Creating the Ideal Professional Women’s Hockey League
Learning from the Failures of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) & the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA)
Brief History of Modern Women’s Hockey Leagues in North America
Looking at a timeline of women’s involvement in hockey, you will see that most of the milestones are from female hockey players being the first to do something in a professional men’s league or game. Most news about women’s hockey leagues usually involves failure or struggle and to protect the future of women’s hockey, we must learn from what has failed in the past.
National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) 1999–2007
Founded in Canada in 1999 as a rebrand from the struggling Central Ontario Women’s Hockey League (COWHL), the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) went through many changes and struggles during its eight years in existence. Commissioner Susan Fennell was a key component of any success the league did have and when she retired in 2006, the league only lasted one more season before becoming defunct. While there is a lot to learn from this league, the world of sports and entertainment has changed drastically and we will need to look at more current issues to build a proper understanding of what needs to change.
Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) 2007–2019
Following the NWHL’s demise, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League was started originally as a senior women’s league in Ontario. Eventually, it grew to be the highest level of professional women’s hockey in North America. The players who helped start this league took a different approach than previous leagues and modeled after the National Lacrosse League (NLL) with the league paying for travel, ice rentals, uniforms, etc. but would not pay players. However, in 2017, the league started paying players a small stipend, becoming the second league in addition to the new NWHL to start paying players. The CWHL eventually reached its demise in 2019 after failing to receive enough corporate sponsorships due to competition with the new NWHL and ceased operations.
Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) 2021-present
also known as the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) 2015–2021
The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) was founded in 2015 as the first professional women’s league to pay a salary as opposed to the CWHL which only paid small stipends. Starting with just four teams, the league operated in a similar format to the National Hockey League (NHL) with All-Star games, a Winter Classic, corporate sponsorships, and a cup championship. The league set up local initiatives, partnered with the NHL, and placed franchises in areas with larger populations of young girls in hockey. This league had so far been the most successful women’s league.
With the dissolution of the CWHL, the NWHL filled the gaps in the women’s hockey market by expanding to Canada. However, players from both the CWHL and the NWHL were upset with the leagues as they were not provided necessities like health insurance or even a livable salary. (The minimum salary for the NWHL was $10,000.) In September 2021, the NWHL underwent a rebranding and changed the league name to the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), and put an emphasis on private ownership of each franchise. In addition to these changes, the league doubled the salary cap (although the average salary per player is still not a liveable salary) and added full healthcare benefits for players.
Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) 2019-present
The Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) was founded as a 501(c)(6) organization dedicated to advocating for female professional hockey players. As previous organizations were amateur and did not pay well or give benefits, many players boycotted the leagues to advocate for their rights as a rival to the PHF. The players launched the PWHPA in 2019 to create a new sustainable league by improving finance and infrastructure within the league, providing health insurance, and supporting training programs for young players. The PWHPA has worked closely with NHL teams as well over the years and created their own teams to play in a women’s league. In 2022, the PWHPA board voted unanimously to end discussions with the PHF and the NHL about creating a unified women’s league.
League Shortcomings
As a summary of the various leagues’ histories over the past 20 years, we can look at their shortcomings and how they relate to the consistent failure we see today. The world of sports and entertainment is changing rapidly and leagues need to adapt quickly in order to succeed. There is no time for back-and-forth discourse.
In-Arena Fan Engagement
When you think of an NHL game or even an AHL game, it is usually a thrilling three hours of fast hockey, intermission games, colorful lights, popcorn, a jumbotron with replays and interviews, mascot shenanigans, crowds of people, warmup hype, intro videos, and goal horns. It’s a show, to say the least. Many non-hockey fans can go into a game and still have a great time despite not understanding anything about the sport.
In the PHF, most teams play at small rinks that other pro teams would consider just a practice facility. The Metropolitan Riveters play home games inside a mall’s ice rink. The Buffalo Beauts share an 1800-seat arena with the University of Buffalo’s men’s hockey team as well as a pro inline hockey team. The Connecticut Whale plays in the International Skating Center of CT, a standard skating facility for the community. The Toronto Six play at Canlan Sports’ York facility, located on York University’s campus. The Minnesota Whitecaps play at Richfield Ice Arena, sharing the ice with two high school hockey teams. The Montreal Force plays in the Verdun Auditorium, the largest of the PHF facilities, a historic arena that has hosted pro sports of all kinds. The Boston Pride likely plays in the best arena of the PHF, claiming home ice as the Boston Bruins’ practice facility built in 2016.
Between small practice arenas and a lack of in-game fan engagement, there is less incentive for people to spend money to attend a game. With pro sports, it is more about getting the people who are not usually fans to come to your game. If there is no incentive to do so, then crowds will be much smaller and less diverse.
Broadcast Accessibility
In November 2022, the PHF announced that they were expanding their broadcast team to include 15 announcers and analysts featured solely on ESPN+, a subscription-based broadcast platform run by ESPN. While this is a major improvement from the 2019–20 season that featured poor-quality broadcast streams on YouTube, it has made the 84 regular season games inaccessible for many people due to the subscription fee. Some fans have even stated that the broadcast quality on ESPN+ still looks like it’s from the 2000s (Hoagland).
The PWHPA has a far more accessible broadcast stream with games available worldwide on the CBC Sports website, the CBC Sports app, CBC Gem, and the CBC Sports YouTube channel. However, their schedule follows a very different showcase-style game schedule compared to the PHF, NHL, and other professional sports leagues, causing the schedule to be less intuitive.
Social Media Presence
Social media has become a very powerful tool in the world of sports and entertainment. It has become the prime way for leagues, teams, and athletes to connect with their fans. The PHF and PWHPA lack when it comes to dominating the social media world. The PHF (47.4K followers) posts mainly just game scores and highlights on their Instagram where they are most active. While the graphics are clean and professional, the content is repetitive and shows little to no of the player and team personalities. Furthermore, the PHF’s username on Instagram is still @nwhl.zone, an already unprofessional username that drives fans away from following them by making the account harder to find. The individual team accounts vary in quality but none have a comparably large social media presence. The unverified Montreal Force has the smallest following with 4.9K followers on Instagram — although they are the newest addition to the league this season — and the Boston Pride have the largest following with 24K followers on Instagram.
The PHF’s Player Association (PHFPA) — I know the names are all getting confusing at this point — also has a lacking social media presence. With just around 4700 followers, the account features poorly designed graphics and an inconsistent posting schedule. While the PHF is still growing, it is important that they start with a strong foundation. Especially as a women’s league, in order to be taken seriously, everything needs to look professional. Comparing the PHFPA’s Instagram to the NHLPA’s Instagram, it is noticeable how the PHFPA lacks professionalism.
The PWHPA’s Instagram (40.1K followers) is a much more cohesive and professional space. With a descriptive yet concise bio, a collection of labeled highlights, and a larger variety of content than the PHF, the PWHPA feels more like the NHL in terms of content types and consistency. However, with a smaller following than the PHF and other professional leagues, the PWHPA gets the least interaction and visibility.
Finances & Player Salaries
Since the 2021 season, the PHF has increased the salary cap for each season starting off with a $150,000 cap in 2021–22. In the 2022–23 season, the salary cap was increased to $750,000 and for the upcoming 2023–24 season, there will be an all-time cap high of $1.5 million. Currently, the PHF player with the highest salary is Buffalo Beauts defender Dominique Kremer with a salary of $65,000 AAV on a two-year contract. While this is a liveable salary, it is nowhere near where other athletes — even other female athletes — make and the rest of the league’s salaries are as low as $13,000/year.
While the cap increases are going to be a significant help to sustaining the league, it is very possible for the money to run out. Currently, the average attendance for a PHF game is just under 1000 people and the average ticket prices range from around $20 to $50 USD (Source). An NHL game’s average ticket price is $82 USD and the average attendance is 15,841 people. A WNBA game’s average ticket price is $47 USD and the average attendance is 6768 people for comparison.
The PHF is currently funded by a commitment from the Board of Governors to invest over $25 million over the next few years. This is the largest one-time investment in women’s sports history but if there is no significant progress made in the next few years, it will likely be the last one the PHF sees. With ticket sales and merchandise sales not being a driving cause of profit for the league, it is difficult to imagine the PHF sustaining progress.
Approach to Activism & Advocacy
Something I have personally noticed from the PHF and the PWHPA — feel free to disagree — is that when these leagues focus on activism and advocacy, it comes across as aggressive and lacking connection. Unfortunately, this does drive away fans from wanting to support a team or league. I’m not saying that the leagues need to stop their activism initiatives and views, however, the leagues need to change their approach. By focusing their views and initiatives through the lens of player stories and experiences, it provides an opportunity to add context and heart to their activism. This not only gives the leagues a good foundation on which to build their activism but also helps people relate to or understand the leagues’ positions.
What Other Leagues Are Doing Right
No sports league is perfect and the leagues listed below are by no means the perfect example. However, they have made smart moves to work towards being sustainable leagues that professional women’s hockey can learn from.
National Hockey League (NHL)
In the past few years, the NHL and its thirty-two clubs have been transforming into community hubs of inclusivity and creativity. While the NHL — and the game of hockey itself — has a long way to go in terms of culture, their in-game fan engagement is some of the best in sports.
Each team does a variety of theme nights at home games throughout the year. In recent years, these theme nights have grown to become ways to recognize marginalized groups of people. These themes include Lunar New Year, International Women’s Day, First Nations, Black History Month, Pride, Diwali, Japanese Heritage, Mexican Heritage, and more. Through these theme nights, teams spotlight in-game festivities on activities and people related to the group the night is focused on. Other theme nights are fun incentives to attend the game like Star Wars Night, Fan Appreciation Night, and Country Night. Others like Hockey Fights Cancer, Mental Health Awareness (Hockey Talks), and Autism Awareness help support and recognize groups of people and illnesses that are often stigmatized.
In addition to the high-quality production value of every NHL game, these theme nights help to incentivize people to attend games as well as bring in new crowds of fans that would otherwise never think to come down to a hockey game.
National Basketball Association (NBA)
The NBA is one of the largest, most popular, and most recognizable pro sports leagues in the world. Part of this is due to their large involvement in communities around the world. NBA Cares is, “the league’s global social responsibility program that builds on the NBA’s mission of addressing important social issues in the U.S. and around the world,” (NBA Cares).
Through this program, players and teams work with prominent organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, UNICEF, the Special Olympics, GLSEN, and more. They have accumulated over 5.8 million service hours and helped around 60 million young basketball players around the world. The Brooklyn Nets, for example, host over 100 basketball camps and clinics a year for youth in their community. Current Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen won the NBA Cares Community Assist Award for his work helping families in the community learn about math and budgeting while providing them with groceries for Thanksgiving.
Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA)
The WNBA has been praised for its work and leadership in social justice. What makes their activism so authentic is that they are utilizing their own players’ and coaches’ stories to help lead the change. With 100% of the league identifying as female, 87% identifying as a person of color, and 20% identifying as LGBTQIA+, many of the social justice issues the world is facing directly affect players in this league.
Throughout the 2020–21 season, players wore various uniforms and clothing with “Black Lives Matter” and “Say Her Name” on them. Players and teams also posted support and resources following a rise in anti-Asian violence. Breanna Stewart (Seattle Storm) stated, “…We want to continue to use our platforms as more than just basketball players but as those who have a tremendous impact and reach to our respective communities,” (Connley). Layshia Clarendon (Minnesota Lynx) further explains their point of view saying, “I don’t think there’s a way for me individually to stay out of politics or to stay out of social justice because my existence is really political and the country we live in has made it political,” (Connley).
More on WNBA’s role in social justice here.
Creating the Ideal League
Creating the ideal professional women’s league requires a collective effort from female athletes, current women’s hockey leagues, investors, and other professional sports leagues. For starters, we need a single North American women’s league. This requires the PWHPA and the PHF to either combine or dissolve to make room for a new league to form.
In addition, there need to be sustainable and solid economic plans for the new league with consistent sources of funding and revenue. Hockey is financially inaccessible in so many different ways from both the player and fan perspectives. Women’s pro hockey is a great opportunity to change that for both sides, especially the fans. With smaller arenas and smaller crowds, ticket prices have the opportunity to be much more affordable. With affordable ticket prices, there will likely be an increase in ticket sales.
Next, partnering with local NHL, AHL, and university arenas that have a higher production capacity and can seat more fans as well, allowing the experience to feel more like a pro game and giving typically nonfans an incentive to attend. For example, instead of playing at a rink in the mall, the Metropolitan Riveters can play their home games at the Hobey Baker Memorial Ice Rink at Princeton University.
One of the most important parts of creating an ideal league is giving athletes a livable salary and full benefits. Professional hockey should be a viable career for women and that starts with proper pay equity in women’s sports. Athletes should be able to access proper health insurance and benefits they would get from a regular job without having to work a second job like Mikyla Grant-Mentis who had to work as a Fed-Ex driver outside of the rink.
A league’s presence on social media is just as important as the presence on gameday. There are two areas that would need to be emphasized for a women’s league to be successful. The first is that social media marketing needs to be improved on both sides. Leaning into trends, putting consistent effort and attention to detail in each post, and establishing a personality will all help to grow the audience, especially for fans who don’t live in the markets where teams are.
The second area that needs emphasizing is the approach to activism. It would be crucial for a new league to take a page from the WNBA’s book and incorporate their players’ experiences and stories into campaigns instead of blanket statements. The connection and real-life stories are how you get people to listen and not just glance over. There are many professional women’s hockey players that have overcome so much in their career whether because of their gender identity, their sexual orientation, or their race. It will be important to continually recognize this and push for change as the new league builds a platform.
Next Steps
To the NWHPA & PHF: figure it out. There is no future for professional women’s hockey if the two major professional leagues don’t figure it out.
To investors and those in the sports business: invest in women’s hockey. Invest in women in sports. Invest in girls. We are the future of sports.
To fans: keep supporting and showing up for women’s hockey.
To female hockey players: keep fighting and keep playing. There is a place for you in hockey.
