Mark Walter Group and Billy Jean King Enterprises purchases Premier Hockey Federation

[Voight]

Women's professional hockey is a constant disaster and gong show.

Hockey fans who don't loudly vocally support women's hockey are ridiculed, chastised, and sneered at. But it's just one fire after another and requires a a completely unreasonable amount of attention and patience to be a fan of. It's not getting better, it's only getting worse. I feel for these women. They don't deserve this crap. But neither do hockey fans who throw up their hands and move on from caring about it.

Cant grow the game if you spend all your time and resources fighting each other.

 

[joelef]

Cant grow the game if you spend all your time and resources fighting each other.

Or have completely unreal expectations

 

[KevFu]

Women hockey needs NHL partnership. A women's league is going to be a rocky financial endeavor.. but the infrastructure needs of a league totally go away if "WNHL teams" are practicing at NHL practice rinks, using NHL athletic training staffs, NHL equipment staffs, NHL PR/marketing staffs and NHL ticket offices. If the women's hockey league and team website are NHL.com redirects (like NHL team sites are!). If the league streaming is sold like NHLtv. Or if the the league's advertising and sponsorship is bundled with NHL.

I'm not saying there should be a WNHL of 32 teams in NHL cities, like the Lady Rangers or some non-sense. But a 16-team WNHL with four clusters of four geographically, with NHL infrastructure supporting them and WNHL expenses deducted from NHL HRR should be the goal.

 

[Primary Assist]

Women hockey needs NHL partnership. A women's league is going to be a rocky financial endeavor.. but the infrastructure needs of a league totally go away if "WNHL teams" are practicing at NHL practice rinks, using NHL athletic training staffs, NHL equipment staffs, NHL PR/marketing staffs and NHL ticket offices. If the women's hockey league and team website are NHL.com redirects (like NHL team sites are!). If the league streaming is sold like NHLtv. Or if the the league's advertising and sponsorship is bundled with NHL.

I'm not saying there should be a WNHL of 32 teams in NHL cities, like the Lady Rangers or some non-sense. But a 16-team WNHL with four clusters of four geographically, with NHL infrastructure supporting them and WNHL expenses deducted from NHL HRR should be the goal.

I fully agree that a professional women's league will need an NHL partnership to be viable, but I don't see any reason for the NHL to enter into one. The closest analog, the WNBA, has never once turned a profit and I don't know if the synergies around brand recognition and marketing it provides to the NBA are worth the cost of subsidy.

As you rightly pointed out this partnership would draw from HRR, which in turn puts the players and owners in a worse place and also harms the viewing experience of the average fan. Fans want the salary cap to go up every year and that can't happen to the same extent if we are using HRR to subsidize an unprofitable venture.

From a business POV, it's one thing to buy a distressed asset thinking that your superior management will be able to turn it into a top product. But the strife among these women's leagues doesn't seem to be temporary and I think that the acquiring company would just be picking up that baggage in perpetuity and the headache just isn't worth the gamble of taking on something that will likely never improve your bottom line.

In sum, it's a shame for the women's game that there is all this strife among leagues but I don't see any logical reason for the NHL to subsidize or acquire a women's league. But of course I could be missing something

 

[Dessloch]

Long interview (didn't finish reading it yet) with Boston Pride owner Miles Arnone.

https://thehockeynews.com/womens/phf/boston-pride-owner-tells-all-on-phf-acquisition-pwhpa-animosity-and-much-more

This is absolutely brutal.

"The PWHPA wants to be seen as the founders when they were really destroyers."

This is Hilary Knight's legacy. What a great way to ruin your reputation - destroy an entire league because you're on a greedy power trip!

The overloards of the PWHPA should not be heroes in the hockey history books, they should be villains!

Sadly as time passes on and with every PHF stronghold eliminated, these big ego selfish primadonnas will re-write history and credit themselves instead of the people who created the foundation for a womens league.

 

[KevFu]

I fully agree that a professional women's league will need an NHL partnership to be viable, but I don't see any reason for the NHL to enter into one. The closest analog, the WNBA, has never once turned a profit and I don't know if the synergies around brand recognition and marketing it provides to the NBA are worth the cost of subsidy.

I think this is where the North American model is far worse than the European model, or how college athletics work (my background in college athletics is why I think the way I do on this topic).

Everyone here is so caught up in "never turned a profit" and all that stuff. But profit is revenue AFTER EXPENSES.

How much does it cost to start a women's hockey team from scratch? A lot. Millions.

How much does it cost to start a women's hockey team... when you have an NHL team? Chump change. It's like Vinik letting the US Women's Hockey prepare for the Olympics in Tampa. He HAD everything a team needs to train for hockey games; he just let them use it.

I'm not saying a 32-team WNHL with the Lady Lightning playing the Canadiennes. I'm saying that the additional expense of NHL teams to operate WNHL teams, too, would be a hell of a lot lower than the expenses of running an independent league. The largest expense for the independent women's league teams... RENTING the ice to play/practice on!

The NHL teams have practice arenas, most that have fan seating they can sell tickets to, that would make great WNHL game arenas. So you can eliminate that expense and help you get closer to a profit right there.

 

[TJL48]

I think this is where the North American model is far worse than the European model, or how college athletics work (my background in college athletics is why I think the way I do on this topic).

Everyone here is so caught up in "never turned a profit" and all that stuff. But profit is revenue AFTER EXPENSES.

How much does it cost to start a women's hockey team from scratch? A lot. Millions.

How much does it cost to start a women's hockey team... when you have an NHL team? Chump change. It's like Vinik letting the US Women's Hockey prepare for the Olympics in Tampa. He HAD everything a team needs to train for hockey games; he just let them use it.

I'm not saying a 32-team WNHL with the Lady Lightning playing the Canadiennes. I'm saying that the additional expense of NHL teams to operate WNHL teams, too, would be a hell of a lot lower than the expenses of running an independent league. The largest expense for the independent women's league teams... RENTING the ice to play/practice on!

The NHL teams have practice arenas, most that have fan seating they can sell tickets to, that would make great WNHL game arenas. So you can eliminate that expense and help you get closer to a profit right there.

Like what the WNBA did, and still have never come close to turning a profit.

 

[KevFu]

Like what the WNBA did, and still have never come close to turning a profit.

Sure, but as I've said time and again... in an apples to apples comparison of finances, there's a massive chunk of revenue that is missing from the WNBA ledger.

The NBA team gets the revenue from all the arena advertising and sponsorship. It's all visible during WNBA games, but the WNBA either (a) doesn't get a dime of it. or (b) they do get a payment, but you call that a "subsidy."

 

[joelef]

I think this is where the North American model is far worse than the European model, or how college athletics work (my background in college athletics is why I think the way I do on this topic).

Everyone here is so caught up in "never turned a profit" and all that stuff. But profit is revenue AFTER EXPENSES.

How much does it cost to start a women's hockey team from scratch? A lot. Millions.

How much does it cost to start a women's hockey team... when you have an NHL team? Chump change. It's like Vinik letting the US Women's Hockey prepare for the Olympics in Tampa. He HAD everything a team needs to train for hockey games; he just let them use it.

I'm not saying a 32-team WNHL with the Lady Lightning playing the Canadiennes. I'm saying that the additional expense of NHL teams to operate WNHL teams, too, would be a hell of a lot lower than the expenses of running an independent league. The largest expense for the independent women's league teams... RENTING the ice to play/practice on!

The NHL teams have practice arenas, most that have fan seating they can sell tickets to, that would make great WNHL game arenas. So you can eliminate that expense and help you get closer to a profit right there.

College athletics is all over having your cake and eating yo. Trying to be a pure a snow beer that makes billions .

 

[FrHockeyFan]

Brian Burke is to join the new League's leadership.

 

[FrHockeyFan]

First top Euro player to cross back to the Old Continent, Alina Müller will start the season with SWHL reigning champs ZSC Lions Frauen until the new league situation is settled.

Alina Müller temporarily joins the Lions Frauen

Until her contract situation in North America is clarified, Alina Müller will play in the PostFinance Women’s League.

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