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You might say it’s absurd that it took this long, and you’d be right. 

But we’re finally close to having a professional women’s soccer league right here in Canada—dubbed the Northern Super League—and the future Vancouver team has just unveiled its name and logo.

At a swish launch event last night (August 26) at D/6 Bar & Lounge, team president Sinead King and sporting director Stephanie Labbé were joined by Northern Super League president Christina Litz to unveil the Vancouver Rise FC.

“The future of women’s soccer in this city, and indeed in this country, is bright,” Litz said to the crowd of sport insiders, soccer players, and media. “And it all started with you.”

The team name is apt, not only for its connotations to rising mountain peaks but also (and more importantly) for its nod to rising to the occasion—something that Canada’s women soccer players have had to do time and time again, even as the country seemed to say that it didn’t have a place for them. That ends now.

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“It’s time this city has a team of their own,” said Labbé, a retired goaltender who helped take Team Canada to bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics and then to gold in Tokyo in 2020. “Vancouver is ready.”

“We want this to be Vancouver’s club,” King added.

The Northern Super League will launch in 2025 with six teams: Vancouver, Calgary Wild FC, AFC Toronto, Ottawa Rapid FC, Halifax Tides FC, and Montreal (whose club name has yet to be revealed). Vancouver Rise home games will happen at BC Place, and they’ll be televised on both TSN and CBC. Season ticket information will be available in the coming weeks; those who are eager can fill out a form of interest here.

All I can say is: Vancouver, you’d better be ready to turn up and turn out for this team. It’s up to us to prove that this league is important by attending matches, buying merch, sharing stats on social, and tuning into games on TV. This is not just about current players (who will start to be announced in the next couple of weeks)—it’s about building a foundation of women’s sport right here at home so that future generations can see themselves in it.

“I never knew what a professional career could look like in Canada,” Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Academy player Kaylee Hunter told the crowd. “Now every girl on my team is excited about the Northern Super League.”