Women’s sports are exploding in popularity in North America and around the globe, and they are bound to continue on this upward trajectory in 2025. Don’t miss out!

While Canadian fans have traditionally had to look internationally to watch their favourite female athletes, investments in domestic female professional leagues have begun to surge in the last couple of years. Here are just a few of many things to look forward to in the Canadian women’s sports landscape in 2025 and beyond!

Women’s Hockey

The Premier Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) had a highly successful launch last year, with its inaugural season drawing national media attention and large crowds of fans. An April 20th, 2024 regular season clash between Toronto and Montreal’s franchises set a global record for attendance at a women’s hockey game, with 21,105 fans attending the game in Montreal and a total cumulative attendance of 392,259 at all games.

Following its successful first iteration, the 2024-2025 season represents a step forward for the league, with branding and team names being introduced to each franchise for the first time.. 

The PWHL projects strong growth as it enters into its second season, and league executives are already looking to add two new expansion franchises as early as the 2025-2026 season to capitalize on the league’s growing popularity and bring women’s hockey to new markets. Possible Canadian contenders for new franchises include Calgary and Quebec City.

Be sure to tune in this season! Canadian teams to follow include the Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, and Toronto Sceptres, and hopefully with expansion on the horizon there will be more options of teams to cheer for that are a bit closer to home. There is an abundance of talent in the league, which boasts many of the world’s best female hockey players. Coverage of the league will primarily be on TSN, with some Saturday games and all Tuesday games broadcasting on CBC and Prime Video, respectively.

Women’s Basketball

While it was a great year for professional women’s sports all around, women’s basketball was arguably the most successful, surging in popularity and catching the attention of sports fans and non sports fans alike. 

The 2024 National College Athletics Association (NCAA) women’s basketball championship match between the University of Iowa and the University of South Carolina in April was an especially significant pop culture moment. The college final shattered viewership records with an average of 18.9 million viewers, representing a whopping 90% increase from 2023 and a 289% increase from 2022. 

The hype didn’t die with this final. The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) 2024 season, which started the following month, attracted an all-time high 52 million viewers and a total attendance of 2.3 million fans. The WNBA’s 154 sellouts this season marked a 242% increase from the league’s 45 sellout games during the previous season. 

In the face of this success, the WNBA is entering into new markets with three new franchises. San Francisco’s Golden State Valkyries will begin play in the 2025 season, while the Toronto Tempo and a still unnamed Portland franchise will join the league in 2026, bringing the total number of teams to 15. 

The Toronto Tempo represents the WNBA’s first venture into an untapped Canadian market. The franchise drew inspiration from the city of Toronto in its naming choice, citing the city’s vibrant pulse and energy. Fans were already able to make their voices heard by submitting franchise names, and this outreach received over 10,000 responses. 

The Expansion Draft will take place in December 2025, allowing Toronto to create their preliminary roster, and the team will take to the court for their inaugural 40 game season in May 2026. 

Although it will still be another year and a half before we can cheer on Canada’s first WNBA team, Canadian fans can still get familiar with the WNBA. During the regular season, certain WNBA games are available throughout Canada on a variety of streaming services including SportsNet, TSN, Prime Video, CBS Sports Network, NBA TV Canada, Meta, X (formerly known as Twitter), and the WNBA league pass.

Women’s Soccer

Canada has been a global powerhouse in women’s soccer for years, with the national team notably boasting bronze medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and a gold medal finish at the 2020 Olympics. They are currently sixth in FIFA’s global rankings and went the full calendar year without a defeat in regulation or extra time for the first time ever. 

Despite Canada’s consistent dominance on the global stage, female players have had to take their talents internationally in order to compete for professional clubs – until now. In April 2025, Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league, known as the Northern Super League (NSL), will kick off featuring six teams based in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. Each team will play 25 games a season between April and November. 

The league has already turned heads internationally thanks to its commitment to paying female players a livable wage, promising a minimum salary of $50,000 dollars a year for its players and a $1.6 million dollar salary cap. This minimum salary puts the NSL  ahead of many other well-established women’s soccer leagues around the world in just its inaugural season. Following closely behind the success of the PWHL, the NSL will hopefully serve similarly as a trailblazing Canadian league on the global stage.

While schedules are yet to be released, the NSL will be highly visible thanks to a multi-year streaming deal with TSN and CBC. Teams are actively signing players right now, so do some research to find your favourite team and follow along in the build up to the season!

Huskie Athletics

You can also support female athletes right here at home! There is a wide range of talented Huskie teams on campus playing in the Winter semester, including women’s hockey, basketball, volleyball, track and field, and wrestling. Coming up on February 11th is the Huskie Women of Influence Breakfast, featuring Canada 3×3 Basketball Olympian Paige Crozon as a speaker. This breakfast provides an opportunity for the community to come together to network and celebrate the achievements of female athletes. All proceeds go to funding female Huskie programs, and tickets are on sale on the Huskie Student ticketing website.