It's hard enough setting up an expansion team. So, imagine starting an entire league.

And not just any league, the first of its kind in Canada.

That's what a documentary team wanted to dig into.

They followed former Team Canada soccer player Diana Mat for 2 years while she worked to make her dream happen, a professional women's soccer league in this country.

The result, the Northern Super League with six teams across Canada.

After winning the gold, the outside world was like, "Okay, there here it comes." Like a women's professional soccer league, but we as players knew that it was still going to be a fight.

Women's soccer players are never just fighting for money.

We check in with Mat and filmmaker Michelle Hoser to talk about the TVO original doc, The Pitch, and the future of women's soccer in Canada.

Then we chat with Allison Lang about winning a medal at the Paris 2024 Parolympics and why she says sitting volleyball saved her life.

Welcome to the rundown.

Last month, the Vancouver Rise beat AFC Toronto 2 to1 to become the very first Northern Super League champions.

I sat down with former Team Canada soccer player Diana Mat and Michelle Hoser, director of the TVO original documentary, The Pitch.

Diana, Michelle, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations on the first season.

Thanks.

You had some pretty exciting stats that came out sort of a year. And I want to rattle some off. Over 3 million Canadians reached in TV broadcast. Approximately 275,000 tickets sold. Top five attendance among professional women's soccer leagues globally. top eight in the world for league sponsorship revenue, almost $30 million in leaguewide revenue, and the average salary per player with 75,000 plus benefits, including maternity leave and fertility treatments, which is among the highest around the world for professional women's soccer.

Pretty impressive. I'm sure a lot of people are like, "Wow, what has the feedback been after season 1?"

Yeah, I think it has been a lot of, "Wow, we didn't know this is what it would be." Uh maybe that speaks to people's low expectations. I don't know.

Um but honestly, we the those numbers are more or less the targets for the year.

So I would say we're on track for what we were trying to do in year one, what we thought we could do in year one in Canada.

Even though we were building from scratch, from nothing independent league, having to get every dollar pretty much from zero up, we knew that we live in Canada, which is one of the best women's sport countries in the world. women's soccer countries in the world.

Um, and the business here was was ready.

Um, and we wouldn't have started really unless we thought we could do that in year one. So, here we are.

Fleming scores Canada Leagues in the semifinal.

After winning the gold, I think the outside world probably was like, okay, here it comes, a women's professional soccer league.

But we as players knew that it was still going to be a fight.

Obviously, our own federation, they weren't interested in being the ones to form it, though. They said they would support it.

Um, but they weren't going to do the leg work to get it up and running.

Um, and us players, I mean, especially D, I mean, she's crazy, but it took D and her vision to change things.

I want to go back two and a half years because that's when you started thinking and shooting this documentary. Did you did you think that this is how it would coincide with sort of the the season and how it unfolded? Did you expect it to be such this this beautiful story of conflicts but also this league coming out of it with such success?

Uh to be truthful, you know, when you start a project, there's a lot of unknowns

and a good friend of mine from high school recruited me on the project. She knew the importance of the story. She knew how historic it was going to be.

And I naively thought sports, you know, there's tons of money involved in it and attached. It's going to be easy for the league. It'll be fun. We'll just see how a league is being built. Be easy for me. I won't have to fund raise.

Well, that didn't work. And then I met Diana and I thought, well, wait a second. How come it's not the federation, you know, heading this initiative? Why isn't it someone with deep pockets or corporations?

And that question of why is it a former player in charge and all the other players from from the national team in charge of putting together a League of Canada that was a question that drove the documentary and led us to what we have now called the pitch.

And I think it it's an important story because you know without these are women who some would argue brought soccer to Canada.

they brought, you know, three Olympic medals, uh, really well loved here at Canada.

I want to bring back that number 30 million in the in revenue. Uh, you've compared the revenue made in the NSL's first season to Sweden's professional league. Uh, this is a league that started nearly 40 years ago, uh, made in about 18 million euros, which when you do the conversion about on par for what you made. How did you do that?

You know, I think we've seen in women's sport and in women's soccer, there's actually been somewhat of an advantage to new products coming into the market.

Uh, you know, you see an Angel City FC, for example, and NWSL, the newer clubs down there.

The ones that have come into the market and sort of, you know, gone big or gone home and they've said, "We're women's sport. Here are the things we stand for and also we're going to be a well-run business."

Uh, those things have come in and done really well.

Well, some of the older properties that have been around forever and for decades haven't had uh maybe the investment only have had a few hundred people in the stands.

It's kind of been a harder journey for them to to capture some of the growth that's happening.

On top of that, again, we're in Canada.

And you know, I I I say that because I'm so lucky. I get to leave the country. I work in soccer. It's this global industry, so I get to look at Canada from the outside in a lot of times.

And we're this weird mix of uh really strong women's sport culture.

Uh we love women's soccer. We've been watching it for, you know, 2012 if not soon.

Been watching you. Yes.

And we also we operate in the business of North American sport, which is like big business.

So all our leadership team, our sport executives, you know, Christina Litz, uh our president, our our board chair, Mark Kohhan, who's worked across four major professional leagues, they all know the business of sport, I would say.

um you know it's ingrained in them in a way that European football isn't yet. European football is very European football. North American sport is very North American sport.

Uh and we know the business of sport.

With that I want to come back to one of the themes in the film which was the challenges of juggling motherhood and being an athlete an elite athlete.

What does including maternity leave that I mentioned and fertility benefits to a contract mean to current players but also former players?

Well, uh I think um what it does it highlights what Diana just said that this league was built by women for women and so that's a different approach.

Uh you know prior to this league and you know as as you know in 2009 Amy Walsh finds herself pregnant and has to choose or more that athletes have to choose between motherhood and career.

And um I just thought that that was really unfair. And as Amy Walsh said, you know, it should be a human right to have both.

If you replace athlete with lawyer, with journalist, with doctor, we wouldn't accept that you have to make a choice. We make it work.

And I think that showing the difference between Amy and then Aaron and then seeing babies on the field as natural as it should be shows the progression shows um the value of having a lead built by women for women to be able to accommodate those needs like having fertility clinics available for these young athletes.

maybe at the time they don't want to be a mother but will have the opportunity later on later in their career to have that opportunity.

So I think um it really highlights the importance of equity in sports and of course motherhood is the perfect example.

I want to talk a little bit about what's happening in headlines in women's sports. Professional women's leagues like the WNBA are having sort of ongoing contract disputes. Uh players fighting for increased salaries, revenue sharing.

Here in Canada, people are very excited about the Toronto Tempo and joining the WNBA.

I'm curious about the contracts that your league has set. Do you think it will set a precedent for other leagues to kind of take notice as to what you guys are doing?

Uh I think we'd like to try. I think it's where we started was building in place into the player standard player agreement before before we had players.

So therefore before they had the chance to collectively organize into a group to be able to negotiate with us, we just put in that contract as many best practices as possible when it came to athletes rights.

Um you know guaranteed contracts, you can't be waved or cut or traded halfway through the season without your consent.

the minimum salary we spoke about the benefits uh maternity data rights those things we tried to build in as many as possible.

um you know a league built by a player

player I think that I think says it all right

it feels a bit hypocritical to say it's a league built for women by women um and

I I was lucky I came up was part of the group that started the women's national team player association for Canada for women's national team.

And I was around when NWSL players uh were first negotiating our um first CBA so I saw those sides of it.

so we built as much as we can. I think to become a leader in the space I think is going to hopefully over the next few years.

Um we formed it this year and then we'll be looking to work closely together next year and the years forward.

I think if us and the players can find a way to consistently harness their voice, their ideas, their feedback, and make sure we're sharing the value created in this league proportionately with the players as we grow.

I think that's how we become a world leader in the place. And if we do that well, it can absolutely be a competitive advantage. But time will tell. Time will tell.

Maybe the uh some commissioners might be fielding you for some calls and some advice on uh on how to handle some of that stuff.

We'll see. Michelle, I want to do a little bit of a history lesson.

Um, many fans and players probably couldn't believe it took this long for a Canadian women's league to get a professional league. Why was Canada so hesitant to invest in women's soccer?

I don't know if it's just simply Canada or just the idea that women's sports uh don't bring in revenue.

Uh there we do have a history kind of section in the film that talks about you know that there is this myth out there that people don't watch women's sports and therefore if they don't watch there's no investment. If there's no investment there there's no eyeballs and there's no revenue.

So it's self-generating um myths and they were trying to build the men's league.

Again as uh Diana mentioned soccer wasn't uh you know it's not the sport of Canada like in other nations. So it took a time.

I think what's important with Diana's initiative is she saw a window. They saw a window that this was the time. Women's sports was growing internationally.

There was changes in the air in Canadian sports and when there's movement and change, there's an opportunity to bring something new and a new vision.

And I think uh they took advantage of it and to bring in this league.

This could be our most important fight that we ever have. Uh as national team players and it's one we're determined to win.

The Americans themselves have had their own battles. Now we saw both teams come together in a moment of solidarity. I thought it was beautiful.

There's just some things that are so much bigger than what's happening on the field and this is one of them. This is about just you know basic human rights and respect.

And I mean we're talking about the the Olympic champions here. So to have their federation, you know, meet them this way after winning world championship is just wild to me.

This documentary shares sort of the tumultuous relationship between players and Canada soccer that eventually led to leadership change.

Now looking at where we are right now, Canada Soccer has pledged a million dollars each year over the next decade to the Northern Super League. How did that relationship evolve? and being in the thick of it, did you expect to be here with that sort of pledge to kind of see that change?

Uh I did expect to be here with that sort of pledge. I think the fact that Canada's soccer, even the the previous leadership had um agreed to that uh agreement with our men's league, Canadian Premier League, uh I can tell you there was no way we were starting this league without securing securing the same deal with leadership.

They really couldn't say no to that one.

The push was always for transparency and the push was for if we are bringing in as many dollars as the men's national team, which we did believe we were when you looked at attendance in games, then why aren't we being compensated accordingly and just getting transparency on that picture.

That was the thing we we really struggled to get over the decades.

Um there was fantastic support for the women's national team in other ways that was beyond other countries.

I think we wouldn't be here without the past leaders in that respect too.

Um, but yeah, the million dollars the million dollars a year for nine years I would say was table stakes for Canada soccer to come to the table.

And now that there's there's leadership in place now that is bringing that transparency to the table, they have um they have policies now to support the women's national team and men's national team the same.

And as they grow hopefully in their own capacity and mature as an organization, I hope they're in a better place to support us more because a million dollars a year for 9 years equal to the men's league is fantastic, but again, it's table stakes.

Um, inflation, it's not even the same dollars as our men's league got.

And if we're talking about equity, not equality, equity, then there actually has to be more money put into women's football than there has been to start our men's league, especially looking at what women's football has done in this country.

So, I'm looking for even more support in our Canadian landscape, Canadian soccer landscape, as that organization matures and gets more resources so that can support us better.

I want to throw another sort of uh group in there. The federal government has recently pledged up to $5.45 million to help grow the league. How will this change uh the future of the league? Where where's that money going?

Yeah, it's it's huge. I would say, you know, this has been a journey three and a half years of just trying to get the next yes, the next person to believe, the next person on board.

And the fact that we got an official yes from the federal government, including five economic development agencies, not just one, five, we got that sign off is an incredible uh vote of support for what we're doing.

And I think it supports uh the fact that Canada right now is investing in entrepreneurs. It's investing in Canadian products. It's investing in building in Canada.

Uh and I've spoken about it a lot. We have a huge sport infrastructure gap in Canada.

Again, it goes back to us being a pretty new soccer country. We just don't have the soccer infrastructure that other countries do.

Uh and we're having to invest in what's existing to have enough training fields to have proper stadiums uh both now and in the medium long term.

So that's where these federal dollars are going. They're going to products that all our clubs have on the go and and going into next year to improve their stadiums and training facilities to benefit not just them of course but also the other community users that use these stadiums and and training facilities.

All right, we have a a couple more minutes. I have a couple questions I want to get through. Uh Michelle, one of the story lines in the documentary that I think does a really great job of contextualizing the value of a national professional league was Aaron Mlap.

Can you tell us a little bit about her story uh that I think a lot of people would be surprised uh to hear?

What was interesting about Aaron? I mean, one of the first things when we started the documentary was the idea that most uh of these players, if they wanted to pursue their dreams, they had to do it. They'd had to leave the country.

And even after they retired, they still had to leave the country because there just wasn't jobs within their field.

Mlan had left since I think 2003. So over 20 years, she's been traveling um and working abroad.

And so one of the stories we wanted to highlight the importance of the NSL and of Diana's initiative was to bring these players home.

So uh Aaron at the time was in Iceland uh with her wife Dunny and uh their newborn uh Baldwin.

So we went and filmed with them and brought them back to Halifax.

As soon as the Halifax team uh came on board and as soon as the six teams were uh secured, Halifax called in and hired both Gunny and Aaron to to come and play in Halifax

and um uh Aaron has family there. So for her it was really important to be able to play even though uh she was close to retirement.

uh she decided to do that one more year to be able to play in a home crowd and also really to support the league because for Aaron and for many of these women it's more than just sports.

It's more than just a league. Uh it's a whole ecosystem. It's a whole value system.

I'm curious what did you learn uh from putting this film together uh working with professional athletes, working with someone like Diana uh to put this together?

Well, I think what's important is uh what sports does and what these women do, they're they're constantly striving for the best.

So, there's always this feeling feeling of unity that together you can really uh do something uh that's almost impossible.

And in today's world where things are so deficit, it was so as a filmmaker so cathartic to work on something that does the opposite that unifies us.

And I often say uh the world caught out to Diane because at the time she could have it would have been easier if she just found investors who were looking to do one or two expansion teams to the NWSL and had a team in Vancouver, maybe a team in Toronto, and that would have been an easy route.

But Diana wanted something here at Canada for women to grow the game here apart uh um from the rest of of the world.

My last question to you, you have been doing and promoting this league for last couple years uh this documentary as well.

Is there something missing from the conversation that you want to keep pushing that you feel is not being heard that uh sort of the next sort of challenge?

I think the message I'm trying to share now more than ever is that women's sport in Canada is as we all know it's new. It's like two and a half years old.

Um but the timing in the market is such that this global market which has never never existed before.

We've never been in the era of women's professional sport before really.

We've been in events that have succeeded. We've been in a few a league here or two that's tried maybe a char you know the previous women's hockey league was a charity model wasn't even a business.

So finally we're in this era of women's pro sport. It's not going to go anywhere. This is going to be the beginning that grows infinitely.

Uh and we've got this global market that's already gone from a billion dollars in 2024 to $2.4 billion in 2025.

And we live in Canada that is arguably one of the best women's sport countries in the world.

like we produce women's athletes like we produce maple syrup.

Like you've seen it in the Olympics every two years and like imagine not having a maple syrup industry. Like it doesn't make any sense.

And now we have one and you can see already like it's already world class and we're two and a half years in.

and the women's sport revenues are already at about $400 million uh in revenues this early in.

And like Michelle said, like it's 2,000 jobs have been created. um $400 million in revenue 2 and a half years in. This will be a billion-dollar industry by 2030.

And when we're talking about investing in Canada and in a way that invests in careers and values and heroes and inspiration and equity uh and infrastructure, women's pro sport, let's go.

Very exciting times. We are going to leave it there. Michelle, thank you so much. Diana, thank you so much. Wish you all the best as well as you grow this league.

Thanks for having us.

Thanks.

Allison Lang is a medalinning parolympian and disability advocate who shares so much of her experience with her followers online.

Rundown producer Constantina Varloas talked to Lang about her journey and what it's like to compete at the highest level.

Bronze medal match here.

Volleyball Canada released the roster and it was finally public. to see it written felt so surreal.

And it's Lang who comes up with a swing off the block to get the first point for the Canadians

and a part of me always goes back to thinking of the younger version of myself.

It happened in that moment happened when we won in our bronze medal match

and they've done it. Canada take bronze here in Paris.

My name is Allison Lang. I'm a disability advocate and par athlete and this is how I move.

The moment that I made the roster to go to the parolympic games felt really surreal.

It's something that I didn't know that I wanted when I was a child. But as soon as I joined the sitting volleyball program, I kind of found my passion and a deeper meaning of trying to put adaptive sport on the map for other people.

My athletic journey has not been linear. I was actually born missing the lower half of my left leg at birth and grew up playing soccer, swimming, snowboarding.

I grew up in Edmonton, so I was super close to the Rockies. always wanted to be outside.

and I was actually severely bullied for my disability as a child and it really impacted my self-worth and the way that I saw my body and it led me to developing an eating disorder and body dysmorphia and trying to control the way that my body looked in different ways um because I couldn't control my disability.

and trying to control the way that my body looked in different ways um because I couldn't control my disability.

And sadly enough, I ended up quitting sports when I was around 13 years old.

And I met this girl at annual seminars at the Waramps Champ program. She knew I was athletic.

And sitting volleyball was a brand new sport. It was in its grassroots era in Canada and they knew I had a disability. I was athletic in the past and they invited me to come try sitting volleyball.

And at first I didn't want to go. I didn't want to be perceived as different than my peers or my classmates.

And my mom said to me, "Well, if you go try it and you hate it, you never have to go back."

So, I went and I tried it and I absolutely sucked.

Going from playing sports with your feet to something with your hands, I had no coordination,

but it was the women that kept me kept alive.

Good skills from Brazil.

They had everything that I aspired to become.

Filamina into the block. Lang says, "No, not yet."

A lot of athletes that acquire a disability or live with a disability are nervous to try a new sport or an adaptive version of the sport because they don't want to be seen less than.

And this is where that whole narrative comes in where we're trying to change that language so it's more inclusive.

Adaptive sport is not less than non-disabled sport.

In fact, there's this whole parolympic movement right now to bring up the equality between the parolympics and Olympics.

And I saw that huge transition being, you know, in the village and in venues in Paris at the 2024 Parolympic Games.

Canada came, saw, and conquered.

There were a lot of highlights. One of them being just how amazed I was at how accessible the village was transformed into.

To show up in a space that was created for us was like no feeling I've ever had.

There's so many times that I show up to venues and accessibility and accommodations for disabled people is always an afterthought, not the forethought.

We often get asked, oh, do you want to be part of the Olympics? And I always say no.

And it's because I'm not ashamed to be a parolympic athlete. I'm so proud and that word carries so much value for me.

We've undergone different things in our life that maybe Olympians haven't and just to acknowledge that holds so much respect for the word.

One thing that is so cool that people don't realize anybody can try adaptive sport. You don't have to be living with a disability.

You do have to have a disability to play on the national level.

But as soon as more and more people become knowledgeable and educated with what is out there, it only creates a more equitable and inclusive and accessible world.

Because one fact I like to say, disability isn't if, it's when.

We all become disabled at one point or another in our life. Whether it's illness, accident, old age, it's inevitable. We all get older.

And so to know that the option is out there for you and that your life in sport doesn't have to end if you do become disabled.

Let's show our appreciation.

I'll get emotional saying this, but to know that there's a possibility out there for so many young children to find their place in sport, to know that they belong and to aspire to do amazing things.

It felt like the glass ceiling was finally removed and that, you know, I could move forward and showcase and share my journey not only for myself and my community, but all of Canada.

This is an incredible moment for team Canada.

A big thank you to Dillasal College in Toronto for letting us shoot on location in their soccer dome.

Have ideas about what we should do next? Send your feedback and ideas to tbbo.org/runddownfeedback or leave us a comment on YouTube.

Until then, see you tomorrow.