New stadium announced for Winnipeg's expansion professional women's soccer team

New stadium announced for Winnipeg's expansion professional women's soccer team

Venue will be ready for next Northern Super League regular season

Forty years after the first national women's team camp was held in Winnipeg, officials from all levels of government and the Northern Super League gathered Tuesday to announce where the city's new team will play.

"We are proud to announce that the new stadium for the Winnipeg team will be built right here at Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex," league president Christina Litz, a Manitoban, said at a news conference.

"You may not know, but back in 1986, the first national training camp of the Canadian women's national team happened right here on these grounds."

The new facility will be designed as a modular stadium within the complex.

Winnipeg was announced as the home of the professional women's soccer league's first-ever expansion team on July 14, bringing the number of teams in the Northern Super League to seven.

The league got a $30-million investment from international sports firm APEX, which will help support the expansion of the league, this summer.

The Northern Super League is currently in its second season. The Winnipeg team will kick off in its new modular stadium next season, thanks in no small part to Manitoba's Desiree Scott, a retired player and Olympic gold-medal winner.

"The path to the Northern Super League begins and ends with the members of the Canadian women's national team," Litz said at the news conference.

"And there would be no NSL Winnipeg without Desiree Scott."

Scott co-founded the franchise with Rob Gale, who was the first head coach and general manager of the defunct Valour FC men's soccer team.

"First announcing the Northern Super League expansion to Winnipeg was the dream," said Scott, who was a midfielder.

"This here today, announcing our new stadium, our new home — is this dream becoming a reality."

The federal government will contribute $2.1 million for the new stadium project, while the province will give $750,000 and the city is contributing $600,000.

A Vancouver-based firm, SixFive Stadium Experience, will be leading the project. Adam Torpey, the firm's vice-president of business development, says the stadium will be designed to grow with the club over time.

"As demand increases, we can add capacity, expand hospitality and introduce new amenities over time," he said.

The stadium's capacity will be around 4,500, and Torpey says the design will bring supporters closer to the field, to help create an atmosphere full of energy.

"What we've been missing … when it comes to a professional team is the right facility," Mayor Scott Gillingham said.

"Something at the right scale for professional soccer, where we can fill the stands, create some noise and atmosphere and give players and fans a great, great experience — that's what this project does."

Gale, the team's chief sporting officer, says the team will be in Winnipeg for the long haul. Valour FC folded after the 2025 season.

"This is also about the future of women's sport in the city, a stadium tells sponsors. We're serious, it tells broadcasters we're serious, it tells every other city in this league Winnipeg is serious," he said.

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Gale says having a home for professional women's soccer will help inspire girls hoping to follow in the footsteps of a player like Scott.

"Someday soon, that young girl gets to walk into a stadium built for her sport, built for her league, built for her future in her hometown," he said.

Scott said she's been envisioning the moment when the Winnipeg team first takes the pitch next season and what it will mean for young girls in the stands. She hopes they will be dreaming big, with a professional women's soccer team in their city.

"Giving our team a place to call home with fans in the seats, celebrating all the moments together, repping the city and the beautiful game that we all love so proudly — the stadium is so much more than concrete and seats," Scott said.

Justin Fiacconi is a journalist with CBC Manitoba, where he has worked since July 2025. A former Joan Donaldson and Peter Gzowski scholar, he has worked in two different investigative units at CBC. He graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, with master's degrees in journalism, and international affairs, specializing in conflict studies. His primary journalistic interest is the intersection between geopolitics and sports. He can be reached at justin.fiacconi@cbc.ca.