lemieux32 said:
Do some research before you start saying things you know nothing about.
I think this thread speaks for itself. Out of the, what, 44 posts, how many have said that it would be a good idea? 4? And the NHL is a league teetering on the brink. You're deluding yourself if you think otherwise. Aside from hardcore fans, no one watches the games on television, ticket prices continue to be outrageous, and the game is less than one year removed from a labor stoppage that could have potentially ended major professional hockey in North America. Strikes are not the sign of a league that is thriving (see: NFL, which has had one major labor stoppage and that was in the mid-80s), but the sign of a game that is beginning to die off (see: MLB in the mid-90s, which was ultimately saved by juiced up power hitters and big numbers... ironic, isn't it?)
The women I played against were good enough to play high level DI hockey. They were not just some random players, as you say. A cousin of mine was a reserve goaltender for the national team (not an Olympic team). None of them would've been first liners on my high school team.
I think women's hockey has its niche. It's a fine sport to play for young women, and there's no reason for girls not to be encouraged to play the game. I don't dislike women's hockey as a sport that can be played at all. However, to think every sport that exists deserves a highly marketed professional league dedicated to it is ludicrous. Lacrosse is more popular than women's hockey, but the national lacrosse league is a very low-budget enterprise that folds teams regularly after only one or two years in the league and has always been very small with very low salaries, and though women play lacrosse as well there is no professional league. There is no professional curling league that is highly marketed, or to go even more mainstream, the professional softball league in the U.S. is hardly a speck on the sports map. There's no pro field hockey league in the United States, though girls begin field hockey as early as five here. There is no professional rugby union in the U.S., just a smattering of club teams.
To try to give every sport that could possibly be played by both men and women it's due with a marketable league would be impossible. No one is going to want to sit down and watch women's lacrosse on a Saturday afternoon, and very few people will want to take their kids to see a women's hockey game when a far more interesting men's game is going on next door, or even on the TV. Professional sports, in the end, are all about the bottom line, which is a shame, but the truth.
