Professional women's sports are reaching new heights in Canada. It's only 'the beginning'

The PWHL played its first game just over two years ago and expanded to eight teams this season; the NSL launched a year ago with six, including AFC Toronto; and the Tempo, Canada’s first WNBA team, are scheduled to play their first pre-season game next month. 

The implications of such a substantial and rapid shift in the landscape, and what impact that could have on increasing sports participation rates for girls, is front of mind as Sunday marks International Women’s Day.

“Women’s professional sport is a massive new industry vertical that has huge economic potential as well as social potential,” Sandmeyer-Graves said.

Her organization’s latest report published in October states that Canada’s professional women’s sports market doubled from 2023, when it was largely driven by marquee tournaments in golf and tennis and Olympic team sponsorships, to some $400 million in 2025 with the inclusion of the combined revenue and start-up investments in the three pro leagues. And it’s projected to reach up to $570 million by 2030, driven by rising sponsorships and commercial partnerships, game-day revenue and broadcast rights.

“We’re just at the beginning, so it’s quite exciting to imagine where this will go and how it shifts the landscape in a way that will matter to girls and encourage them,” she said.

Professional leagues provide top women with the chance to earn a living and give fans season-long opportunities to watch, but does that have an impact at the grassroots level?

Girls participate in sports less than boys and drop out in greater numbers by age 16. They miss out on the long-life health benefits, confidence and leadership skills that sports can provide.

While research has shown that watching Olympic athletes do incredible things every couple of years does not drive up participation rates, Sandmeyer-Graves thinks women’s pro leagues may have a different result.

“It’s not going to solve everything, to be sure, but our thesis is that it will (increase participation).”

The Olympics come and go, but pro leagues offer regular access to role models and the experience of the game, making connections to the grassroots.

“This has to be done intentionally, you can’t just assume it will unfold,” she said. “Now we have women’s professional sports on our screens, in our feed, occasionally in our headlines. And as this continues to develop, our thesis is that it is going to start to change the culture of sport with rising value, rising respect, rising visibility for these teams, leagues, athletes, and what that signals to girls and others really matters. Because the message that they’ve gotten for years and years is that what you do matters to a few, it really doesn’t matter to most, whereas what the boys and men do matters to everyone. And that culture is starting to shift. That narrative and those messages are starting to shift.”

According to CBC, 8.7 million Canadians watched Jack Hughes score the overtime goal that lifted the United States to Olympic gold over Canada in men’s hockey. That’s more than twice the 4.2 million who watched Megan Keller’s overtime goal that produced the same result in women’s hockey. The final minutes of the women’s final ranked fifth on the most-watched list after four men’s hockey games.

Those numbers don’t surprise Sandmeyer-Graves: “The culture of sport has been built over decades which prioritizes men’s sports, which values men’s sports, which celebrates men’s sport and we’re adding women to the conversation in a way bigger way than we have ever been able to historically, but it will take time for that to show up in the numbers.”

U.S. President Donald Trump‘s derisive comments about the American women’s hockey team are reflective of “the culture that we’re trying to change where women’s sport is an afterthought.” But there are lots of reason to be optimistic in the way people responded to his comments and the men’s team’s laughter, she said, adding that historically that wouldn’t have been noteworthy, let alone the subject of a “Saturday Night Live” skit.

“The fact that social media exists and people are calling this sort of stuff out — the fact that the media was like, OK, wait a minute — that to me is a sign of progress. It means that we’re really challenging those long-standing norms.”

Pairing the rise of women’s professional sports, increased corporate investment and culture change with “community organizations that are increasingly knowledgeable and skilled at creating environments that really work for girls, that centre girls, is really were the magic will happen.”

The organization’s 2024 Rally Report, which found more girls are participating in organized sports (but still lagging behind boys) suggests that investment in programs specifically designed to encourage and support girls is having an impact. Sandmeyer-Graves hopes the next report, coming out this fall, will show even more progress.

“Participation is one of the hardest things to change, so if we’re seeing that the ship is starting to head in the right direction that will be very exciting, and I think encouraging for a lot of people who are putting in a lot of effort into turning that ship.”