TSN: More than 200 players call for overhaul of women’s pro hockey

[Insomniac99]

More than 200 women — including superstars Marie-Philip Poulin of Canada as well as Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne-Schofield of the United States — have banded together in an effort to create a new future for the women’s professional game.
And that immediate future comes in the form of a bold statement, both literally and figuratively, that could mean there will be no high-level women’s hockey league in 2019-20....

Rest of the article is here.

Official player statement:

Click to read more...

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

Professional sports is a business. If the business doesn't make money, it stops operating. That is the type of economy that we live in, there's very few businesses in North America that get bankrolled. There's a laundry list of minor league hockey teams that have failed in the last 2 decades alone because they weren't financially viable. Women's hockey and women's sports shouldn't be any different unless they take the path of the WBNA and lose well over $10,000,000 with abysmal ratings every year despite free publicity, subsidized operations, and prime airtime.

The market determines what players get paid. Football is the most popular sport in America and the NFL is the most popular league, hence why players like Odell Beckham Jr. got a $95 million contract to put butts in seats and eyes on TVs. NHL players don't make that much partially because of the cap but also because anyone who's ever taken Economics 101 tells you that if there's no demand for the service, the price is going to drop. Why would a team pay $15 million for Jake Gardiner when his worth clearly isn't nearly that much. Don't see why women's sports, and in this case women's hockey, should be any different.

 

[Insomniac99]

Yeah, I'm torn. On one hand, I want there to be a top league for women to play hockey in. Having that out there will inspire young girls to get into hockey both as fans and players and will be good for the game in the long run.
On the other side, sports players get big salaries because fans pay big money to go see them. Women's hockey doesn't have a lot of fan support even in traditional hockey markets. So it's hard to justify paying big salaries when these leagues are barely hanging on as it is.
I don't know where I stand, tbh. I kind of like the idea of NHL teams subsidizing the teams and I hope they do. But, it's not their responsibility either and I'd understand if they didn't want to.

 

[MXD]

Considering they're willing to put their (or some) income at risk for their cause, I really, but really can't see why anyone could possibly have an issue about what they're doing.

I mean, you can't exactly coerce anyone into playing elite sports, right?

 

[Cyclones Rock]

What an entitled, childish statement from that group.

When your level of play is no higher than a good boy's high school team, don't expect riches (or even a sustainable income) to follow.

 

[Captain Crash]

What an entitled, childish statement from that group.

When your level of play is no higher than a good boy's high school team, don't expect riches (or even a sustainable income) to follow.

What an entitled, childish statement from you.

 

[Insomniac99]

Here's the NWHL statement:

 

[Cyclones Rock]

What an entitled, childish statement from you.

How so? I'm not demanding making a living for a skill set that has little market value and feeling sorry for myself that I can't.

Why don't you bankroll them?

 

[ProspectsSTC]

Hopefully they'll each get some bubblegum and Bennigan's coupons.

Honestly, what do they expect? It's semi-pro hockey, you can't just expect a big league which pays you a living salary to appear out of thin air, if there isn't market interest then you won't get a lot of money out of it. I hope women's hockey can be successful, but I don't see why they expect someone to dump millions of dollars into a league that draws a few hundred fans each game.

 

[Caps8112]

this is such a tough subject that really applies to all womens sports. The NHL doesn't exist because someone said men need to be paid a lot of money to play a kids game. People are willing to pay an amount of money to watch these men play. Its proven time and again that same financial support sadly does not exist for a lot of women sports. This move they are making really seems like they want someone to take the financial loss just for the sake of having a womens league. While I think almost all of us agree it would be great for women to have a league and growing the game and all that, how many of us would take that financial loss just for the sake of.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

What an entitled, childish statement from that group.

When your level of play is no higher than a good boy's high school team, don't expect riches (or even a sustainable income) to follow.

That's a bad hot take. They're essentially saying that they want a living wage for a full-time job that has a significant risk of injury, and if they don't get that they'll either try to form a new league or do something else for a living instead.

Nothing all wrong about that. Even if the economics of women's pro hockey is inevitably doomed, why shouldn't players at any tier of pro play want better pay and actual medical coverage? And if the money's just not there, they'll try to do other things for a living.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

That's a bad hot take. They're essentially saying that they want a living wage for a full-time job that has a significant risk of injury, and if they don't get that they'll either try to form a new league or do something else for a living instead.

Nothing all wrong about that. Even if the economics of women's pro hockey is inevitably doomed, why shouldn't players at any tier of pro play want better pay and actual medical coverage? And if the money's just not there, they'll try to do other things for a living.

The "demand and deserve" statement rubbed me wrong. Demand-sure, they're entitled to make any demands that they want. I just think it's laughable that a group of women whose product has been economically unfeasible are making demands. Still, they can make demands no matter how silly they might be. Deserve-totally off base. No one deserves to make a living playing a sport.

I'll guess that there will some sort of NHL subsidy to a women's league. While the economic merit of such a subsidy would be extremely hard to measure, I think that there will be a case made-and it will be ultimately accepted- that the NHL will increase its female fan base my allocating resources toward a women's professional league.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

You called them entitled and childish because they think they deserve something?

Okay, they could've used a better word, as nobody deserves anything at all, but it's not like they used anything insulting or demeaning in their fairly boiler plate boycott statement.

 

[Insomniac99]

That's a bad hot take. They're essentially saying that they want a living wage for a full-time job that has a significant risk of injury, and if they don't get that they'll either try to form a new league or do something else for a living instead.

It's not a full time job though. It's 16 games and around 32 practices(they said they do 2 practices a week and it's a 4 month season).

So looking it up, professional hockey practices are about 2 hours.

So doin the math, it's about 96 hours of work....total.

 

[Captain Crash]

A lot of careless reading going on here. Their statement reads "until we get the resources that professional hockey demands and deserves." The "demands and deserves" relate to pro hockey not to the players. Professional hockey does deserve and demand the allocation of proper resources to be a viable, sustainable league. They're boycotting for a better business model to set up a better future for the sport. Calling that selfish and childish is beyond inane.

 

[Captain Crash]

It's not a full time job though. It's 16 games and around 32 practices(they said they do 2 practices a week and it's a 4 month season).

So looking it up, professional hockey practices are about 2 hours.

So doin the math, it's about 96 hours of work....total.

It's great that they apparently don't travel to road games.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

It's not a full time job though. It's 16 games and around 32 practices(they said they do 2 practices a week and it's a 4 month season).

So looking it up, professional hockey practices are about 2 hours.

So doin the math, it's about 96 hours of work....total.

Organized practices and games are just part of a pro athlete's job. They're expected to self train and keep up healthy diets and go to various press events and make public appearances as well. And that's not counting likely a decade+ of training leading up to this as well.

I will admit that that was less games than I thought they played, though. Seasonal fulltime then.

 

[Insomniac99]

It's great that they apparently don't travel to road games.

It's 8 games of travel. That doesn't bump those numbers up very much.

 

[Insomniac99]

It would seem Pegula Sports Entertainment is calling the bluff.

The Athletic: Buffalo Beauts’ future with NWHL is in doubt

In the wake of Thursday’s monumental announcement that hundreds of players are planning to sit out the upcoming 2019-20 NWHL season, the status of the Buffalo Beauts is up in the air, The Athletic has learned.

According to several sources, players have serious doubts that the team will be operational next year.

“We are in the midst of finishing a complete review of the Beauts coming off our first season running the team. Once we’ve finished our review, we’ll figure out how we’re going to move forward,” a team spokesperson said when reached for comment.

The Beauts, run by Pegula Sports and Entertainment, have been considered by many players as the gold standard of the NWHL, particularly because of Kim Pegula’s involvement and influence; Buffalo is the only franchise run independently from the league. The Beauts finished second in attendance in the NWHL last season and goaltender Shannon Szabados led all individual players in jersey sales.

Buffalo Beauts' future with NWHL is in doubt

 

[210]

It's not a full time job though. It's 16 games and around 32 practices(they said they do 2 practices a week and it's a 4 month season).

So looking it up, professional hockey practices are about 2 hours.

So doin the math, it's about 96 hours of work....total.

CWHL played a 28 game schedule, which included trips to China.

 

[Insomniac99]

CWHL played a 28 game schedule, which included trips to China.

What's that have to do with the NWHL?

 

[210]

It shows the possibilities of playing more games, and taking far longer than your "96 hours of work" comment.

 

[HFBS]

This is the world we live in. The age of entitlement. Women "deserve" to have the NHL pay them to play hockey even though no one gives a shit about watching their games. Try to blackmail and embarrass the NHL to get their free money. The statement above is correct. A good 16 or 17 year old boys team would annihilate them. The USA and Australian national women's soccer teams were soundly beaten by 14 year old boys. If this doesn't work I'm sure they'll think up some other scheme to try to blackmail someone else into funding them. It's not bad enough they foist unqualified female "sportscasters" on us to ruin team sports telecasts.

 

[Captain Crash]

This is the world we live in. The age of entitlement. Women "deserve" to have the NHL pay them to play hockey even though no one gives a **** about watching their games. Try to blackmail and embarrass the NHL to get their free money. The statement above is correct. A good 16 or 17 year old boys team would annihilate them. The USA and Australian national women's soccer teams were soundly beaten by 14 year old boys. If this doesn't work I'm sure they'll think up some other scheme to try to blackmail someone else into funding them. It's not bad enough they foist unqualified female "sportscasters" on us to ruin team sports telecasts.

 

[Insomniac99]

It shows the possibilities of playing more games, and taking far longer than your "96 hours of work" comment.

Yeah, they could play 365 games. too.

But they dont.

So your comment is irrelevant.