CBC/Radio-Canada to broadcast, live stream games of NSL's inaugural season
Vancouver hosts Calgary on April 16 to open Canadian pro women's soccer campaign
Canada's first professional women's soccer league unveiled its schedule Thursday afternoon, with all 75 Northern Super League regular-season matches to air across CBC, Radio-Canada, TSN and RDS.
Select games will also be streamed on CBC Gem, TSN+ and NSL.ca.
The Vancouver Rise FC will host Calgary Wild FC on April 16 at BC Place Stadium in the first-ever NSL match, which will be available on the free CBC Gem streaming service.
AFC Toronto will open its campaign at home against Montreal Roses FC in a April 19 match held at BMO Field that will be also be streamed on CBC Gem. York Lions Stadium will serve as Toronto's regular home.
Diana Matheson, chief executive officer and co-founder of the NSL, told CBC Sports on Thursday the league will compete with the best around the world.
"We know that because of the players we've attracted to this league," she said. "Quinn, Desiree Scott, Emma Regan, Erin McLeod [and] the internationals we brought in, the calibre of coaches we brought in.
"I think Canadians are going to love watching these players on the field, in the stadium, on TV."
On April 26, Halifax Tides FC will play its home opener against Vancouver, while Ottawa Rapid FC will debut in the nation's capital versus Toronto.
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Ottawa will then travel to Montreal, which will celebrate its inaugural home match on May 3 at Centre Sportif Bois-de-Boulogne in Laval, Que.
Mother's Day on May 11 will mark Calgary's home opener against Ottawa at McMahon Stadium.
Last June, CBC/Radio-Canada announced a multi-year partnership with the NSL.
"We're a new product, a new league," Matheson told Heather Hiscox of CBC News Network at the time. "We're not coming in with a built-in fanbase, but we know upwards of 20 million Canadians are fans of women's sport in some capacity, and we have to get in front of eyeballs.
"Ensuring our matches are available to Canadians is key to the long-term growth and viability of professional women's soccer," Matheson added in a released statement.
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CBC to air 8 regular-season games
This season, Calgary, Halifax and Ottawa will play 13 of its 25 regular-season matches at home, while Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver will host 12 games.
The CBC will broadcast eight regular-season contests and Radio-Canada and RDS will provide live French-language coverage of all Montreal Rose FC matches on their linear platforms.
A "Game of the Week" will co-stream simultaneously on CBC Gem and NSL.ca, while 24 other matches will co-stream simultaneously on TSN+ and NSL.ca.
There will be a single division, with three points awarded for a victory, one for a draw and zero for a loss.
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Each team will play a 25-game regular-season schedule, facing the other clubs five times. The top four sides will make the post-season with No. 1 playing No. 4 and No. 2 opposing No. 3 in two-legged semifinals. The higher-seeded clubs will play on home turf for their second game.
The squad with the higher total score in each semifinal will advance to the Nov. 15 championship game.
Sophia Ferreira, a university defender with the UBC Thunderbirds who previously played professionally in Portugal's Liga BPI, hopes the NSL can further bridge the gap from U Sports to the pro ranks.
"I think the NSL is putting a light on U Sports a little bit because we are the university league in Canada that will hopefully build to the NSL just like the NCAA Division 1 teams are the level below the NWSL [in the U.S.]," she told CBC Sports last September.
"So it's kind of shining a light and allowing people to actually look at us for once, which I'm hoping will happen and will actually be able to create a pretty good league with Canadian players plus people internationally."
Teams will initially operate under a $1.6-million salary cap with the league minimum salary set at $50,000. Each franchise will be allowed a marquee player whose pay will not count against the cap.
Unlike Major League Soccer, the NSL special salary slot will not come with a title (designated player in MLS) and Matheson says teams may not identify the player in question.
The new league is owned equally by the clubs, with Matheson and league co-founder Tom Gilbert holding an ownership stake in the Ottawa franchise. Future expansion teams will also buy into the league with each franchise holding an equal share.
