For years, the same buzzwords were commonplace when people discussed the professional options for women’s hockey players in North America. The main problem always boiled down to some variation of this: If you could barely afford to pay players, how could you afford to market them and surround them properly?
People always lamented the growth of women’s hockey but if you had the best soil and best seeds and stuck it in an unsuitable pot and in a room filled with darkness, would you be surprised if it didn’t grow? Of course not, but because we’re in the age of 24/7 social media where the takes are instant and people love to hate things, context doesn’t matter. The critics were loud and proud: Women’s hockey was always bound to fail.
People looked at the lack of team names and logos when the PWHL launched and thought it was same old, same old. I never blamed fans for being upset or disappointed especially if you are looking for ways to spend your money to support the league or your team of choice. It was clear, though, that this was different. And the first week of play in the new league has proven that.
First of all, the broadcast details. The league is producing all games and distributing them to networks and hosting games on their own YouTube channel for free worldwide. Whether you’re watching the game on your cell phone or on your TV, you see a professional broadcast. The most jarring thing about the score bug (aside from a lack of live shots on goal) is the fact that there is no branding like we’ve become so accustomed to through our viewing of North American sports. That’s not a bad thing. Compare the PWHL production to what the American Hockey League provides. Not even comparable. From multiple cameras, to replays, to just plain image quality.
The other advantage to this is that the games are not subject to regional restrictions. Sure, the Canadian TV schedule can be a bit confusing. Is the game on CBC or TSN or Sportsnet? Is it on RDS or TOU.TV or Radio-Canada? It may take you a few minutes to find it, but no matter what it’s on YouTube. It’s remarkably easy in today’s world of having multiple streaming packages and channel choices. Every team in the league has at least a regional broadcaster on TV, with national deals in Canada, and talks are still ongoing with national networks in the US, per several reports.
When Stan Kasten, the most public-facing member of the PWHL advisory board, spoke to the media before Tuesday’s Montreal-Ottawa game, he was his normal open and honest self like we have become accustomed to since he became the administrative face of the league. He was talking about how the league will learn not only from every ticket they sell, but every ticket they don’t sell. He knows not every game will be sold out and set attendance records like the Ottawa home-opener did, but that they are working on eventually getting everything right.
“As we were rushing things, it became obvious to us that there were certain things that we really, really need to do right now and other things that we could put off,” Kasten said. “I will tell you this, the thing that we thought was essential was getting the hockey right…”
Kasten then paused. His demeanour changed. He choked up, and was visibly emotional.
“And we got it,” he finally finished, the final word shortened by him yet again holding back tears.
“It chokes me up when I talk about it,” Kasten started again. “Because these players have waited so long for this. But we have the best players in the world and we gave them the best possible conditions, and so we got the hockey right.”
Without taking anything away from the leagues and teams that came before the PWHL, there is no question that the environments these players are working in are night and day from what came before. It was always about much more than just salaries, it was about infrastructure and investment.
“Every time I see another player, I ask them ‘are you being treated like a professional?’ and they tell me ‘yes,'” Kasten said. “That’s the best thing. That was always the goal. That was always the thing players were asking about the most. They had their own vision of how things should work, our vision aligned with theirs by and large and we’re seeing it all coming true.”
“It’s unbelievable the support of the vision, the support to do something like this,” said Jayna Hefford, the PWHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations. “All of the past experiences and leagues were not failures, they were part of the journey to get here. I played in three of them, I am proud of that, I am proud of the journey I had and I wouldn’t change any of it.”
Hefford was the commissioner of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) when it folded in 2019. She was then named as an advisor to the PWHPA when that group formed.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be in this journey with these players for almost five years and I can say they are some of the best people, the best ambassadors. They are great humans and they are incredibly appreciative,” Hefford said. “I wish some of my teammates and those who came before me had a chance to interact with them as much as I do because that gratitude is real.”
“I have a front-row seat to it, how lucky am I?” said Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod, who represented Canada at two Olympic Games and four World Championships. “To stand on the bench and watch these players get this opportunity, it’s a dream come true for me too.”
The mainstream media is finally buying in as well, not only by broadcasting games, but by normalizing women’s hockey discussion. It’s a major difference-maker in terms of raising the general awareness. I have been in the women’s hockey bubble for a long time and I didn’t realize how relatively small that bubble was until I saw what happens when the awareness grows outside of it like it has over the last week.
Some may see the lacklustre launch of merchandise and team branding to be a missed opportunity, and maybe it is. But it’s telling that the league isn’t rushing things to make a few extra dollars.
Previous women’s hockey leagues moved heaven and earth to make themselves look better on the outside than they were on the inside. That’s not an insult, it’s just a fact of the financial reality they were in. The PWHL, funded by billionaire Mark Walter and his wife Kimbra, doesn’t need to raise funds and is not in a hurry to turn a profit. It’s the definition of investment that was lacking so much in the past.
The league could have tried to sell exclusive broadcast rights, or put their professional broadcast behind a paywall, but as Kasten said, their focus is getting the hockey right. What use is that if people can’t see it?
It’s a short-term sacrifice for long-term gain. That’s the focus of this league and it shows. It’s why this time it’s different. It turns out women’s hockey wasn’t always bound to fail, it just wasn’t given the right circumstances to succeed.
