Founded | December 2022 |
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Owner | Greg Kerfoot |
President | Sinead King |
Manager | Stephanie Labbé |
League | Northern Super League |
Website | Club website |
Vancouver Whitecaps FC teams | ||||||||||
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Vancouver Rise FC is a professional women's soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia that will compete in the Northern Super League, in the top flight of the Canadian soccer league system. Owned by Vancouver Whitecaps co-owner Greg Kerfoot, the club is led by Sinead King, and is managed by Stephanie Labbé. Its colours are teal, black, and gold, while its crest depicts the North Shore Mountains. Its home games will be played at a "smaller and more intimate" stadium – Swangard Stadium in Burnaby is one of the venues currently being considered by the club.
Alongside the Calgary Wild, the Rise were one of the first two clubs to join the Northern Super League, and are a spiritual successor to the Whitecaps' former women's team. The club was co-developed with the league itself, in an effort to retain female players from the Whitecaps' academy team, and provide equity between the organization's men's and women's programs. It will play its first season in 2025, as one of the league's six charter members.
The Vancouver Whitecaps, a club with a long history in Vancouver, first organized an amateur women's team that played twelve seasons in the USL W-League between 2001 and 2012. [1] [2] The team enjoyed consistent success, regularly topping the league's western conference, and winning two USLW titles in 2004 and 2006. [3] [4] [5] The establishment of a professional women's league in the United States led to difficulties in retaining players however, and the Whitecaps ultimately folded the team. [1] [2] A Canada Soccer REX academy for women's soccer operated by the Whitecaps was later set up in 2015, [6] with explorations into entering the National Women's Soccer League as an expansion franchise being undertaken in 2017 and 2018. [7] [8] [9]
Unsuccessful negotiations with the NWSL, an expansion of the academy, and an entry into the semi-professional League1 British Columbia in 2022, provided an impetus for the Whitecaps to help establish a professional women's league in Canada as a way to retain elite female players trained in the academy. [10] Greg Kerfoot, the Whitecaps' co-owner, also sought to prioritize equity between the organization's men's and women's programs by offering its female players a professional pathway. [11] In December 2022, the Whitecaps and Calgary Foothills FC acquired the first two licences to run clubs in the Northern Super League, then tentatively known as Project Eight – a league they helped foster through the Whitecaps' general manager of its women's programs, Stephanie Labbé. [12] [13] [14] Labbé and Sinead King were the new club's first two executive hires, and primarily directed the club's development through its formative years. [15] [16] Its name, the "Vancouver Rise", and its branding was unveiled at an event celebrating the club's launch on 26 August 2024, hosted at the D/6 Bar & Lounge in Parq Vancouver. [17] [18]
Vancouver-based advertising agency Victory Creative Group designed the Vancouver Rise's branding, [19] [20] which employs the colours teal to represent the British Columbia mainland coastal forests, black to represent the Pacific Ocean, and gold to represent sunsets over the Pacific. [17] [21] The club name Rise is an allusion to the phrase "rise to the occasion", [18] and is intended to evoke both "a beacon of empowerment and progress", and sunrises over the Cascade Range. [21] [22] Three snow-capped mountains, an allusion to the Vancouver Whitecaps' crest, are illustrated atop the Rise's crest, depicting the North Shore Mountains that overlook Vancouver's skyline. [23] [24] In particular, they represent Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain, and Mount Seymour. [11] [20] A "bursting golden Sun" occupies the crest's base, [22] representing the rising "rising stars" the club aspires to produce – its six rays referencing the charter members of the Northern Super League. [11] [25]
The Rise sought a relatable brand that reflected both the demographics and geography of Greater Vancouver, that "brings emotions and also has a deep tie" to the city. [23] [26] Along with "Vancouver Rise", the club had also registered the names "Vancouver Queens" and "Vancouver Summit" as trademarks with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. [27] [28] "Vancouver Breakers", one of the names of the Whitecaps' former women's team, was also considered. [28] The use of gold in the club's colours was encouraged by Labbé, as a reminder of the Canadian national team's gold medal-winning performance at the 2020 Olympic football tournament, of which she was a part of. [29]
The Rise intend to play their home games at a "smaller and more intimate" stadium that would facilitate an average attendance of over 5,000. [25] [30] [31] Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, the historic home ground of the Vancouver Whitecaps' predecessors, is one of the venues currently being considered. [30] [31] Though a tenancy at Metro Vancouver's primary rectangular sports stadium, the 54,500-capacity BC Place, has been ruled out by the club, [25] it intends to occasionally play matches there. [29] [32]
The Vancouver Rise is owned by Vancouver Whitecaps co-owner Greg Kerfoot, though operates with a degree of autonomy from the Whitecaps, including managing its own media relations. [29] [33] Former HSBC executive Sinead King serves as the club's president and chief business officer, [15] [22] [26] while Stephanie Labbé, the general manager of the Whitecaps' women's programs and a former national team player, serves as the club's sporting director. [14] [16] [32] The club's director of partnerships is Rachel Orris. [34] The involvement of former national team player Christine Sinclair, whose contract with the Portland Thorns expires at the end of their 2024 season, has been teased by the club. [35]
The Vancouver Whitecaps were a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1986, the team played its final year in the second tier of the United States soccer pyramid in the NASL Conference of the USSF Division 2 Professional League coached by Teitur Thordarson. The team played its home games at Swangard Stadium in nearby Burnaby, British Columbia. The team's colours were blue and white.
BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at the north side of False Creek, it is owned and operated by the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), a crown corporation of the province.
Swangard Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Central Park in Burnaby, British Columbia. Primarily used for soccer, rugby, football, and athletics, the stadium also used to be home to the Simon Fraser Clan football team and the Vancouver Whitecaps while they were in the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) and various US-based Division 2 leagues. It opened on April 26, 1969, and has a capacity of 5,288.
The Vancouver Whitecaps FC women was a Canadian soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia that played in the USL W-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. The team was formed in 2001 under the name Vancouver Breakers following a merger of the Vancouver Lady 86ers and Vancouver Angels. In 2003, they changed their name to the Whitecaps to match the men's team.
Victoria Highlanders FC is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The club was founded in 2008.
The Canadian Championship is an annual soccer tournament contested by Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is contested by Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and CF Montréal, eight Canadian Premier League sides, and the champions of League1 Ontario, League1 British Columbia, and Ligue1 Québec. The tournament is organized by the Canadian Soccer Association and has been broadcast on OneSoccer since 2019.
Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, 2009, and began play in 2011 as the 17th team to enter Major League Soccer while replacing the USSF Division 2 team of the same name in the city, making them a phoenix club and the third to carry the Whitecaps name. The club has been owned and managed by the same group since their USSF days.
Whitecaps FC Academy is the youth system of the professional soccer club Vancouver Whitecaps FC, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It fields a men's and women's team in the semi-professional League1 British Columbia.
Russell James Teibert is a Canadian former professional soccer player who played his entire career for Vancouver Whitecaps FC in Major League Soccer.
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Calgary Foothills Football Club is a Canadian soccer club based in Calgary, Alberta, that competes in League1 Alberta (L1AB). The club was founded as a youth club in 1972 and joined as a USL2 franchise in 2015. The team plays its home games at the Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks. The team colours are green and white.
Vancouver Angels were a semi-professional women's association football club from Vancouver, British Columbia that competed in the Women's Premier Soccer League. They later merged with the Vancouver Lady 86ers to eventually become the Vancouver Whitecaps Women.
Matthew Anthony Otucan Baldisimo is a professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Canadian Premier League club York United. Born in Canada, he represents the Philippines at international level, after previously representing Canada at youth level.
Tristan Michael Blackmon is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Major League Soccer club Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
Cavalry Football Club, is a Canadian professional soccer club based in the Calgary metropolitan region of Alberta. The club competes at the top of the Canadian soccer league system in the Canadian Premier League, and plays their home matches at ATCO Field on the grounds of Spruce Meadows in Foothills County.
TSS FC Rovers, commonly referred to as TSS Rovers, are a Canadian soccer team based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada that play in League1 British Columbia. Established for the 2017 PDL season by general manager Will Cromack and head coach Colin Elmes, the Rovers are the under-23 team of the TSS Academy, one of the largest soccer schools in British Columbia's Lower Mainland.
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The Canada Soccer National Development Centre and Canada Soccer EXCEL programs are full-time women's soccer development programs run by the Canadian Soccer Association in partnership with the various provincial associations to develop Canadian women's soccer players as part of the Canadian women's soccer pathway. There are three National Development Centres in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia and Regional EXCEL programs in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The Northern Super League is a planned Division I professional women's soccer league in Canada. The league is owned and operated by Project 8 Sports, Inc., an entity co-founded by former Canada women's national soccer team player Diana Matheson.
Sources
Citations
For the first time since joining the USL W-League in 2001, the Vancouver Whitecaps will not field a women's team in 2013. Before this yet-to-be-named league begins play, it was the WPS skimming top Canadian talent away from the Whitecaps...
The Whitecaps have been in discussions with the NWSL...
Both already run teams for girls and women from grassroots to the elite level under their organizational umbrellas. But they watch many of those female players leave to go play professionally abroad, since no pro league exists for them yet in Canada. The Whitecaps and Foothills both wanted to do something about that...
The Vancouver Whitecaps and Calgary Foothills have been confirmed as the first two of the league's founding eight teams.
King will oversee the business side of the new club and will work closely with Stephanie Labbe, general manager of women's soccer.
The colour of the sun is special to Labbe, who was Canada's goalkeeper when the team captured an Olympic championship at the Tokyo Games. [...] there may be opportunities to have some games at B.C. Place [...] Rise and the Whitecaps share an owner in Greg Kerfoot, but will operate as separate clubs.