Courtney Sherlock has an eye for opportunities. A veterinary doctor and self-described entrepreneur from Fall River, she bought her first ownership stake in a vet hospital in 2013. Two years later, she bought it all. Then started the Village Veterinary Group, opening three more hospitals in the HRM—and eventually earning Atlantic Business Magazine’s honours as one of Atlantic Canada’s top 50 CEOs in 2022.
So, when she met her Atlantic Women’s FC co-founder Miriam Zitner in November of last year and heard about Project 8—a newly-forming Canadian professional women’s soccer league—she saw a chance she couldn’t pass up. Never mind if she had no background in soccer of her own.
“I think it’s a great initiative that is so important for our city, and for women, and for our athletes,” Sherlock says, speaking by phone with The Coast. “And it's never been done before. How incredible is it to be involved with something like that?”
Sherlock has a tall order ahead of her: As president and CEO of Atlantic Women’s FC, she’s looking to hire a staff that can build a roster of players, find sponsors and secure a home playing field within 12 months. Project 8 has aspirations to begin competition in 2025.
And while the demands are high—“we’re starting up a business from scratch,” Sherlock says—the appetite is there, too.
‘The whole idea behind this is to aim high’
It’s been 16 months since two of Canada’s most prolific soccer players of all time, Christine Sinclair and Diana Matheson, announced they were working on a first-of-its-kind domestic women’s pro soccer league. The news spread like wildfire, and for good reason: Despite Canada’s women’s national team having won gold at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Canadian women who wish to earn a living playing soccer have, until now, had to leave the country. At the last FIFA Women’s World Cup, in New Zealand in 2023, Canada was one of only two countries—along with Haiti—not to have a women’s pro league of its own.
Matheson and Sinclair said in Dec. 2022 they were targeting eight inaugural teams for the as-yet-unnamed league. (Project 8 is a working title.) Matheson told TSN that Project 8 Sports Inc.—which she co-founded and will serve as the backing business for the league—is looking into 13 potential markets across Canada as homes for soccer clubs. The plan is for the league’s eight teams to be divided into two conferences, with four in the west and four in the east.
“The whole idea behind this is to aim high,” Sinclair told CBC. “And like, if you're not, what's the point?”
Halifax is the fourth team to be announced, after Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Calgary Foothills and AFC Toronto City.
“The creation of this league is something we have been advocating for over many years,” Whitecaps women’s general manager Stephanie Labbé—herself, a former Canada ‘keeper—said in a statement, “and to be part of seeing it come to fruition is truly exciting.”
Project 8, Atlantic Women’s FC still in nascent stages
Sherlock and Zitner are not alone in their venture to bring pro women’s soccer to Halifax. Telecom executive Adam Baggs, a CEO of Dartmouth-based Maplewave, is a third co-partner in the project. Former Canadian national team player Mary Beth Bowie and one-time Halifax County United Soccer Club president Andrea Thompson were also part of early discussions.
Sherlock tells The Coast that more investors are joining “in the near future.”
For now, she and her partners are “getting through the legal and the accounting and getting to know [the] market, talking to key stakeholders—in this case, the universities, the fields, Soccer Nova Scotia, all that sort of thing.
“I need to surround myself with a team who knows way better than I do what they’re doing,” Sherlock adds, “and they’re going to be key to getting this going.”
While Sherlock did not mention a team name to The Coast—Atlantic Women’s FC is merely the business name, just as Sports & Entertainment Atlantic owns and operates the Halifax Wanderers—it appears one Internet sleuth might have already found the answer: Halifax Tides FC. A search of the Canadian Trademarks Database shows that Atlantic Women’s FC registered for trademarks for the name and logo on Apr. 2 and Apr. 9, respectively.
The Coast has not yet confirmed the name with Sherlock or her colleagues.
Speaking of the Wanderers, Sherlock says that while the Canadian Premier League soccer club is a “separate business” from Atlantic Women’s FC, “certainly Halifax is small enough that we all know each other, right?” She mentions there’s “some potential economies of scale, especially when it comes to infrastructure,” but did not elaborate on what those might be, stressing that her club is still in its early stages.
Wanderers president and founder Derek Martin, meanwhile, told the Down the Pub Podcast that he’s “spoken to the group,” but remains mum on any further collaborations. (The Wanderers are preparing to launch a women's semi-pro team that would compete in a still-to-be-formed League1 Atlantic.)
“I think we all agree women’s soccer deserves a chance to be successful,” Martin added.
Project 8 is still looking to add four more clubs before launching in 2025, to reach eight teams. The league could start with as few as six teams, however. The women’s league has already secured CIBC, Air Canada, Canadian Tire and DoorDash as sponsors.
