The inaugural regular season of the NSL wrapped up on Oct. 19 in Toronto, but the work is far from over.
Forget the fact there are still playoffs to decide a winner, there’s an expansion process currently underway and the day-to-day operations that take up everyone’s time, for NSL founder Diana Matheson said, “the point of year one was to exist.”
“Three years of work going into this, there was a lot of stress,” Matheson said during a media session at the National Soccer Development Centre in Vancouver. “There was a lot of uncertainty. And the thing we looked ahead to was the games, envisioning what the quality on the field could be, the fans in the stands, the broadcast. I would say the thing that’s been most rewarding is it’s been exactly where we wanted it to be for year one.”
Matheson said the NSL is a startup. And like any startup, the goal is to survive. And Canada, for all its positives, is not the easiest country to begin a brand-new sports league.
There is always something to overcome. In regards to soccer, certain obstacles shine brighter, but Matheson said many of these were known.
“I think the things we knew would be a challenge were challenges, things like the lack of sport and soccer infrastructure in Canada and just how that affected everything from … because we have to share stadiums, it affects game times. It affects revenues. Like making the schedule in our league is just such a challenge because we’re second, third, fourth tenant, and what a big impact had on everything, even maybe more than we thought.”
The lack of soccer facilities has also played a role in the Vancouver Rise’s upcoming playoff semi-final versus the Ottawa Rapid. Playing the only playoff match in Vancouver on a Tuesday night is not ideal, but as the third tenant at Swangard Stadium (Whitecaps FC 2 of the MLS Next Pro league and TSS Rovers of League1 BC both play there as well), finding dates that work can be difficult.
“We couldn’t secure weekend dates in Vancouver. And in Ottawa, we couldn’t secure a Sunday. So, literally worst-case scenario in terms of those two teams having to do the travel and the turnaround, not the priority. But it was because we’re a new league, we didn’t have priority in venues,” Matheson said.
NSL expansion coming in 2027
On Sept. 8, the NSL began the process to find an additional club. The goal is for this new club to begin in the 2027 season.
New ownership groups are to be evaluated from across the country; however, a particular emphasis on markets in Central and Western Canada has been previously stated.
In the time since the announcement, Matheson said there has been “lots of interest so far.”
“Lots of interest, and honestly, so much international interest, folks looking at Canada rightfully as a leader in women’s sport. And it is a strength we’re an independent league where every dollar in, we get to make the decision of what’s best of women’s football, and that’s not the case for most leagues around the world. They’re still very tied to men’s football and men’s football owners. So, we’re very well positioned for growth in Canada with one of the best women’s sports markets, whether that be player pool or fans. So, a lot of international interest for that, for the next club as well.”
But that same obstacle keeps rearing its head: a lack of soccer infrastructure in Canada. Stadiums in Canada either have tenants, are too big or too small and are usually made for different sports entirely.
“It’s a huge piece of the puzzle when we looking at choosing a city,” Matheson said of the lack of appropriate stadiums. We’re already very proactively looking at target markets and having conversations with those cities and those provinces to making sure wherever we go, there’s the people in place who are going to help us either invest in existing infrastructure to make sure it’s ready to go in year one for soccer or look to build as well.”
Interesting from Matheson was the level of international interest in Canada and the NSL as a potential investment. She said investors from individuals involved in other sports, from individuals outside sports and from existing owners of clubs outside of Canada have all expressed interest.
“The multi-club ownership model is more and more popular. So, there’s a few owners of that type, for sure,” she said.
As for the number for clubs, the goal is to add one, but the door is open to multiple offers.
“Never say never. We’re a startup, and we’re flexible. And if two world-class bids came forward, we’d have a look at it. We’re very happy with seven for the next year though. It does have a bye weekend, but actually the schedule strangely actually works out better in some ways too, because each team is playing the other six teams four times. Now, you’ve got even home and away. And the flexibility of someone having a bye week helps our infrastructure problem. So, we actually quite like the seven-team form for at least a year.”
So, while Matheson said the point of the first year was to exist, their progress suggests they have surpassed that.
They are thriving.
