YORKTON - It was an historic day for Canadian sports, for women’s sport and for soccer in this country as the Calgary Wild took to the pitch at BC Place to take on the Vancouver Rise.
The game April 16 was the inaugural game in the just-launched Northern Super League (NSL), Canada’s first professional domestic women’s soccer league.
Grace Stordy hails from Calgary and is now a member of the Wild. She told Yorkton This Week the opportunity the NSL provides Canadian players is something she greatly appreciates adding “growing up it wasn’t something I could look forward too.”
Now Stordy said Canadian players won’t automatically have to look abroad for professional opportunities. Now the NSL and its six teams provide a domestic option to consider which will afford the opportunity to play “in front of family and friends,” which she said is really an incredible thing.
Certainly the first game drew fans with some 14,018 at BC Place, who saw the home side win 1-0.
Stordy said the crowd and the significance of the game created a range of emotions leading up to the opening kick from excitement to fear, adding it was a case of just “trying to stay grounded” and to simply accept all the feelings and then focus on playing soccer.
Then on April 19, AFC Toronto and Montréal Roses FC drew 14,518 to BMO Field to watch a narrow 1-0 victory for Montréal.
Asked if that was a surprise, Stordy replied “yes and no.”
Stordy said she certainly felt the league launch was well-timed to succeed, given that interest in soccer is on the upswing in Canada, and there is a corresponding surge in interest in women’s sport, led by the WNBA, which is expanding to Toronto, and more recently the PWHL, which recently announced expansion to Vancouver.
“I think there is no better time for this league to be starting,” she said.
Of course the key is keeping those fans engaged moving forward.
“I think we just keep moving forward with what we’re doing,” said Stordy, adding it’s huge that games are being broadcast on CBC and TSN, because it puts eyes on the sport.
“Sports that don’t have fan support don’t have much of a future,” she said.
In that regard Stordy said she and her Wild teammates recognize they play a huge role in building the foundation for the NSL not just this season, but into the future. That role she said extends beyond on the pitch performance to interacting with media and fans to create the connections which bring those fans to games.
In that process is also a responsibility to create a future for Canadian players.
Stordy said she realizes many see the NSL as a future young Canadian players can now dream of, something she understands since that was missing in her youth.
Follow the league at www.nsl.ca.
