Calgary Foothills, Project 8 outline next steps for professional women’s soccer league – Calgary | 24CA News
Mya Jones may hardly consider the news as she stared down at her telephone.
As quickly as she’d discovered to kick a ball, her instincts had been driving her towards a profession in soccer. But even then, the objective concerned taking part in in Europe or the United States.
A professional staff? In Canada?
It appeared too far-fetched to even dream about.
Now, aspiring professionals like Jones and her Memphis Tigers teammate Grace Stordy gained’t simply have the chance to play of their house nation, they’ve an opportunity to remain of their hometown.
Calgary Foothills and the Vancouver Whitecaps — led by former Foothills member Steph Labbé — are the primary two groups confirmed to be becoming a member of an as-of-yet-unnamed skilled Canadian ladies’s soccer league, set to kick off in two years.
The Project 8 enterprise is headed by two-time Olympic bronze medallist Diana Matheson, her business companion Thomas Gilbert and the best worldwide objective scorer of all time: Christine Sinclair.
“Part of the reason I’m doing the announcement so early on was to let these players know that it’s coming, because they’re making decisions about their future, where to go to school, whether to keep playing,” Matheson stated.
“We want them to know that professional soccer is coming to Canada in 2025.”
“To hear that there’s going to be a professional league in two years is astounding,” Jones stated. “It’s such in the near future that I obviously have something to strive for.
“I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to leaving home to go play in Europe. But it’s really my only option. So to hear that I can actually stay here is comforting in some ways because I didn’t want to leave my family (and) to leave my friends to do something that I love.”
“I’m just super excited to see how it starts and where it ends up,” Stordy stated. “I have very high expectations, but also no expectations just because it’s something so new to us here. But I think this league will really open a lot of eyes for people across the world.”
There’s nonetheless an extended technique to go earlier than Foothills might be asserting its first participant signings.
The group’s subsequent steps give attention to establishing an possession group, attracting buyers and discovering an appropriate venue.
Deanna Zumwalt, Foothills’ director of girls’s professional sport, stated quite a few events have already reached out in hopes of discovering a house for the squad.
“We’ve got an assessment to go through — what makes the most sense, what’s the most logical,” Zumwalt stated. “I’m confident we’re going to be able to attract and work with the right ownership and investor group.
“We know what it’s going to take.”
ATCO Field, house of the Canadian Premier League’s Cavalry FC, can home as much as 6,000 followers at Spruce Meadows — simply south of town. The facility boasts a pristine Kentucky bluegrass turf.
Foothills stated it’s not ruling out a partnership with the CPL, however all of its choices.
“Obviously we’re not leading the way internationally in terms of having soccer-specific stadiums,” Matheson famous.
“The Canadian Premier League has done an incredible job investing in infrastructure. Similar to what they’ve done, we’re looking — ideally — at 6,000- to 8,000-seat stadiums. Keep it small, keep it community-based and football specific.”
Project 8 can also be placing an emphasis on trying to find feminine buyers, coaches and medical employees in hopes of offering one other professional pathway of types.
The league goals so as to add two extra groups within the west and 4 within the east, with the ultimate six squads anticipated to be introduced in 2023.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
