The Northern Super League (NSL), Canada’s new professional women’s soccer league, is less than two months away from kicking off with the much-anticipated inaugural season schedule released in late February.
The six-team league, featuring clubs from coast to coast — Vancouver Rise FC, Calgary Wild FC, AFC Toronto, Ottawa Rapid FC, Montreal Roses FC and Halifax Tides FC — is set to kick off on April 16 with a match between the Vancouver Rise and Calgary Wild at the iconic B.C. Place, in celebration of Canada’s first-ever professional women’s soccer game.
The western matchup will be the first of 75 regular season games that are on the schedule for 2025, with the opening week slate continuing on April 19 as AFC Toronto and the Montreal Roses battle at BMO Field, home of Toronto FC.
The other four teams will also host their home opener in the league’s first few weeks, beginning with the Halifax Tides’ home debut at Wanderers Grounds on April 26 against the Calgary Wild.
The following day, the Ottawa Rapid open their home schedule against their Ontario rivals at TD Place Stadium before playing Montreal in the Roses’ home debut on May 3 at Centre Sportif Bois-de-Boulogne in Laval.
Calgary Wild rounds out the opening schedule of home contests with a Mother’s Day matchup against the Ottawa Rapid at McMahon Stadium on May 11.
Each team will play 25 regular season contests in 2025, with Calgary, Halifax and Ottawa playing 13 home and 12 away matches, while Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver play 12 games at home and 13 away.
Teams will be awarded three points for a win and one for a draw, while a loss gets zero points.
Point totals will be vital as only the top four teams will qualify for the inaugural NSL playoffs, with the first seed playing the fourth seed and the second seed battling the third seed in a two-leg home and away series. The teams that accumulate the most goals against their opposition in the semifinal will advance to the one-game championship match to be played on Nov. 15.
From April 16 to Nov. 15, the NSL will be broadcast across multiple platforms with TSN airing 20 regular season contests and CBC showing eight. There will also be a “Game of the Week” streaming on both the CBC Gem app and on NSL.ca, while an additional 24 games will co-stream across TSN+ and NSL.ca.
French-language broadcasts will be available with 21 matches on RDS and four airing on Radio-Canada through ICI TÉLÉ and ICI TOU.TV.
For the complete Northern Super League schedule, visit nsl.ca.