Jenna Hefford new head of Professional Women's Hockey Player's Association

[LadyStanley]

Jayna Hefford to lead Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association - Sportsnet.ca

Had been (interim) commissioner of CWHL.

Hefford says she expects to talk with the NHL about supporting or creating a more viable professional league.

“In my experience, you absolutely need the infrastructure and those resources [of the NHL],” Hefford told Kaplan. “I don’t know if it’s just about dollars. You’ve got to have that platform; the infrastructure part is really important. We found that out with the CWHL.

Good luck.


Will be interesting to see if anything comes of the NHL discussions.

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[tony d]

All the best to her in this role. Will be interesting to see how she does.

 

[Ernie]

It's probably worthwhile for the NHL to have some sort of women's league under their banner. It will be interesting if the NWHL actually starts its season.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

It's probably worthwhile for the NHL to have some sort of women's league under their banner. It will be interesting if the NWHL actually starts its season.

The optics are good and that's why and only why the NHL will consider doing anything.

 

[HFBS]

When's the salary parity lawsuit coming?

 

[Ernie]

Seems like some people are triggered by the idea of women playing pro hockey.

Call it optics or just plain ol' good marketing but it wouldn't hurt for the NHL to focus more on female participation, who just so happen to make up 40% of the fanbase, give or take. The more people feel engaged with hockey, the better for the NHL.

 

[HFBS]

And how often do you pay to watch women's hockey?

 

[Burke the Legend]

It's probably worthwhile for the NHL to have some sort of women's league under their banner. It will be interesting if the NWHL actually starts its season.

Any kind of official association opens them up to pay discrimination lawsuits. They will flip them a modest cheque as "donors" or something and no other ties.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Seems like some people are triggered by the idea of women playing pro hockey.

Call it optics or just plain ol' good marketing but it wouldn't hurt for the NHL to focus more on female participation, who just so happen to make up 40% of the fanbase, give or take. The more people feel engaged with hockey, the better for the NHL.

These women should aim for something like semi-professional like Senior AAA hockey that's realistically supported by their revenues and then aim to grow from there. What they want is for someone outside to write cheques to cover all the players for $50,000 or so salary so they don't need a real job.

The NHL could decide to do this but they do have a limited marketing/charity budget. It would be weighed up against other engagement programs like for example municipal arena financing to allow more access to ice, pushing D1 NCAA growth, then all kinds of other smaller sponsorship like various youth leagues, outreach to disadvantaged groups like aboriginal or inner city, etc. You claim that 40% female fanbase is a big target but not many women actually seem all the interested in watching women's hockey based on their bad attendance and TV ratings so i'm not sure the NHL would be getting great bang for buck by writing cheques to underwrite Amanda Kessel's fake professional status (compared to those other programs).