Charlottetown’s Sarah Eden has dreams of playing professional soccer. The fourth-year central midfielder for the UPEI Panthers has grown up idolizing Canadian national team midfielder Jessie Fleming, imagining what it would be like to suit up for the likes of soccer giant Chelsea FC—or maybe Hollywood-owned Wrexham AFC, “because of Ryan Reynolds, of course,” she says. (Reynolds owns the Welsh team with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney.) Eden was among those who travelled the farthest on Monday to make the Halifax Wanderers’ women’s development camp at the BMO Soccer Centre. The camp is among the first concrete steps in the Wanderers’ goal of launching a women’s semi-pro team—something the club had previously said could be ready as soon as 2024, as long as there’s a league to play in.
Talk of a women’s pro soccer team in Halifax isn’t new, but it’s been heating up in recent months. When Wanderers president and founder Derek Martin announced his club’s intention to join a yet-to-form League1 Atlantic in August—a move that would add both men’s and women’s semi-pro clubs to the Wanderers’ umbrella—he told The Coast he was “extremely hopeful” that the league would be up and running by next year. And he wasn’t shy about the need to invest in women’s soccer, either.
“We’re already in pretty deep in terms of trying to grow soccer in this region,” Martin said. “Yeah, we know there’s going to be an investment required to get these two two teams up and running, but much like we’ve done with the Wanderers… I think we’re pretty good at figuring out how to drive revenue and find ways to make—at least in the long term—a project like this sustainable. And we’ve got plenty of plans and thoughts on how we’re gonna do that.”
Ask Wendy Donaldson, an assistant coach with the Wanderers’ development team and a head coach with both the Dartmouth-based Farias Soccer Academy and the Nova Scotia Soccer League’s Hotspurs AAA women’s team, and the timing is right.
“The talent is here,” she says. “The talent was always here. It still is.”
A former five-year varsity athlete with the University of Ottawa, Donaldson says even during her playing days, the Maritimes were loaded with talent. But what hasn’t always existed is the pathway to professional opportunities.
“Even for myself growing up, there was no path to professional soccer,” Donaldson says. “And now we’re seeing varsity athletes play and actually go to Europe and take these professional opportunities outside of Canada. And it’d be really nice to see a league come into Canada for women—for them to know there is a pathway.”
Plan for 2024 is exhibition games, League1 to follow
For now, the Wanderers are the only club to express they’re ready for League1 Atlantic. That isn’t to say the interest doesn’t exist elsewhere—but there are other considerations. Cash, mostly. Any team that would join the semi-pro league would need to dig into its pockets or find sponsors with pockets to dig into. While League1 Atlantic hasn’t disclosed franchise fees or annual operating expenses, there are comparisons: When League1 BC launched, per Northern Tribune, franchise owners needed to prove they had a cash flow of at least $60,000 per year, as well as pay a $5,000 franchise fee and $5,000 performance bond. In 2022, League1 Ontario had a salary cap of $44,000 per team.
That may have slowed the momentum of amateur clubs that are otherwise ready to make the leap to semi-pro. And there may be other hold-ups keeping teams from being ready across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland. Each team needs a home field, for instance, as well as somewhere to train. And then, there are travel costs.
“It’s not just us,” Wanderers sporting director Matt Fegan tells The Coast. “It obviously requires a lot of partners, a lot of stakeholders who have different priorities, to come together. Despite that, we try to control what we can—which is us having these development camps so we can build connections with the players.”
“It obviously requires a lot of partners, a lot of stakeholders who have different priorities, to come together.”
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Fegan says the Wanderers’ current plan is to build a women’s development team that would train semi-regularly and take part in a series of exhibition matches in 2024, ramping up for whenever League1 Atlantic has other teams ready to join. As for how many games the team would play, it “remains to be seen,” Fegan says.
He sees the women’s team unfolding in a similar fashion to how the Wanderers’ U-23 men’s development has grown in recent years.
“In 2022, we had an under-23 team that played a few exhibition games,” he tells the Coast. “Those players played for their clubs, and then they came in and trained semi-frequently [with us]. This year, [that program] got expanded to training more frequently, playing against international opposition. And then next year, that'll obviously make another step towards being a little bit more structured and playing a bit more frequently.
“I think the women’s program, just by its nature, because we didn’t have a female first team, it’s a little bit more of a staggered thing… And if we get to that point where the other groups that are involved in trying to realize League1 [Atlantic are ready], the worst that can happen is that we’re just a few steps ahead of them [and] a bit more established.”
Branding for women’s team yet to be decided
One thing that’s sure to spark debate, no matter what the Wanderers decide? A club name for the women’s team. When the Wanderers announced in August that they were considering a unique name for the women’s team, it prompted a wellspring of responses from some corners of the club’s fan base that wished to see the Wanderers keep the same name for both men’s and women’s teams—the same as clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United or FC Barcelona. Others welcomed the change, noting many National Women’s Soccer League clubs with Major League Soccer affiliates have their own branding, from the Portland Thorns to the Orlando Pride.
I think the name should be for all. Much Like Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City etc have done with their womens teams in England. Both Men and Womens teams should benefit from growth of the brand and club name. You are one family and everyone should be included under that name and badge
— Joe Timothy (@jatimothy) August 11, 2023
“I thought it was a really healthy debate,” Fegan says, who adds that he sees the naming discussion “both ways.”
“I think one thing we can always credit the business team within the club is that they’ve implemented things that I think reflect what the broader feeling is from within the community that we represent. And I think that when the time comes to actually putting a name to that, they'll get it right.”
