A group of soccer enthusiasts are trying to get some support for a pitch to bring a professional women’s soccer team to Waterloo Region. The Northern Super League calls itself ‘Canada’s professional women’s soccer league.’ Its inaugural season began in April 2025 and it is now comprised of six teams: Calgary Wild FC, Halifax Tides FC, Montreal Roses FC, Ottawa Rapid FC, AFC Toronto and Vancouver Rise. A seventh team, known for now only as NSL Winnipeg, is set to join the league in 2027. “The NSL has said they will be adding more teams to the league. They’re going to put a [request for proposals] out,” explained Melissa Durrell, one of the people who is trying to make the Waterloo Region Football Club (WRFC) a reality. “Waterloo Region will be putting a bid forward when the NSL puts out there that they’re accepting a new team. Part of what we’re going to be doing for the next four months is trying to put the best bid together so it’s a no-brainer that they’re going to choose our bid.” The campaign has some all-star support from the player who scored Canada’s first ever World Cup goal, Helen Stoumbos. “Obviously growing up and playing soccer when I did, there wasn’t really a lot of attention on the women’s game,” Stoumbos told CTV News. Stoumbos is hoping to give women and girls a chance to develop their love for the game closer to home. “For me to play pro, I played for the Buffalo FFillies for a couple of years and there wasn’t really anything here.” She believes now is the right time to promote the idea as more women and girls are joining professional teams either as players or as part of the administration team. “I think women and girls seeing what’s possible for them is really important, and that’s what I hope this brings to the table.” Kicking off the campaign The group behind the bid has already designed a logo and started a petition. During a match between AFC Toronto and Calgary Wild at BMO Field on Sunday, more than 100 young athletes held WRFC signs and wore yellow shirts that read, “Waterloo lives soccer.” Hayden Konstant and Addi Watson, U11 players with Kitchener TFC, were part of the demonstration. “People were definitely looking at us like, ‘Wait, what are these people doing here?’” Konstant recalled. “We were just trying to get the word out and make it so people have an idea of what we’re going to do or try to do,” she said. Meanwhile, Watson believes there’s a local market of soccer fans who would support a professional team. “We have over like 300,000 people in Waterloo and it’d be nice to actually have a soccer team here,” Watson said. The pair also noted that geographically, people who were hoping to avoid traffic to Toronto may consider driving to the region instead. “It’s like a two-hour drive there and back, so it’s like a four-hour drive total,” Konstant said. “It would be very convenient and very exciting to see our heroes play right in Waterloo and maybe we can do that someday as well.” The efforts have not gone unnoticed. In an emailed statement to CTV News, an NSL spokesperson said, “We are aware of the passionate petition to bring a Northern Super League club to Waterloo and deeply appreciate the support from the Waterloo soccer community.” “While no formal expansion decisions have been made, hearing such strong demand for professional women’s soccer is incredibly encouraging as we build [on] our inaugural season,” the statement continued. If successful, the team would need to build a professionally sized stadium. Investors will be needed to help fund the project. “For us, it’s about community support. It’s about financial investment and it’s also about infrastructure,” Durrell said.
