Stars of women’s hockey just asking for a chance
‘Boycott’ continues as players hold out for NHL to help launch new pro league
Most of the best women’s hockey players in the world are gathered near Pittsburgh this weekend for a training camp and exhibition games between Team Canada and USA Hockey.
They were supposed to be in Sweden for the Four Nations Cup, but that tournament was cancelled amid a dispute between the Swedish players and their national federation, which doesn’t pay them to play for their country, even when they miss work to do so.
The Canadian and American players would normally be taking time away from their professional teams to play internationally, but that’s not happening, either, as the women in Pittsburgh are boycotting their would-be day jobs.
“Boycott” probably is the correct word, although it’s not ideal. The CWHL, where most of them played, folded suddenly at the end of last season, a victim of strained finances that weren’t improving.
Can you boycott something that doesn’t exist? There does remain the U.s.-based NWHL, and it has begun play utterly bereft of the few stars who were still part of it last year. U.S. Olympians like Amanda Kessel and Kendall Coyne-schofield have joined the former CWHL players in sitting out the season.
The problem with boycotting something that was sparsely attended and had low visibility is that people don’t notice it when it’s gone.
The players are trying to change that. The Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, formed after the collapse of the CWHL, has rolled out a slick campaign this week featuring its members, with contributions from celebrities such as Don Cherry, Ron Maclean, Gerry Dee and a host of Sportsnet types.
Set to the tune of Stompin’ Tom’s Good Old Hockey Game, it begins with rousing hockey scenes and takes a dark turn when players like Brianne Jenner, Sarah Nurse and Marie-philip Poulin explain that there’s nowhere for them to play. The spot is bankrolled by Budweiser Canada and it’s instantly a more impressive bit of promotion than anything either of the professional women’s leagues managed in their best moments.
It’s also kind of bleak. That’s by design.
“We believe we just need to keep telling our story,” says Jayna Hefford, head of the PWHPA.
A former Canadian Olympian, Hefford is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and was the interim commissioner of the CWHL for its final season. Despite the huge attention the Canadian and American teams attract at Olympics and World Championships, there is nothing close to a viable professional league on this continent, one that would offer even modest wages, insurance and proper logistics and scheduling.
“None of those things exist anywhere for professional women’s hockey players,” says Hefford.
Until they do, the PWHPA says its 200-strong membership will wait. They played exhibitions and held clinics in Toronto, Chicago and New Hampshire this fall, and plan to have more “Dream Gap Tour” dates in early 2020. They have more corporate partners coming on board, following Budweiser’s lead. That is something.
But there’s also the stubborn fact that all the public awareness campaigns really only need to be directed to one place: the NHL’S corporate offices.
There have been talks for years about possible NHL involvement in a professional women’s league, as happened a quarter-century ago with the birth of the WNBA. But commissioner Gary Bettman has always maintained that his league wouldn’t step in when there were already pro leagues operating. He said much the same thing after the CWHL folded and the NWHL decided to keep going, despite the boycott. The NHL even doubled its investment in the NWHL — just US$100,000, essentially a rounding error for the big league — this season.
Bettman’s hesitance is understandable in one way: the optics of bigfooting a professional women’s league wouldn’t be ideal. But in every other way, this is a tap-in for the NHL.
All of the best Canadian and American players have said that the NWHL — which has repeatedly cut salaries that are now less than US$20,000 for a season — doesn’t meet the standards of a viable league. They’re waiting for the NHL to step in. And it easily could, forming a small league of six teams with moderate pay.
It would be a start. The WNBA is the obvious example, but the NHL could also look to women’s soccer in Europe, where many of the biggest men’s clubs in the world — Barcelona, PSG, Arsenal, Manchester City — have women’s teams playing in front of big crowds. The top women’s league in Britain has been sponsored by a major bank, and players are close to making something approaching a full-time salary, growth that has largely happened over just the past few years.
Visibility is the key. Even last season, when the CWHL absorbed some of the best NWHL players, it was playing in suburban rinks at odd times. Just a handful of games made it onto TV. Franchises were constantly moving around, and there was no strong base from which to build.
Could women have a real hockey league of their own? There is no way to know until those with the resources to make it happen decide to try.
“All we are asking for is that chance,” Hefford says.
The NHL has been hearing that message for years. It’s long beyond time that it listened.