The PWHL pulled off its inaugural season. Year 2 will decide the future of women’s pro hockey

[ad_1] Marie-Philip Poulin stood on the blue line on the Bell Centre, combating again tears.

She had simply been launched to a world file crowd in Montreal and the followers had been giving her a deafening ovation. Poulin, the very best girls’s hockey participant on this planet for nearly a decade, sometimes will get the loudest pregame cheer, particularly in her dwelling province of Quebec. However this applause — over 20 seconds lengthy and delivered by 21,105 folks — was completely different.

“Truthfully, I didn’t know what to do, easy methods to react, the feelings had been so excessive,” Poulin stated. “Having the Bell Centre packed for ladies’s hockey … it (felt like) we lastly made it.”

That April 20 recreation broke the all-time attendance file for ladies’s hockey, one among many milestones for the inaugural Skilled Girls’s Hockey League season. Since its launch in January 2024, the long-awaited six-team league that includes the world’s finest gamers has largely been heralded as a hit. Hundreds of thousands of viewers tuned in for video games; attendance information had been repeatedly set and damaged; and demand for tickets in some markets was so excessive that groups have already moved into larger venues. Simply final month, the league introduced that it was getting ready for growth as quickly because the 2025-26 season — earlier than anticipated.

However there have been bumps alongside the best way, and with the arrival of the PWHL’s second season, which begins on Saturday, big-picture questions loom. Now that the league is now not glowing model new, can it preserve optimistic momentum? And what must occur to set the PWHL up for long-term success?

5 days into the PWHL’s inaugural season, Stan Kasten had seen sufficient.

Kasten was on a tour across the league, making stops at most groups’ dwelling openers in the course of the first week of the season. He visited Toronto for the primary PWHL recreation on Jan. 1, attended a sell-out in Ottawa the subsequent day, and watched video games in New York and Boston.

Then Kasten obtained to Minnesota for the group’s dwelling opener, which set a girls’s professional hockey attendance file with over 13,000 followers on the Xcel Power Middle.

“That was the day I knew this was going to work,” Kasten stated.

The longtime sports activities government and president of the Los Angeles Dodgers turned a central determine in girls’s hockey after Dodgers majority proprietor Mark Walter and his spouse, Kimbra, agreed to bankroll a brand new skilled girls’s hockey league.

The PWHL got here collectively in a six-month dash. Six markets and venues had been chosen. A 72-game schedule was assembled. Normal managers and coaches and league workers had been employed; gamers had been signed and drafted. With so little time, groups performed with out conventional names, logos or jerseys.

“I'll look again in amazement that we did it,” Kasten stated. “We set the six months as our objective. … I used to be too dumb to understand it wasn’t potential.”

The inaugural recreation on Jan. 1, between Toronto and New York, was bought out, albeit at Toronto’s 2,600-seat venue. Tennis legend Billie Jean King — who sits on the league’s advisory board — dropped the ceremonial puck alongside PWHL senior vp of hockey operations Jayna Hefford. The sport reached over 3 million views on Canadian tv networks and the league’s YouTube stream.

“It was that second the place you’re like, ‘my childhood dream is coming true,’” stated Toronto defender Jocelyne Larocque. “I had tears in my eyes as a result of as a child, my dream was to play professional hockey. After which, as you get a bit older, you assume as a result of I’m a girl, this isn’t going to occur for me.”

The following day, the league broke an attendance file for a girls’s skilled hockey recreation in Ottawa with over 8,000 followers at TD Place Enviornment. That was the file Minnesota smashed solely 4 days later.

<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5947732 size-full" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25155458/PWHL-Minnesota-Boston-scaled-e1732568125544.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1708" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25155458/PWHL-Minnesota-Boston-scaled-e1732568125544.jpg 2560w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25155458/PWHL-Minnesota-Boston-scaled-e1732568125544-300x200.jpg 300w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25155458/PWHL-Minnesota-Boston-scaled-e1732568125544-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25155458/PWHL-Minnesota-Boston-scaled-e1732568125544-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25155458/PWHL-Minnesota-Boston-scaled-e1732568125544-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px"/> Followers packed the Tsongas Middle in Lowell, Mass., for a Minnesota-Boston PWHL recreation in the course of the first week of the league’s inaugural season. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Pictures) The honeymoon part didn’t finish after the primary few weeks of the season both. The league set a world file for attendance in Toronto (19,285) in February at Scotiabank Enviornment, which was damaged two months later on the Bell Centre when Poulin obtained the ovation.

Total, the league beat its personal modest attendance projections for the inaugural 12 months. In line with Kasten, the interior projection was round 1,000 followers per recreation. The precise determine — over 5,000 — is a significant accomplishment contemplating that earlier girls’s hockey leagues principally struggled on the gate.

“Going into this season, nobody actually knew what to anticipate. We knew that we had a product that was value watching and that we had been going to do the very best we may to showcase girls’s hockey,” stated Toronto goalie Kristen Campbell. “The fan help (exceeded) my expectations.”

Video games all through the season had been uptempo, extremely expert and surprisingly bodily. They had been additionally simple to observe, since each recreation was accessible on YouTube free of charge — with high-quality broadcast manufacturing paid for by the league.

“I simply don’t assume lots of people understood the talent degree and the athleticism of those gamers,” stated Ottawa GM Mike Hirshfeld. “And I feel as soon as they noticed that, it turned actually engaging.”

The league landed a number of partnerships with main manufacturers — comparable to Air Canada, Scotiabank, Bauer and Barbie — and labored with the NHL, going to All-Star Weekend and enjoying two neutral-site video games at NHL venues in Pittsburgh and Detroit.

However the inaugural season was removed from good.

PWHL merchandise flew off the cabinets regardless of an absence of group names or logos, however the rollout was criticized due to provide points and the restricted measurement ranges.

The New York franchise performed in three completely different rinks and struggled to attract followers, ending with the worst attendance within the league. One recreation in Bridgeport, Conn., had solely 728 followers — the league’s solely recreation with fewer than 1,000 all season.

And simply 9 days after Minnesota received the first-ever Walter Cup, the league introduced it was parting methods with the group’s basic supervisor, Natalie Darwitz, “efficient instantly.”

Some reviews recommended there was a rift between Darwitz — a legend of Minnesota hockey and now a Hockey Corridor of Fame inductee — and head coach Ken Klee, with some influential gamers siding with Klee. Nevertheless, the league maintained the choice got here after a overview of the group’s operations that discovered “there wasn’t a path ahead with the present personnel in place.”

Nonetheless, when the PWHL hosted the 2024 draft and awards in St. Paul, Minn., 4 days after Darwitz departed, followers had been dispirited. Klee, who was answerable for the group’s draft picks, was booed at factors in the course of the evening. He was additionally closely criticized for choosing Britta Curl, who stirred controversy within the weeks main as much as the draft for her social media exercise.

When requested about Darwitz’s departure this month, Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne Schofield stated it was a league resolution. Klee, in the meantime, stated the group was centered on transferring on.

“It’s professional hockey. Issues occur,” he stated. “We’re excited to get the season going.”

<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-5947897 size-full" src="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25165456/PWHL-Kendall-Coyne-Schofield-holds-cup-scaled-e1732571732938.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1708" srcset="https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25165456/PWHL-Kendall-Coyne-Schofield-holds-cup-scaled-e1732571732938.jpg 2560w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25165456/PWHL-Kendall-Coyne-Schofield-holds-cup-scaled-e1732571732938-300x200.jpg 300w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25165456/PWHL-Kendall-Coyne-Schofield-holds-cup-scaled-e1732571732938-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25165456/PWHL-Kendall-Coyne-Schofield-holds-cup-scaled-e1732571732938-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/11/25165456/PWHL-Kendall-Coyne-Schofield-holds-cup-scaled-e1732571732938-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px"/> Kendall Coyne Schofield raised the Walter Cup after Minnesota received the PWHL’s inaugural league championship. (Troy Parla / Getty Pictures) If the PWHL’s first season was about celebrating the league’s existence, its sophomore 12 months, simply days away, will deal with sustaining momentum whereas remaining in startup mode.

“We're removed from a completed product,” stated Kasten.

The league has taken a number of optimistic steps in its first actual offseason.

In September, it unveiled group names and logos; jerseys had been launched earlier this month. The coinciding merchandise choices have included extra design choices and measurement ranges.

New York has moved right into a single main venue — the Prudential Middle in Newark, N.J., the place the group performed in entrance of its greatest crowd (5,132) final season — whereas Toronto and Montreal have moved into larger venues full-time.

“We at all times hoped and deliberate to be in larger buildings, however I don’t assume we anticipated it so shortly,” stated Hefford. “However that demand was actual and it wasn’t only a blip. It wasn’t simply inaugural-year pleasure. And we’re seeing that within the response from followers this 12 months by way of ticket gross sales and memberships.”

Even with an 8,150 capability at Coca-Cola Coliseum, Toronto’s season-ticket memberships bought out for a second 12 months in a row. And Kasten stated the league expects common attendance to extend.

The PWHL can even play 9 neutral-site video games, principally in NHL buildings together with Seattle, Vancouver, Denver and St. Louis.

“It’s a reinforcement of what we understand as widespread and rising curiosity round our sport,” he stated of the neutral-site video games. “I can’t say it sufficient occasions, these girls, these world-class athletes who've been missed for thus lengthy, are lastly seeing the popularity they need to have been receiving for years and years.”

Maybe the largest growth of the offseason is that the league is already wanting so as to add as much as two groups as quickly as 2025-26. Final season, league management typically tried to go off questions on growth however Kasten stated the success of 12 months 1 satisfied league leaders to start out the method sooner.

“I don’t know if we do it,” he stated. “However we’re taking a look at it as a result of the curiosity is basically there.”

The league has despatched out over 20 requests for proposals to potential growth companions, stated Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s senior vp of enterprise operations.

A significant driver of PWHL growth is the inflow of worldwide gamers. In June, over a dozen worldwide gamers — from Finland, Sweden, Russia, Czechia and extra — had been drafted, alongside dozens extra gamers from the NCAA. That so many gamers have determined to make the bounce to North America is an encouraging signal. Most prime gamers elected to remain in Europe final season and observe the brand new league’s progress from afar.

“It turned extra clear what the league goes to appear like and so now, I really feel like all people is making an attempt to get a spot right here,” stated Workforce Germany ahead Laura Kluge, who was invited to Toronto’s coaching camp after going undrafted in June. “The objective is to return right here and play as a result of (it’s) probably the most skilled league on the market.”

One of many main critiques of the PWHL final season was that — with the seven-team Premier Hockey Federation shutting down in June 2023 — the ecosystem for ladies’s hockey in North America turned too small, with only a few roster spots and growth alternatives. Growth would repair that with out diluting the product, given how a lot expertise must be coming from Europe and the NCAA over the subsequent two years.

How growth may work nonetheless stays to be seen. All six present PWHL groups, in addition to the league itself, are owned by the Walters.

The one-entity possession mannequin was vital, Kasten stated, to the league getting up and operating as shortly because it did. However the query stays: Will the enterprise ultimately outgrow unilateral management?

Girls’s hockey has tried particular person possession up to now. The unique Nationwide Girls’s Hockey League folded, partly, as a result of house owners stopped seeing the worth in investing. The PHF bought some groups, however the league’s important monetary backers — John and Johanna Boynton — nonetheless owned 4 of the league’s seven groups.

“I really like the way it has labored for us up to now. I don’t know when that mannequin stops being probably the most environment friendly, if ever,” Kasten stated. “Might that change sooner or later? I suppose it may, however we don’t have any plans to alter it now.”

For all of the progress made throughout this offseason, there are some longer-term benchmarks left.

The PWHL doesn't have the sort of media rights offers which can be conventional in males’s professional sports activities, and people extra not too long ago signed in girls’s skilled basketball and soccer.

“Let’s face it, till we get a mature media plan and media income we received’t actually be a full-fledged league,” stated Kasten.

Final season, each recreation was broadcast on the league’s YouTube channel. This season, nonetheless, Canadian audiences received’t have entry to the PWHL’s YouTube stream. These streaming rights are actually unique to the league’s Canadian broadcast companions, which embrace TSN, CBC and Amazon Prime. U.S. broadcast rights haven't been introduced. Pulling video games off YouTube in Canadian markets is a success to entry and visibility, however the league is anticipated to make more cash from a rise in rights charges.

“The change is optimistic for the league as a result of it helps us develop by way of stability,” Scheer stated. “It helps us develop to make sure that the league is on the trail to long run well being and that ladies’s hockey might be right here for good.”

The largest problem for the league goes to be the wage hole that exists between prime gamers and those that make up nearly all of every group’s roster, on account of how the collective-bargaining settlement set participant compensation and roster building.

In 12 months 1, the highest six gamers on every group had been required to make at the very least $80,000 on assured three-year contracts, per the CBA. In the meantime, the league minimal was set at $35,000, which can improve by 3 p.c to $36,050 in 2024-25. Many gamers’ salaries are nearer to league minimal on non-guaranteed contracts. And given how a lot of the wage cap has already been allotted to prime gamers, incoming gamers — or free brokers deserving of raises — might be feeling the squeeze till these contracts expire after the 2025-26 season.

It’s a trickier drawback to repair with the CBA locked in till July 31, 2031. Nevertheless it’s one thing the league will inevitably be judged on if the enterprise continues to develop.

Regardless of all these questions, maybe the largest change in 12 months 2 might be a spotlight not a lot on milestones and information however extra on the sport itself.

“There have been a number of firsts final 12 months and a number of emotional moments — moments that had been larger than hockey,” stated Poulin. “This 12 months is about making it regular that we play in larger buildings that promote out, that persons are excited (to be there). And now we’re simply going to play hockey as a result of that’s our job.”

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic. Pictures: Mark Blinch, Minas Panagiotakis, Bruce Bennett / Getty Pictures; Kevin Sousa / NHLI by way of Getty Pictures; M. Anthony Nesmith / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures)