Project Eight
For Project 8, the new Canadian professional women’s soccer league set to begin in 2025, the PWHL's early days “have been reassuring,” according to Julia Ranney of the TORONTO STAR. Since that first puck drop at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, the hockey league has “proven there's an appetite for more women’s professional sports in North America," with sold-out arenas and soaring viewership. Project 8 co-founder & CEO Diana Matheson said, “The successful PWHL launch is validating my excitement for what women’s pro sport can do in Canada.” Matheson: “Societally, culturally, we need a women’s soccer league in Canada. Just like the PWHL, we need the next generation growing up and seeing that men’s and women’s pro sports are normal.” Project 8's greatest challenges “might be competition for fan interest and elite talent.” In the U.S., the NWSL -- which opened its 12th regular season on Saturday -- launched in 2012 with eight teams and averaged 4,270 fans per game. Today, the league has 14 teams and averaged 9,916 fans last season. Those are “ambitious numbers for Canada's new league to aspire to,” but profitable leagues “need big-name players.” While the PWHL is home to the best women’s hockey players in the world, Project 8 is “competing with international leagues that can offer higher salaries” -- including the NWSL, the Women's Super League in England and Spain's Liga F. CIBC, Air Canada, DoorDash and Canadian Tire are Project 8’s founding partners. Air Canada and Canadian Tire also sponsor the PWHL. Project 8 also “faces different barriers.” For one, Canada “remains more of a hockey nation,” which could “make it more difficult to build a fan base and gain a foothold financially” (TORONTO STAR, 3/17).
