PHF to boost salaries, add two teams
Toronto Six star applauds ‘huge’ boost to women’s game as league cap more than doubles
Taylor Woods wasn’t worried to learn of an upcoming announcement from the Premier Hockey Federation on Monday, even if major news surrounding women’s hockey hasn’t always been of the positive variety in recent weeks and years.
“The way that things have been going, even over the last two years that I’ve been involved (with the PHF), I was only expecting positive things,” Woods said. “Things are going up.”
The PHF rewarded the Toronto Six stalwart’s faith, announcing on Tuesday the league is expanding from six to eight teams — including one in Montreal, another somewhere in the United States — and increasing each team’s salary cap from $300,000 to $750,000 (U.S.), part of an overall investment from the league’s board of governors that totals more than $25 million over the next three years.
Full health-care benefits for players, updated facilities, new equipment, increased ice time and an expanded 28-game schedule are also on the docket, according to a league news release. Players will also gain a 10 per cent equity in their respective teams and have control over their likeness for marketing opportunities.
The boost in the cap from $300,000 this season will lead to an average salary of $37,500 based on a 20-player minimum roster, or $30,000 for a league-maximum 25player roster. There will be no limits placed on a player’s salary as long as the team’s overall payroll remains under the cap.
It’s the biggest investment into women’s hockey Woods has seen since she started playing professionally in the now-defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League in 2016, three years before it folded. Woods also previously played with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, before joining the PHF in April 2020.
“It’s huge,” Woods said. “I don’t think there’s any better news, as a member of the PHF, that could come. Very excited for the future.”
That sentiment was echoed by Woods’ fellow players on social media on Tuesday. And the broader hope is that it will also resonate with members of the PWHPA, which was formed by members of the Canadian and U.S. national teams in 2019, in a united bid to establish a single North American professional league — ideally backed by the NHL — with a longterm sustainable economic model.
Members of the PWHPA have to date balked at joining North America’s lone professional women’s hockey league, which overhauled its business and ownership model, and underwent a rebranding by changing its name from the National Women’s Hockey League last summer. The NWHL, which began as a four-team startup in 2015, previously controlled all its franchises and relied on outside investors to make up the revenue gap from ticket and merchandise sales to pay for salary, travel and administrative costs. The instability of the business model led to the NWHL slashing players salaries by more than half in its second season, eroding its players’ confidence and leading to an exodus to the CWHL, before it folded, and then the PWHPA.
PHF commissioner Ty Tumminia told the Associated Press she believes the newest investment in the league — whose franchises are now privately owned, though some ownership groups control more than one organization — and the inclusion of health-care benefits meets the PWHPA’s vision. The PWHPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Star.
Toronto Six president Digit Murphy said Tuesday’s announcement is what is needed to bring women’s professional hockey to the next level, a “first step of many” that’s going to elevate the platform.
“It’s always taken an infusion of capital to get women’s hockey on the map, so what this does is it gets a group of like-minded owners and leaders in the sport to commit … on a long-term basis so that we can build a sustainable business model,” Murphy said.
Woods thinks more players will consider the PHF after Tuesday’s announcement, especially given the league’s stability during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is what they know,” she said. “It’s a league, it’s going to have 28 games, it’s something that has a little bit more backing. It’s something that players will recognize.”
A skills development coach when she’s not playing, Woods is excited for what the PHF’s investment means for the next generation of female players in North America. She is relieved to know the game is growing. Tuesday’s news gave PHF players reason to cheer, and inspiration to persist, Woods said.
“This is big for our sport and, heading into the second part of our season, we’re just more motivated than ever just to show a great product.”