It’s Time for the NHL to Make a Meaningful Commitment to Women’s Hockey

This past week has been a rollercoaster ride for fans of women’s hockey. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) abruptly announced on Sunday that they would be shutting down league operations on May 1, 2019 as a result of an “unsustainable business model.” While there has been much speculation about the details surrounding the decision, to me one thing is clear: The NHL has neglected their responsibility to sufficiently support the growth of women’s professional hockey in North America.

“I know we’re well in excess of 40%, which might be the highest in sport…” - NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on the percentage of NHL fans that are female (January 26, 2019)

Concern for female fans of the game can’t simply end at their interest in the NHL. As the largest commercial entity in North American hockey, the NHL owes it to female fans and hockey players to invest in their opportunities to play the game at the highest level. This means supporting the game in whatever form that might be, even if that means financially backing both a Canadian league (CWHL) and an American league (National Women's Hockey League (NWHL)) until a solution can be reached to create a single league (under the umbrella of the NHL or not). 

"We recognize that having professional options is important to aspiring young women hockey players. If those options were to become unavailable , the NHL would consider helping to create alternatives." – NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly (March 31, 2019)

It’s time to call out the NHL’s recent stance on failing to increase its funding to the CWHL and NWHL for what it is, an obstructionist ploy that handcuffs both leagues and discourages significant funding from companies who traditionally have invested in hockey. If you were a company looking to invest in the women’s game, wouldn’t you wait for an NHL-backed women’s league to come to fruition rather than investing in one of two leagues that the NHL was not committed to?

What I will lay out in the rest of this piece is a proposed three-year plan for the NHL, its teams, Player’s Association, and partners to meaningfully improve their support of women’s hockey with the aim of negotiating in good faith to create a single women’s league by 2022-23.

[NOTE: My plan would assume that the CWHL would be resurrected for the 2019-20 season.] 

1. Increase Funding

News came out this week that the NHL’s contribution to the CWHL and NWHL totaled $100,000 ($50,000 per league) per season. For a league that generates roughly $775 million in income per season (see quote below), their $100,000 contribution amounts to 0.01% (!!!) of their annual income. [Quick reminder: 40%+ of the NHL’s fans are female.]

“ The value of the average NHL team rose 6% during the past year, to $630 million. One of the primary reasons for this increase is the league’s average operating income hit a record $25 million for the 2017-18 season, 39% more than the previous season.” - Forbes (December 5, 2018)

The NHL needs to significantly improve their offering to help the two leagues increase their profile and grow awareness of their existence. Whatever that bump in contributions looks like, the NHL already has suitable staff (i.e., NHL Executive Vice President of Social Impact, Growth & Legislative Affairs, Kimberly Davis) and a Female Advisory Committee in place that could determine how those funds would be distributed.

"...the CWHL generated $3.449 million in revenue and $3.24 million in expenses, including $1.6 million in salaries for players, coaches & staff, & nearly $800,000 in travel, according to its 2018 financial statements..." - Kevin McGrann, Toronto Star (March 31, 2019)

2. Improve Marketing Commitment by the NHL’s Women’s Hockey Partner Franchises

Secondly, while seven NHL teams (Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs) have partnerships in place with the sister franchises in their cities, their marketing departments have been incredibly reluctant to leverage their massive social media audiences to promote women’s games and events.

With millions of followers across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, publishing a handful of posts per week promoting games would have a tremendous impact on growing awareness of the league and bolstering attendance.

I propose that CWHL/NWHL partner franchises commit to a strict promotional plan that includes:

• Sharing information about NWHL/CWHL season ticket sales with their fanbase prior to the season
• Promoting single game ticket sales (every game)
• Inviting players from women’s hockey franchises to participate in community engagement events.

3. Boost NHLPA Involvement

As NBA reporter Doris Burke stated recently, professional male players can have a tremendous impact on changing male fans’ perceptions of women in sports.

In my opinion, a successful partnership with the NHLPA would include an agreement stating that players would need to:

• Share content related to their female peers on a regular basis on social media
• Attend X number of their sister team’s games per season
• Occasionally wear merchandise with their sister team’s logo on it when participating in interviews (like Buffalo Sabres goalie Carter Hutton, wearing a Buffalo Beauts (NWHL) hat below).

4. Organize a Preseason NHL/CWHL/NWHL 3-on-3 Event

In order to consolidate the idea of partnerships between NHL teams and their sister franchises, I propose two one-day events (one Canadian, one American) that would function in a similar manner to the 2019 NHL All-Star Game:

• Four teams per event
• Three-on-three games
• Two 20-minute, elimination semi-final games
• One 20-minute championship game

Teams would be made up of half NHL players and half female players. There would be four teams in the American and Canadian events, as follows:

Canadian Event Teams: 1. Calgary Flames/ Calgary Inferno, 2. Montreal Canadiens/ Les Canadiennes de Montreal, 3. Ottawa Senators/ Markham Thunder, 4. Toronto Maple Leafs/ Toronto Furies

American Event Teams: 1. Buffalo Sabres/ Buffalo Beauts, 2. Boston Bruins/ Boston Pride, 3. New Jersey Devils/ Metropolitan Riveters, 4. Minnesota Wild/ Minnesota Whitecaps

5. Hold Regular #OneLeague Meetings

The final step in my proposal would be for key parties from the NHL, CWHL, NWHL and the NHL’s Female Advisory Committee to meet at regular intervals over the next three years to hammer out a plan for a single women’s league that would play its inaugural season following the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

This would give all parties involved the opportunity to gauge markets/ determine appropriate solutions to:

• How to support franchises lacking NHL partnerships (Worchester (CWHL), Markham (CWHL) & Connecticut (NWHL))
• Determining potential markets for future expansion (i.e., Winnipeg, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Washington, Chicago, etc.)
• Finding the business model most likely to succeed based on other women's professional leagues (NWSL, WNBA, UEFA, etc.)

"Interesting note from Gary Bettman on [Prime Time Sports]... he had former WNBA Commissioner Val Ackerman do a study on the feasibility of Women’s Pro Hockey. Sustainability was certainly an issue." - John Shannon, Sportsnet (April 10, 2019)

Conclusion

It’s time for the NHL to finally step up and back women’s hockey in a meaningful way. Waiting for both leagues to dissolve before investing is an insult to female fans of the game that make up 40%+ of the NHL’s fan base. My proposal offers steps to grow awareness of the women’s professional franchises in existence, solidify partnerships between NHL teams and their sister franchises, and puts in place a concrete, short-term timeline to work towards a single women’s league.

This article is intended to kickstart discussion. Please leave your thoughts/comments below. Thanks for reading!!! 

P.S. I leave you with a video I cut together to celebrate Kendall Coyne Schofield's historic lap in the Fastest Skater competition at the 2019 NHL All-Star Game:

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Related Articles

CWHL announces it will discontinue operations in May (Sportsnet, March 31, 2019)

The legal reality of #OneLeague (The Ice Garden, April 1, 2019)

NWHL eyes teams in Montreal and Toronto (ESPN, April 3, 2019)

Commissioner Gary Bettman says NHL won’t interfere with NWHL (Sportsnet, April 10, 2019)

Questions and new options abound as CWHL set to officially fold (Sportsnet, April 30, 2019)

Discussions underway about future for professional women’s hockey: ‘The foundation needs to be sustainable’ (The Athletic, April 30, 2019)