Professional women’s hockey finally has a unified league. What now?

For at least four years, professional women’s hockey players vociferously advocated for one unified league.

It finally happened about a week ago when Mark Walter, a co-owner of MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, announced that his company had bought the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) and would cease operations. Days later, the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association (PWHPA) ratified a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Walter group to begin a new unnamed professional league in January 2024.

There will reportedly be six teams, evenly split between Canada and the US, with player salaries ranging from $35,000 to $80,000 US.

A difficult part is over. However, the next one has only just begun.

Experts say one of the most important next steps to ensure the league’s success is identifying the right markets, distributing players fairly across the league, negotiating a fair media rights deal and securing sponsorships. A deal with the NHL could be beneficial, they say, but only under certain conditions.

Laurel Walzak, who chaired the board of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) when it folded in 2019, told CBC Sports that the new vision for women’s hockey is promising — especially with the support of Walter, who also co-owns English Premier League club Chelsea and whose estimated net worth, according to Forbes, is $5.3 billion.

“The way it’s been done before with the media rights deal and the sponsors for it and events for that and all that stuff, it can’t exist that way. If it exists that way, it will fail,” she said. . “I don’t believe for a second that it will stay that way because so much has changed since then.”

Identify markets

Both Walzak and Ann Pegoraro, the president of sports management at Guelph University’s business school, said the league’s initial business model, in which it owns each of its six clubs, was intriguing.

Pegoraro said laying the foundations evenly would be crucial in the initial build-up of the league.

“But the idea that they can sell their franchises, generate future revenue streams and build out the league by adding new franchises at the same time, I think that’s the end goal should be where individual franchise owners would be and the opportunity to expand about North America,” Pegoraro said.

The final season of the CWHL saw teams seeded in Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary, in addition to Markham, Ont., Worcester, Mass., and Shenzhen, China.

Clustering teams in the Northeast might make more sense to cut down on travel costs and focus hockey on the biggest markets. The Associated Press has reported that Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, London, Ont., Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and New York are all being considered.

Stan Kasten, the Dodgers’ president who is considered a man to get the new league off the ground, told The Canadian Press that his goal is to have the league’s name and logo, team locations and a game schedule in the coming months. to be made public in two months.

Wherever the competition ends, Walzak said it’s important to keep fans in mind — even those who aren’t in the market.

Within the cities the league chooses, Pegoraro noted that they should choose arenas with growth potential.

“I think if you put them in decent sized arenas that are specific to hockey and in good locations, I think there’s demand. We saw the women’s games in the Olympics and the world championships draw huge audiences on television. There so is a group that wants to watch these games,” she said.

Short term pain, long term gain

That’s also where the media rights deal comes in. As Walzak points out, playing on Sunday mornings or only broadcasting major games benefits no one. Instead, there should be a complete agreement where every game is available, whether on traditional broadcast TV or streaming.

“I don’t know if it will be traditionally linear. There might be something similar to what’s been done with MLS with an Apple TV deal. Who knows?” Walzak said.

“I think they’re going to have to do things differently because if you think about it, no one in North America other than the big games has really invested heavily in CWHL or PHF broadcasting rights until now.”

Some PHF players would earn up to $150,000 next season.

“For the short-term pain, there will be long-term gains and there will be permanence in this league that will be forever, similar to what’s going on with the WNBA, how it’s finally taking off after so many years, and NWSL is starting to take off,” Walzak said. “Now is the time for women’s sports.”

Still, some kind of fences may need to be put in place between the PWHPA and PHF.

“It looked like, wow, [the PHF] really turned the corner and now possibly a big part of it [players] lost jobs. And I think that’s an immediate hit,” said Pegoraro.

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Fair dealings

When asked what she would advise the new league based on her CWHL experience, Walzak cautioned against sponsorship deals that yield little or no value.

“I think the stakeholders, sponsors have to pay. So the old deals of ‘I’ll give you jerseys to play in’ – no, where’s the money? And we’ll wear your jerseys. Because that’s part of the deal, you want all people to wear your sweaters. OK, great. So that’s going to cost you X dollars.”

It’s the same principle that should be used in discussions with the NHL, which has said in the past that it will support women’s hockey if there is one unified league.

But while the new league should be able to operate on its own, it will compete with the NHL for attention during the winter months.

“Whether they need an investment from the NHL or a specific relationship to tie into existing franchises, I’m not sure they need that right now,” Pegoraro said. “But I think they need some sort of relationship that allows them to promote and support each other without the men’s league necessarily dominating all the time.”

Pegoraro added that the pitch should be for all potential partners to look at the NWSL’s Angel City FC, which reportedly paid a franchise fee of $2-3 million before being valued at more than $100 million before ever played a game.

“Now is the time, this is the time that we are seeing tremendous returns on investment. … We know that the only place you can get growth and returns like this on your dollar right now is in women’s sports.”