Roses FC unveiled as Montreal’s Northern Super League franchise

Montreal’s Northern Super League team will be known as Roses FC.

And coming to that conclusion wasn’t a snap decision for team president Annie Larouche.

“We started working on this back in November,” Larouche said. "It wasn't done with four of us on the corner of the table saying, 'Let's go for this one, let's find a bilingual name.'"

The women’s professional soccer franchise unveiled the team’s name and logo on Tuesday night, projecting the new emblem and the club’s blue, red and gold colours around an event space near the city’s Old Port.

A who’s who of the Quebec sporting world was in attendance, including hockey star Marie-Philip Poulin, Super Bowl champion Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and CF Montreal captain Samuel Piette. League co-founder Diana Matheson was also on hand.

The team crest features a blue rose with “ROSES,” “MTL” and “FC” in gold lettering above it. The font draws inspiration from the city’s “Farine Five Roses” landmark on the edge of the Lachine Canal.

Larouche said the months-long naming process involved working with two committees, one focused on brand and the other as a sounding board with people from various demographics.

“When the agencies came up with this name, it was just a perfect fit,” Larouche said. “It's bilingual, it's feminine, but it's powerful. It's roots and thorns. It was perfect with what we wanted to build."

Club executives say the team will also go by “Montreal Roses” in English and “Les Roses de Montréal” in French.

Team founders Isabèle Chevalier and Jean-François Crevier said they must have gone through at least 40 names before finding one that stuck.

“We maybe funnelled it to five and finished with one,” Crevier said.

"And even then we went back, we had another iteration, we came back,” Chevalier added.

Montreal was the league’s last founding franchise to reveal its branding. Roses FC joins Vancouver Rise FC, Ottawa Rapid FC, Halifax Tides FC, Calgary Wild FC and AFC Toronto.

The Roses haven’t revealed where they’ll play when the NSL kicks off a 25-game inaugural season in April, but say they’ll be able to announce it by the end of the year.

Larouche said the team has looked at options all around Montreal and will likely draw inspiration from the city's Professional Women’s Hockey League outfit, which played home games at the 3,795-capacity Verdun Auditorium, 10,000-seat Place Bell and 21,000-occupancy Bell Centre in its inaugural season.

“We might do this for the first year, or even more,” said Larouche, who left the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Montreal Alliance to take the new job. “We just want to make sure that we find the right field, the right stadium for us. You don't want a big stadium that is empty.”

French soccer legend Marinette Pichon, who scored 81 goals in 112 international games, will serve as sporting director and the club hired Robert Rositoiu as head coach last month.

Next up, the Roses need players — and Pichon said they’re almost ready to announce “more than a couple” signings.

"To be honest, we are in a very good way,” Pichon said. “We have players now already engaged with the club. We've been through the process of the contract and signing the contract.

“We worked a lot in the Quebec province and Canada because we want to give those girls the opportunity to move up without needing to sign a contract somewhere else in Europe or the U.S.”

Each NSL team is expected to have a $1.5-million initial salary cap for 20 to 25 players on a roster and the minimum salary is $50,000. Franchises will be allowed up to seven foreign players and one marquee player whose salary will only account for $75,000 against the cap.

For reference, the NWSL — the top tier in the United States — increased its salary cap to US$2.75 million in 2024 from $1.375 million in 2023 for 22- to 26-player rosters.

With that budget, Pichon wouldn’t rule out recruiting French-speaking Canadian Olympians such as Evelyne Viens, who plays for AS Roma in Italy, and Gabrielle Carle of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit down the line.

"Or (star Canadian centre back) Vanessa Gilles,” Pichon added. “The first thought was, 'OK, we need to contact them and talk to them' ... but when you are involved in a wonderful league, like Evelyne at AS Roma or Vanessa Gilles in Lyon, it's very hard to be competitive against them for the first two years.

“I'm sure in a couple years they will come over and say, 'OK, now I need to bring my experiences, my expertise, to make sure that this league will go up as well.'"

That won’t stop Larouche and Pichon from reaching out to those stars and showing off the new branding on Tuesday night.

“We're still in contact,” Pichon said. “They're very involved about what's happening here in Canada, and they want to come over.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.