterday.
Here’s what went down:
Northern Super League brand announced
The hints started coming on Monday and culminated in Project 8 blacking out their social channels Tuesday night, sending out the cryptic message “from nothing came everything” around midnight.
At 2pm the following day, Diana Matheson made the announcement in person at the ESPNW Canada Summit at the Brickworks in Toronto. She unveiled the league name which intentionally omits the letter W in order to welcome folks of all genders, as well as indicate that men’s sport isn’t the default.
The colours were a primary bright teal and secondary bluish-purple alluding to the colours of the Aurora Borealis. Indeed there was a heavy galactic influence. The four-sided North Star is prominent and the serpentine (almost TSN-like?) font gives off a futuristic vibe. The hype video references a void and the beginning or “big bang” of a new era of women’s sports in Canada.
Interestingly the teal is similar to the colour used in League 1 Canada’s logo and the North Star is common to both L1 and the CPL, potentially alluding to some much-needed alignment across the Canadian soccer ecosystem.
“Be Where it All Begins” appears to be the new tagline, taking over from #itsTime born in the Project8 era. The video also mentions that we are now in year 1 A.D., the time after women’s pro soccer in Canada, and in my mind that stands for After Diana.
6/6 markets announced ✅, Montreal and Ottawa sign on
Then, the Montreal franchise news dropped early in the morning thanks to reporting from RC Sports and La Presse. We learned a decent amount about Montreal’s team. Isabele Chevalier and Jean-Francois Crevier will lead the franchise but hope to include community members in the ownership model. The duo aren’t soccer or sport people, but they’re being advised by Amy Walsh and former Alouettes president Patrick Boivin. Additionally, the team won’t have a permanent home in the first season, likely playing in two to three venues across the city. Team branding and ticket information is expected to be released this fall.
Also if you missed it, I went live with Mariam on Twitter Spaces last night to debrief and had the chance to bring in Ollie Tremblay from RC Sports who gave tons of insights about the Montreal team and process. Find it here: https://x.com/SHEscoresbanger/status/1795614260409831829
The Ottawa announcement drowned in the flurry of excitement surrounding the name release and was unceremoniously tacked on in the press release. Other than confirmation from the mayor, there was no further information released.
$1.5 million Salary Cap, $50k minimum salary
Matheson has said from the beginning that she intends to keep pace with salaries across the globe. Initially projected to be 1.1-1.2 million, the 1.5 million salary cap is higher than expected and comparable to leagues like the NWSL in its first decade of existence. For comparison, the CPL’s cap was just raised to 1.2 million.
The minimum salary of 50k is on par with the NWSL and will be higher than almost all European leagues. Let’s be real about the relatively low base salary women’s soccer players receive across the globe. Yes, stars are signing bigger contracts in the millions, but the average footballer makes very little money. For example, even players in the WSL can make as little as $34,000 CAD annually. Most players, depending on the budget of their clubs, make anywhere between $6-18k annually with essential support in housing, transportation, and food embedded in their contracts. To our knowledge, NSL teams are also looking to provide similar levels of support in these areas in addition to the base salary.
The only clubs they won’t be able to compete with are UWCL clubs and big-brand powerhouses like Chelsea, PSG, or Barcelona.
Competition Format: April to November, 25-game regular season followed by playoffs
As expected, the NSL will follow a summer schedule due to the climate. Training camps will kick off next January and the season is less than a year away with April 2025 being targeted.
Each team will play their opponents 5 times, totalling a 25-game regular season followed by a 4-team playoff format. The uneven amount of games against each opponent makes for an interesting challenge as it’ll have to be decided which team hosts 3 vs 2 times. From my perspective, that perfectly sets the stage for previously mentioned “hub” events which would bring teams together in a central location for 10 days or so and allow for extensive community engagement and knowledge sharing. We haven’t heard more on that yet but we’ll be sure to ask.
NO entry draft, Two-way trade system, player must consent
Despite having to launch without a collective bargaining agreement, it appears that off-field standards will be high. Matheson was a player union rep for both the CanWNT and the NWSLPA, meaning she’ll always have player rights in mind. Two ways she showed that were 1. Going away from the draft system, and 2. The two-way trade system in which a player must consent to be traded.
This will go over extremely well with women’s soccer fans who have traditionally disliked the practice of trading players with little notice and no input. NWSL teams like Angel City, Houston, and Kansas City have experienced significant backlash on this front in recent months. For example, Houston traded Nichelle Prince to KC on short notice. She posted on Instagram that this came as a surprise and was especially unfortunate considering she had just gotten married and bought a house in Houston with her husband.
Sportchek announced as 5th Sponsor
After Canadian Tire, Doordash, Air Canada, and CIBC, Sportchek entered the sponsorship chat. The company was on site during the announcement, sharing videos on socials and sharing words of support. This could be massive going forward if the league succeeds in getting Sportchek to stock their merch and especially kits.
On that note, we’ve heard from our sources that the NSL will likely sign a deal with a league-wide kit sponsor, similar to the NWSL, MLS and CPL. Macron is an early front-runner based on the design work they’ve done with Canadian teams across the pyramid. But the big players like Nike, Adidas, Puma, and Under Armour should certainly consider getting in on this from day one. The USL Super League (launches this Summer) just announced their partnership with Capelli.
NSL plans to invest in their own production, Broadcast Deal expected next week
“We know we're a growth market. So, we invest in our own production. We work with Canadian distributors to get in front of as many Canadian eyeballs as possible in the first few years and make sure it looks good.” Diana told TSN’s Meaghen Johnson. The NSL team will lean into a similar strategy as the PWHL did, who were able to unite all three major sports networks (for what feels like the first time ever) to show games across their platforms and free on youtube at the same time.
Dome productions popped up on Project 8’s website as a “supporting partner” early on in this process. The production company is known to work with major Sports leagues like the MLB, NHL, NBA, and even the nascent CEBL. This will likely go down as one of the biggest costs for the league but the investment is necessary to reach their ultimate goal of providing a high-quality, highly visible product.
To me, this means a limited-reach broadcaster like OneSoccer is unlikely to get its hands on this property, unless of course they decide to lift the paywall. More likely, NSL will work with major Canadian broadcasters TSN, CBC, and or SN to get games on their platforms while also making them available for free.
The broadcast strategy which will be released next week is informed by Nathalie Cooke, former VP at TSN who spent 9 years with TSN/Bell and 4 with Canada’s Olympic Broadcaster who has been advising league leaders on this matter.
5 Core Values unveiled
If you don’t care about corporate jargon and think mission/vision/values statements are bogus, go ahead and skip to the next section.
If you’re still reading this, the NSL’s core values were unveiled on their website (side note, fans were really stressing that server out early on resulting in multiple glitches and crashes). Here’s a look at what the owners came up with.
What stands out to me is the emphasis on being brave, promoting access, and being ambitious with their goals. The access piece, specifically, will be important as the league aims to include as many folks as possible. It’ll be interesting to see how the NSL lives these values day in and day out.
Expansion strategy to be announced later this year
We didn’t quite get to Project 8 (as in 8 teams) now did we? Insiders have known for a while that 8 was getting more and more unrealistic in the recent financial climate. That being said, we did reach the minimum 6 teams required, and that’s enough for us. Launching with an Original six teams inspires comparisons to the PWHL and early days of the NHL.
The goal is to expand to 8 teams sooner rather than later and that plan will be released later this year. Speaking to media after the launch, Matheson mentioned the Prairies specifically, and potentially another team out West (Hello Victoria???). With the core mission of increasing opportunities for Canadians outside of the big three markets, an expansion would certainly help elevate those soccer communities. Just off the top of my head, I like Moncton, Hamilton, London or Windsor, Winnipeg, Saskatoon or Regina, Edmonton, Kelowna or Victoria for potential expansion cities. I know, getting way ahead of myself already.
Calgary branding to be unveiled this Thursday
Next up, keep an eye on Calgary’s social media channels for their brand launch tomorrow. They’ve been teasing the news all month, dropping the following hints on Instagram: wild rose, moon rising, eye of an owl, and finally the Calgary tower was lit purple and red this past Sunday.
Follow @yycwfc on Instagram and keep an eye on NSL and Wsoccer.ca pages.
Reactions from the Group Chat
Last but certainly not least, CanXNT players got a sneak peek of the NSL branding during their camp in Montreal. Almost all of them have since shared messages of support and other athletes like Natalie Spooner, Jacob Shaffelgod (sorry, Shaffelburg), and Jonathan Osorio have chimed in as well. See below.
I’ll leave you with a quote from CSA CEO Kevin Blue, who has been very vocal in his support for Diana and the league since beginning his tenure. A real nice breath of fresh air considering our recent presidents have either not commented or opted to patronize us explaining that “we have to walk before we can run” (talking about you, Dr. Nick Bontis).
“Congratulations to everyone involved in the exciting evolution of the newly-named Northern Super League. Canada Soccer remains steadfast in its support for professional women’s soccer in our country, and we will continue to work alongside Diana and the staff to ensure a successful kickoff next April,”
- Kevin Blue, CEO and General Secretary at Canada Soccer
Here are some of my references and the best articles about the NSL launch:
https://www.lapresse.ca/sports/soccer/2024-05-28/une-nouvelle-equipe-feminine-a-montreal.php
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/sports/2076032/soccer-feminin-equipe-professionnelle-montreal