# Ottawa Rapid FC

Ottawa Rapid FC (French: CF Rapide Ottawa) is a professional women's soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. It will compete in the Northern Super League, in the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The club will play its home matches at the 24,000-capacity TD Place Stadium in Lansdowne Park. One of the last two clubs to join as charter members of the league, the Rapid will play its inaugural season in 2025. The club's primary colour is light blue, with an orange accent, while its crest depicts the native peregrine falcon. Thomas Gilbert serves as the club's chief executive officer.

## History

The club's existence was first disseminated at the espnW Summit in May 2024, where it and Montréal were described as the last two of the league's six charter clubs. Details were initially scant, with the league's CEO Diane Matheson implying its development was behind the other five clubs. The club's formal unveiling took place at a press conference at TD Place Stadium on 15 August, where their corporate leadership, branding, and venue were detailed for the first time.

## Identity

Canadian advertising agency Critical Mass designed the club's branding, which uses light blue as a primary colour and orange as an accent – references to the "water, sky, and the power of nature around us", and the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill, respectively. The club's name, Rapid, was a compromise between traditional North American "mascot" names, viscerality, and geographical context. The geology of the Ottawa Valley, and a "sense of speed and progress", were described by the club as imagery intended to be evoked by the name. While Ottawa is not officially bilingual, the club has an official French-language name: CF Rapide Ottawa, or Club de Foot Rapide Ottawa.
The Rapid's crest prominently features the peregrine falcon, a bird native to Ottawa recognized as the fastest animal in the world, with a four-feathered wing representing the rivers Gatineau, Ottawa, and Rideau in its negative space. The letter "O" outlines the crest, and is decorated with a small tulip on its top – a reference to the Canadian Tulip Festival that takes place annually in Ottawa.

## Stadium

The Rapid will play their home games at TD Place Stadium in Lansdowne Park, located in the city's Glebe neighbourhood. The club will share the 24,000-capacity venue, which itself contains the TD Place Arena integrated into its northern grandstand, with five other concurrent tenants: the Atlético Ottawa soccer club, the Ottawa Redblacks Canadian football club, the PWHL Ottawa and Ottawa 67's ice hockey clubs, and the Ottawa BlackJacks basketball club. Owned by the City of Ottawa and operated by the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, the precinct is currently slated for a CA$419 million redevelopment, which would replace the integrated stadium–arena with a new, separate stadium and arena complex, orbited by a number of residential tower blocks. The cost blowout from its original CA$183 million budget attracted controversy to the project, leading to calls for it to be downscaled or scrapped altogether. Its training grounds is the RA Centre located near the Billings Bridge Plaza.

## Players and Staff
### Players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | MF | POL | Kayla Adamek |
| — | MF | CAN | Emily Amano |
| — | MF | CAN | Florence Belzile |
| — | MF | CAN | Julia Benati |
| — | MF | KOR | Choo Hyo-joo |
| — | GK | CAN | Melissa Dagenais |
| — | MF | CAN | Stella Downing |
| — | GK | SWE | Mollie Eriksson |
| — | MF | USA | Melanie Forbes |
| — | FW | NOR | Johanne Fridlund |
| — | MF | SWE | Ellen Gibson |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | MF | CAN | Nicola Golen |
| — | DF | NOR | Susanne Haaland |
| — | DF | USA | Jyllissa Harris (on loan from Houston Dash) |
| — | MF | KOR | Lee Min-a |
| — | MF | NGA | Ngozi Okobi-Okeoghene |
| — | FW | USA | Delaney Baie Pridham |
| — | MF | CAN | Desiree Scott |
| — | DF | CAN | Liv Scott |
| — | MF | CAN | Miranda Smith |
| — | FW | CAN | Jazmine Wilkinson |

### Staff

    As of October 23, 2024
Executive :
| CEO | Thomas Gilbert |
| COO | Stephanie Spruston |
| Chief Sport Officer | Heidi Bloomfield |
| Technical Director | Kristina Kiss |
| Coaching staff ||
| Head coach | Katrine Pedersen |
| Assistant coach | Søren Kiilerich |
| Performance analyst | Carli Tingstad |