Former Canadian Football League commissioner Mark Cohon joined the Northern Super League as chair of its board in November 2024, bringing experience in sports governance, media rights and league building to Canada’s new professional women’s soccer competition. The six-club league was preparing for an April 2025 launch in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.
Why Cohon was selected
Cohon led the CFL from 2007 until early 2015. His tenure included a major broadcast agreement, the return of a team to Ottawa as the Redblacks and the league’s 100th Grey Cup. Before that, he held international business roles with the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball.
NSL president Christina Litz had worked with Cohon at the CFL and later on the board of the organization behind the Juno Awards. She said his experience with a rare all-Canadian league could help establish governance, organizational culture and ambition as the new competition began.
The board’s role
The NSL said Cohon would support economic growth, expansion, international competition, player welfare and inclusion. Representatives of the six ownership groups would sit on the board, while Litz and league co-founder Diana Matheson would be observers.
A board chair is not the day-to-day commissioner. The NSL chose a structure in which Litz led operations as president. Good governance requires the board to oversee strategy, finances and executives without managing every sporting decision.
A critical moment for women’s sport
Cohon said the entrepreneurial challenge and the opportunity to build something important for Canadian women attracted him. A domestic professional league creates more places for players who previously had to move abroad or leave the sport, and it can build regular local audiences between national-team tournaments.
Momentum alone does not guarantee sustainability. Clubs need credible owners, suitable stadiums, broadcasting, sponsorship, community development and ticket revenue. Travel across a country as large as Canada is a major recurring cost, making national scale both a strength and a financial test.
Player welfare is a governance issue
A new league should publish minimum standards for contracts, medical care, safeguarding, travel, maternity support and independent complaints. Growth should not depend on players accepting weak working conditions in exchange for a long-awaited opportunity.
Transparent financial and competitive rules can prevent a race in which a few clubs spend unsustainably while others cannot field comparable teams. Representation of players in decisions helps align commercial expansion with the people performing on the field.
From announcement to competition
The league subsequently began play in April 2025, converting the planned launch into an operating national competition. That milestone does not end the evaluation. Attendance, renewals, broadcast reach, club losses and development pathways over several seasons will show whether the model is durable.
Cohon’s appointment gave the NSL an experienced sports executive at board level while leaving the president as the operational leader. His record could help with rights and expansion, but the league’s success ultimately depends on accountable ownership, player-centred standards and whether Canadian communities continue to support their clubs after the novelty of an inaugural season.
