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.[1][2][3] Details were initially scant, with the league's CEO Diane Matheson implying its development was behind the other five clubs.[4] 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.[5][6]
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.[5][7][8] 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.[7][8] While Ottawa is not officially bilingual, the club has an official French-language name: CF Rapide Ottawa, or Club de Foot Rapide Ottawa.[6]
The Rapid will play their home games at TD Place Stadium in Lansdowne Park, located in the city's Glebe neighbourhood.[9][10] 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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[11][12][13]
^Jaques, John (30 May 2024). "Everything We Know About All Six NSL Launch Teams". The Northern Tribune. Archived from the original on 30 May 2024. Retrieved 16 August 2024. Matheson seemed to imply Ottawa is much further behind the other teams...
^ abcdBrennan, Don (15 August 2024). "First Foot Forward: Ottawa Rapid FC unveils name, badge and colours it will wear in NSL". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 16 August 2024. ...Ottawa Rapid FC will be [...] the sixth sports tenant at TD Place. [...] When he was approached by NSL co-founder (and former national team player) Diana Matheson two years ago, he was running a frozen pizza company. [...] Gilbert, who was taught what he knows about the game by Matheson when they were doing their executive MBA together.
^Wagner, Richard (9 August 2023). "Lansdowne 2.0 — some key questions remain unanswered". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 16 August 2024. ...the City of Ottawa is being asked by OSEG to invest at least $332.6 million into Lansdowne 2.0, which is in addition to the $136 million invested by the city in Lansdowne in 2014.
