With an alphabetical soup of defunct leagues tarnishing history, professional women’s hockey is still waiting for its big moment. The Professional Women’s Hockey Players Assn. believe that time is near.
The development of women’s professional hockey has been slowed by a lack of funding and a philosophical schism that divides players whose greatest chance of success is to unite. Leagues born with great optimism have discovered the harsh reality of a game that is expensive to play and remains a niche sport for many Americans.
Financial troubles sank the Canadian Women’s Hockey League in 2019. The National Women’s Hockey League lost most of its stars that same year when they boycotted to protest a lack of health insurance and were underpaid to make hockey their only job. The NWHL remains the seven-team Premier Hockey Federation, but without most of the elite American and Canadian players.
This breakaway group formed the non-profit organization PWHPA, which is touring the US and Canada and hosting its championships this weekend in Southern California. The PWHPA, which last year hired Billie Jean King’s investment and consulting firm and the group led by Dodgers owner Mark Walter to investigate the formation of a new league, is about to embark on a venture with, according to a recent report broadcast by six teams to enter “Hockey Night in Canada”.
“This report was not entirely accurate, but it does contain some accuracy,” said Jayna Hefford, a four-time Olympic gold medalist for Canada and the lead industry advisor to the PWHPA.
“It is a priority to get the job done and not outgrow ourselves. We have a lot of momentum in what we do. We have great confidence in the work that has been and is being done and in the investor group we work with. I don’t think we can find a better one. We are excited and believe we are getting closer to something very important.”
The PWHPA has four teams, each named after a main sponsor. Its Secret Dream Gap tour concludes with their first championship weekend, which is part of an effort this season to “create a league-like look for it in terms of consistent teams and standings, stats and playoffs,” Hefford said.
NO. One-place Team Harvey’s (named after a Canadian fast-food chain) will meet No. 4 Team Sonnet (insurance) in a semi-final on Friday at 4 p.m. at Great Park Ice in Irvine, the Ducks’ practice facility. No. 2 teams adidas vs. NO. 3 Team Scotia Bank. The losers will play a placement match on Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, the Kings’ practice facility. The winners will meet Sunday at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, home of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, Seattle Kraken’s top farm team.
The Kings and Ducks often put aside their on-ice rivalry to work together to promote youth hockey, and both support girls’ programs. Both also offered well-attended competitions that rivaled the U.S. and Canada women’s national teams, the sport’s two superpowers.
“The way I see it, women’s hockey is really evolving, and when we get a chance to help and get involved, we should,” Kings president Luc Robitaille said. “Having the opportunity to host a graduation weekend in Southern California is the area that has since encouraged us to grow the game [Wayne] Gretzky was here, I think it’s a big event.”
His counterpart in Anaheim agreed. “All teams in Southern California want to move hockey forward,” Ducks president Aaron Teats said. “These opportunities to continue to show the girls who are playing today what the potential future holds for them is exciting and something we want to make sure we take forward.”
PWHPA players receive equal scholarships, not salaries. In the new league, they would average about $55,000 in salary. “That’s a number that we’ve looked at and think is a sustainable model, but that doesn’t mean the final version of the competition will be like that,” Hefford said.
She cites the longevity of the WNBA, the growth of the National Women’s Soccer League, and good TV ratings for women’s collegiate basketball as reasons for the success of a women’s professional hockey league.
“We definitely feel that now is the time. There is question. There is interest,” she says. “I think we’re in a really good place. We’re working. We’re making sure the base is strong. And of course we want that to happen tomorrow, but we can’t compromise on the things that will make this competition successful in the long run. will make.”
NHL teams have helped PWHPA and PHF teams — the Arizona Coyotes host the PHF Championship on March 26 at Mullett Arena — but NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has held back from supporting each other in hopes that they realize they have to work together. It’s getting hard enough for a women’s pro hockey league to survive in a crowded sports landscape. Two leagues competing for talent and uncertain resources will both be undermined.
With superior talent and the support of King and Walter, the PWHPA has the best chance of building a stable league. It can work by starting small. It may not work at all. Professional women’s hockey deserves an intelligent, well-structured effort to determine its viability and to avoid adding ingredients to the alphabet soup of leagues that failed due to poor planning and unrealistic expectations.
Source: LA Times