Calgary’s First Women’s Professional Soccer Team Blazes a New Trail

by avenuecalgary

Wild FC players: (clockwise from bottom) Jackie Sawicki, Grace Stordy, Farkhunda Muhta, Serita Thurton, Meikayla Moore, Meggie Dougherty Howard and Sarah Griffith. Photo by Chris Amat and Jason Eng, courtesy of Wild FC.

History was made on May 11, 2025. That day marked the very first home game for Wild FC, Calgary’s women’s professional soccer team, only one year after it was announced that the Northern Super League (NSL), Canada’s inaugural women’s pro soccer league, would get a Calgary team.

McMahon Stadium was filled with more than 8,500 fans on that gorgeous, blue-sky day. The cheering was deafening and the action on the field was tense and exciting. The game against Ottawa Rapid FC ended in a scoreless draw, but it felt like a win.

That historic game happened in large part because of Lara Murphy, Wild FC’s CEO, and Deanna Zumwalt, the team’s founder and board chair. Both were former high-performance athletes who loved women’s team sports. Yet Murphy, who played varsity soccer at Mount Allison University as well as high-level games in Europe, never dreamed of playing professionally. It just wasn’t a path available to women in Canada.

When talks of starting a women’s professional soccer league began in 2022 — led by soccer superstar Diana Matheson, with fellow Canadian soccer hero Christine Sinclair as advisor — Zumwalt and Murphy committed to putting in the work to get a Calgary team up and running.

Wild FC is one of six teams in the Northern Super League (NSL) — the others are based out of Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. After just one season, Wild FC is making waves in Calgary’s sporting landscape.

A long time coming

According to Zumwalt, a professional women’s soccer league in Canada — and a pro women’s team in Calgary — were both long overdue. Gone are the days where women’s athleticism is shrugged off as being less impressive or less exciting than men’s. In fact, revenue from women’s professional sports is growing 4.5 times faster across the world than revenue in men’s sports. Brands are investing in women’s sports 50 per cent faster than in men’s. And, when it comes to viewership, participation and media attention, the growth in men’s professional and elite sports simply can’t catch up to the growth on the women’s side.

In Canada, women soccer players perform at an exceptional level. For the 2020 Summer Olympic Games (which took place in August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Team Canada won gold in women’s soccer. Countless Canadian women play professionally in the U.S. and across Europe. Yet, prior to 2025, Canada was the only country that ranked in the top 10 in FIFA Women’s World Ranking that didn’t have a professional women’s league.

“It was time for a Canadian women’s pro league. The public was demanding it,” says Zumwalt. “Finally, the capital has come. Finally, it’s being broadcast. Finally, it’s accessible. And because it’s accessible on TVs and in stadiums, people are showing up to watch.”

Even with only one full season under the Wild’s belt so far, the numbers already reinforce that Calgarians were more than ready for them. For the 2025 season, 46,000 people came out to see home matches at McMahon Stadium, with an average of 3,750 fans attending each game. The Wild has more than 1,500 season ticket holders, the second-highest number across the NSL. The NSL ranks in the top five in the world for women’s pro soccer attendance and it’s in the top eight in the world for revenue, having generated $30 million last season.

“I believe our average attendance is higher than Cavalry’s [Calgary’s men’s pro soccer team] first-season attendance was,” says Murphy. No doubt a reaction to the on-field action. In the first season, “85 per cent of the games were decided by two goals or less. Competition was not lopsided — it was exciting,” she adds.

2025 Wild FC team. Photo by Todd Korol, courtesy of Wild FC.

Coming together to make Calgary home

Getting Wild FC operational was not an easy feat. But in true Calgary fashion, individuals from industries across the city came together. All the many moving pieces required to run a professional soccer team were organized in only one year.

“There’s no playbook to launching a women’s pro team in Canada, so we were all leaning on resources that either the league would bring in or that we knew personally,” says Murphy. “We had a lot of really wonderful local partners that stepped up to make sure that they could help us launch.”

While the league is supported by big-name brands like Coca-Cola and Canadian Tire, Murphy points out the team also has generous local partners like Cenovus Energy, Bow Valley College and Maillot Homes. These local investors made all the difference by providing essential capital and resources. For instance, local agency Daughter Creative worked on the Wild’s branding and logo.

“We worked with Canada Soccer and FIFA on sanctioning, raise capital, build a team, and recruit players, coaches and staff,” says Murphy. As well as hiring Canadian athletes, putting together a world-class team meant organizing visas for international players from countries like the U.S., New Zealand and Venezuela.

Wild FC is essentially a women-led startup, changing the landscape of women’s pro sports in Calgary and finally providing the opportunity for local female soccer players to make their living as athletes on home soil.

Take Grace Stordy. She was born and raised in Calgary and played college-level soccer at the University of Memphis, then professionally in Portugal. When the opportunity came up to play professionally in her home city, she knew she had to be part of the team.

“The start up of this team in my hometown is a really cool opportunity,” says Stordy, who is in her third year of professional play. “In our first home game, I was able to play in front of two of my best friends for the first time — we grew up playing soccer together. I played in front of my immediate family, my extended family — everyone I knew and loved was there. It’s amazing knowing it wasn’t just me that was a part of something big, but everyone I cared about was also part of this moment.”

Wild FC defender Grace Stordy tackles the ball. Photo by Todd Korol, courtesy of Wild FC.

What the Wild FC means for Calgary

The Wild’s impact on the city goes far beyond the joy of watching professional women’s soccer. While it’s still early days, Murphy says the team’s presence already shows that it’s an economic driver. Out-of-town fans travelling to Calgary for games mean more hotel stays, and celebrating fans lead to food and beverage sales.

The new team generates new jobs, from those working in marketing, managing uniforms and training equipment (also known as kit people) to field maintenance, coaching and medical staff. And for the players who choose to stay in Calgary, this experience will help them contribute to the city long after their soccer careers are over.

“Women that play sports are the women that end up around the boardroom table,” says Murphy. “Sport built my tenacity: my ability to lose, get back up again and to work with a team.”

For Zumwalt and Murphy — and, really, every woman on the team — the biggest hope is that Wild FC inspires young girls in Calgary and around the world to get active and dream big.

That girl power is part of what brought Jorian Baucom, an attacker from Scottsdale, Ariz., to the team. She has an impressive resume, having played professionally for several American teams as well as in Czechia and Portugal. She had options when it came to where she wanted to play, yet she chose Calgary.

“This is the first professional team I’ve been on that’s coached and led by women, which is pretty cool. And the Wild, and the whole Canadian league, is inspiring young Canadian girls and showing them they can do this, too,” says Baucom. As a Black female athlete, she points out there still aren’t very many Black women pro soccer players, so her interactions with young Black girls is particularly meaningful.

“To see the impact that we really do make on young girls is a special thing about being a professional athlete. Now they have that avenue to not only join a club team, but they have the opportunity to play at the pro level in their home country. That’s awesome.”