Chinese foray X factor in salary breakthrough

The Canadian Women’s Hockey League will pay players for the first time in its 11-year history beginning this season, the league announced Friday.

Although players won’t receive full livable wages, they will earn a stipend ranging from $2,000 to $10,000. General managers will have a $100,000 budget to distribute to up to 25 players. Additional income can be earned through bonuses for team and individual awards, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. At a meeting of the CWHL’s GMs on Thursday, the league also agreed to increase budgets for hiring coaches and GMs, and for grassroots initiatives in each of the league’s cities. The CWHLhas North American markets in Calgary, Toronto, Markham, Montreal and Boston.

“Each year we will build and increase all of those categories until we’ve reached a point where we can actually call it a salary,” said Brenda Andress, the league’s commissioner.

In June, the CWHL expanded to China with the addition of Kunlun Red Star. Later in the summer, the league added a second Chinese team, the Vanke Rays. Both will be based in Shenzhen and are a focus of China’s push to build a contending program in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

With many top Canadian and U.S. players skipping the pro leagues this year for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the CWHL’s move into China is a timely opportunity to expand the league’s influence.

Last year, the Kunlun Red Star men’s team played its first season in the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League. The club was founded by Billy Ngok, who owns the private equity company Golden Brick Capital Management and China Environmental Energy Holdings.

Andress would not say if there was any direct financial investment from Chinese hockey parties that have contributed to the CWHL’s growth, but acknowledged the move into Asia has helped close major sponsorship deals, to be announced before the season begins on Oct. 14.

“Whether China came into our league or not, the sponsors we were working with and the partnerships we were working with, we planned on paying the players,” Andress said. “I think the China opportunity has given us more access, more opportunities out there.”

Several former Olympians, including U.S. forward Kelli Stack and Finnish goalie Noora Raty, have committed to play for Kunlun Red Star, where their duties are expected to also include developing a Chinese women’s national team and youth teams.

Andress added that while the base stipend rules applied to all CWHL teams, the league would not dictate how players associated with the Chinese national team would be paid.

Players and staff have begun arriving in China for the coming season and have been posting images on social media showing upscale training and moderate living facilities.

CWHL players were notified of the stipend implementations Friday morning. When asked if she was concerned that some North Americabased players might become upset over a discrepancy in money and benefits for players in China, Andress said the league worked closely with the CWHL’s players’ association on the stipend figures, and the completed deal was suggested by the union.

“I kind of see it more as a biggerpicture thing,” said Kristina Brown, a forward for the Boston Blades. “I’m not sure how the logistics work, but the players from China, their salaries from the CWHL will be the same, and anything extra will be what they’re doing over there and from that team individually.”

Increased pay in women’s hockey has become a key issue in the last year, particularly after the U.S. women’s national team staged a successful boycott against USA Hockey, its governing body, for equitable support with the men’s program. The National Women’s Hockey League, which has four franchises in the Northeast United States, became a direct competitor of the CWHL upon its creation in 2015.

Since its inception, the NWHL has offered salaries as high as $26,000 annually. But in November, as the NWHL struggled to gain new sponsors, the league had to cut pay almost in half, putting it on par with the CWHL’s payment structure.

While the CWHL did not pay its players before this year, it has been successful in growing steadily since 2007. It has developed partnerships with NHL teams in Canadian markets and the NHL players’ association; negotiated sponsorships and partnerships with companies such as Molson Coors and Tim Hortons; and signed television deals with Sportsnet.