Matheson looking forward to Northern Super League championship game

TORONTO – Some seven months after its opening kickoff, the inaugural Northern Super League season wraps up Saturday with the championship game at Toronto’s BMO Field.

“It’s flown by. I can’t believe we’re almost at the end here,” league co-founder Diana Matheson said.

“We’re all pretty excited for Saturday,” she added. “So much work went into this first season — on the field, off the field, from the supporters — and we really want Saturday to be a celebration of women’s pro sport in Canada.”

And with the Grey Cup coming one day later in Winnipeg, it really is a Canadian championship weekend.

Matheson is hoping to sell out the lower bowl at BMO Field for the showdown between AFC Toronto and Vancouver Rise FC. And the weather appears to be co-operating, with the forecast calling for 7 C and light rain.

That’s a major improvement from the blizzard that hit Ottawa for Sunday’s CPL championship game between Cavalry FC and Atletico Ottawa and the snow that pushed back the NSL semifinal second leg between AFC Toronto and the visiting Montreal Roses a day to Monday.

AFC Toronto finished atop the regular-season-standings at 16-6-3, 12 points ahead of third-place Vancouver at 11-8-6.

The teams split their five-game regular-season meetings with each team finishing 2-2-1.

Both finalists helped kick off the league with high-profile openers, with Vancouver defeating the visiting Calgary Wild 1-0 April 16 before an announced crowd of 14,018 at B.C. Place Stadium. Three days later, Toronto lost 1-0 to the Montreal Roses before 14,518 at BMO Field.

Matheson will be combining business and pleasure Saturday, trying to watch the fruits of her work while connecting with everyone from friends, family and fans to league owners and CONCACAF and FIFA representatives.

The debut season has been a home run, the former Canadian international believes.

The league says more than 275,000 people purchased tickets in 2025 to see players from 19 countries.

“The hope was if we build it, they will come,” Matheson said. “And the biggest question was would the players come, would the fans come? And it’s been an overwhelming yes. We’ve been so pleased with the quality of play.”

And the domestic women’s league has struck a chord with so many, she added. 

“It’s overwhelming sometimes … I cannot tell you how people come up to us every day and just tell us how passionate they are about this thing. So that’s incredible and keep us motivated to make sure this thing keeps getting bigger and better.

“There’s still lots to do. It’s a startup and we’ve got lots more to do to grow this thing. Us and the PWHL and WNBA Canada and Toronto Tempo, we’re building women’s pro sport from scratch … We want to make sure we’re bringing the rest of Canada along with us and getting more and more folks to invest in sport.”

The league is already looking at adding a seventh team in 2027 with a focus on Central and Western Canada.

The league has an expansion committee made up of representatives of current team ownership and the league as well as the Whitecap Sports Group (WSG), a Florida-based international investment bank and advisory group that has been engaged to help find potential new owners.

While it is too early to say where the seventh team may land, Matheson said the league is drawing international interest.

“What’s coming though clear is that Canada is a really interesting market for global investors that are looking to invest in women’s pro sports and women’s soccer,” said Matheson. “A lot of outside capital is looking at Canada for what it is, which is one of the best women’s sport countries in the world, and looking at the Northern Super League’s really strong numbers that stack it really competitively against other global leagues already.”

Growing the sport’s infrastructure remains a pressing need. Matheson hopes the 2026 World Cup will help bring private and public sector together to build much-needed soccer stadiums.

All the work that went into building the league will likely hit home after the final whistle when Matheson presents the Diana B. Matheson Cup to the winning team.

Asked how that will feel, Matheson says she won’t know until Saturday.  

“It seems a bit surreal now,” she said. 

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2025.