She's Got Next: Founders rally in Vancouver behind historic firsts in women's sports
Before tip-off, inside a private pre-game gathering, She's Got Next founders Julie Smulders and Jill Tracy brought together a powerhouse group of athletes, executives and community leaders to underline a message – Canada is entering a new era for women's sports, and it's time to show up.
Smulders, a UBC Thunderbirds alumna who played professional basketball overseas, said the idea for She's Got Next began last year after she and Tracy left a sold-out NCAA women's Final Four and compared it to the Canada West championships in B.C., which drew just 500 fans.
'We thought, 'We can do something in Canada. Let's elevate women's sports. Let's bring a community of women together,' Smulders said.
The private event drew some of the most influential figures in Canadian and North American sport: Toronto Tempo president Teresa Resch and general manager Monica Wright Rogers, NBA Canada communications director Ashton Lawrence, PWHL Vancouver general manager Cara Morey and director of business operations Tania Richards, and five-time Olympian and Canadian Olympic Committee president Charmaine Crooks.
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Tempo also used the evening to announce that when their inaugural WNBA season tips off next year, two of their regular-season games will be played in B.C., marking another historic milestone for Canadian women's basketball.
Instead of hosting galas, She's Got Next has built its brand around what Smulders calls 'games over galas.' The group organizes dedicated fan sections at women's sporting events, including Section 107 at PWHL Vancouver home games.
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That means when members join the organization, they don't just attend events—they show up in the stands together.
'It's about modelling behaviour,' Tracy said. 'Men have done it for decades—grabbing friends and going to games. We're making that the norm for women's sports.'
This season also marks the arrival of PWHL Vancouver, the province's first professional women's hockey franchise. The league has already drawn record-setting attendance in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and now Vancouver fans have a team of their own.
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Smulders and Tracy said they were emotional seeing young girls in jerseys at PWHL games earlier this year. 'There were no dry eyes in our group when the women took the ice and heard the national anthem,' Tracy recalled. 'We hadn't seen that before.'
The fight for visibility in women's sports has been ongoing for a long time. For decades, women were excluded outright: in the U.K., women's soccer was banned for 50 years.
In North America, women were often dismissed as 'unable' or 'unfit' to play.
'That mindset doesn't disappear overnight,' Smulders said.
In Canada, progress has accelerated in recent years. Christine Sinclair became the world's all-time leading international goal scorer, cementing women's soccer as a national passion.
Marie-Philip Poulin's overtime heroics turned her into 'Captain Clutch,' rewriting hockey history.
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And now, Canadian broadcasters are carrying more women's games—including, for the first time this year, all Indiana Fever WNBA games featuring star rookie Caitlin Clark.
'If you don't see it, you don't believe it's possible,' Smulders said. 'Now kids across Canada are seeing it.'
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Smulders remembered her UBC days when the women's basketball team was fed Subway while the men's team got steak dinners. 'We were grateful just to get anything,' she said.
Today's generation isn't settling.
'They want jerseys in their size. They want visibility. They want equality,' Tracy said. 'To them, women are just athletes. Period.'
For Smulders and Tracy, the message to fans, institutions and media is clear: women's sports are not a novelty, they are the future.
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Alongside fan sections and events, She's Got Next is launching scholarships for student-athletes, building career pipelines for women graduating from university sport, and continuing to host pre-game gatherings that unite athletes, executives, coaches, entrepreneurs and fans.
The organization also has dedicated fan sections starting with Section 107 at every PWHL Vancouver game.
The first WNBA game in Vancouver, the arrival of PWHL hockey in B.C., and the coming Northern Super League aren't just milestones; they're an invitation.
The question now is whether Canadians will keep showing up, not just for history, but for what comes next.
'Come to games. Become members. Tell your friends,' Smulders urged. Tracy added: 'The bigger the community, the bigger our impact.'
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