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Jocelyne Larocque (3) of PWHL Toronto is skating with the puck during a Professional Women's Hockey League game against PWHL New York at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada, on February 23, 2024.
It’s been a banner year for professional women athletes. The Professional Women’s Hockey League launched to sellout crowds last winter, wrapping its first season last night in a game-five final that saw Minnesota make history by beating Boston to take home the Walter Cup.
As the PWHL heads to the off-season, Canada prepares to launch a women’s pro soccer league in the spring of 2025 — the Northern Super League — with teams in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Halifax. The US has had its own professional league, the 14-team National Women’s Soccer League, since 2012, though it’s a successor to two previous leagues whose history stretches back to the early 2000s.
Get the ball rolling. With women’s hockey and soccer growing in Canada and the US, the WNBA also wants in on the action. So it has been announced that Toronto will become home to the league’s first Canadian team starting in 2026. The team, which has yet to be named, is the league’s 14th team and will play its games in downtown Toronto.
With women’s pro sports enjoying a surge in popularity, athletes, fans, and investors will be looking for opportunities to grow teams and leagues – and to put to rest the myth that women’s leagues can’t compete. At the same time, while their popularity grows, players in women’s leagues will continue to push for pay equity with male athletes.