Last week the news broke that US Olympians Kacey Bellamy and Brianna Decker had signed with the Calgary Inferno of the CWHL. My initial reaction was excitement, but that only lasted a second. Then I was bummed, thinking I don't want all the talent going to the CW since I'm more likely to watch the NW, being in the States. (And all the talent is not in the CW, that's just the thought I had). As fun as watching free agency is, I wish we had one league. And it took me a little while to get there, but I'd like to hear more about this potential NHL backed women's pro league. Maybe that's the solution.
Anyway, it got me thinking about what I'd really like to see from women's hockey at the pro level. We talk about one league, but we don't always articulate why, or what specifically we think one league might deliver. We talk about moving the women's game forward but don't define what that means, necessarily.
Here's just a few things of what my dream league would look like:
Living wages for players. Right now as far as I know the players making a living wage via hockey in the NWHL and the CWHL are the ambassadors in China, and the USWNT players (who are paid by USA Hockey). So that's about 35 players. Between the two leagues you've got 11 teams, let's assume 25 players a team, so 275 players. So 13% of the pro players earn a living wage, and 87% play for a stipend and the love of the game. And in order for the CWHL players to earn their stipend, they have to take a road trip to China which means taking time off work. To me, figuring out how to pay the players a living wage should be the number one focus of either commissioner. Living wages matters for a lot of reasons, but one is simply that anytime you expand the ways in which a person can earn a living, that's a good thing.
I'd like to see living wages for the rest of jobs that go with a hockey league, and I'd like to see women employed in at least 50% of those roles. But the highest priority should be getting the players paid.
Raise the level of play by having best on best. You get best on best by having one premier professional league, where the vast majority of the best play. When you watch college hockey you are watching players of all nationalities play together but it's not true best on best, because players graduate, and we start over with new freshmen every year, not to mention not all players choose NCAA. At the pro level, without one premier pro league we aren't seeing best on best because the players are scattered all over, including European leagues. In international play we see darn near best on best with Canada, US, Finland. But even watching Canada or USA play other countries, it often turns into a blow out so it's best on one side, and something else on the other. With one true premier pro league, where you play irrespective of age or nationality we could finally watch best on best, all the time.
Raise the level of play by keeping the best in the game longer. You keep the best in the game longer paying them a living wage, and giving them a place to play that appeals to them. A few years back my adult women's rec team had a retired US Olympian on it, and a former NCAA Champion, among other former college players of varying levels, plus some women who picked up the game late in life. So at least two of these players could be legit NW or CW players but they chose not to be. Right now we look at the NW and CW, and say wow, that's great hockey. And it is, but it could be even better if the players were paid a living wage and all great hockey players were incentivized to go pro. Right now, because the financial incentive isn't there, the game is losing some of its best players before they've even hit their prime. Paying living wages could fix this.
Expand the geographical blueprint of where the best play. Right now in North America, there is pro women's hockey in 5 American cities and 4 Canadian cities. I would even consider Markham/Toronto the same, so it's eight. If you don't live near Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Buffalo, Connecticut, Newark and now St. Paul, you don't get to see pro women's hockey live. In the United States at least, the determining factor for who gets a team appears to be driven by where they could fill out a roster. This means college hockey hotbeds get teams. In other words, places that already have access to watching women's hockey played at a high level. But that's not enough, you also have to be geographically close to each other to get a team. Minnesota always had the players and passion to support a pro team, but geography and travel costs meant they didn't get one until this year. Pittsburgh probably has the passion, isn't terrible on geography, but it has been argued it doesn't yet have enough good players living in the area to field a team. How do we change this? Pay living wages! Make it worthwhile to move somewhere to be part of the NWHL. Give people in new geographical areas the chance to watch women's hockey played at the highest level. It's worth noting that Pittsburgh actually does have D1 college hockey in Robert Morris, but Detroit, and Chicago for example, do not. Imagine what a women's pro team could mean to women's hockey fans there.
Get the games on TV. I understand that a league can't expand everywhere. If you can't watch it live, watching a professional broadcast on TV at least allows you to cheer for your team and be part of a fandom. I understand CWHL has a Sportsnet deal (expires this summer or end of next season I think, that will be a big deal to see what happens there), but here in the States women's ice hockey is not nationally broadcast. For me personally, not having a local pro team and not having it on TV, means the actual games played in the NW have not generated passion or excitement for me the way following the college game does. Consuming the product - watching it on my computer - doesn't really feel any different from a college game to me. That said, the NWHL being the first North American league to pay players, the Twitter deal, the grassroots efforts by the players, the NHL partnerships, providing a place to play for USWNT players when the CW wasn't really serving them; the significance of those things is not lost on me and I am immensely impressed by and grateful for what Dani Rylan and her team have done.
Looking to basketball, the WNBA has an ESPN deal which broadcasts 13 regular season games plus every playoff game. Last week my family had the WNBA's Lynx vs the Liberty on the TV one night. The game came down to being tied in the last minute of play, and the Lynx got the win at home. I am a novice with basketball knowledge, been following the league only a few months, but it was just FUN to watch a women's game on a television instead of a computer. It's a different experience having it on the TV that everyone is hearing vs one person watching it on a computer. It was a Players Only broadcast, and so we watched the women play, and the broadcast was by former stars Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo, and Kara Lawson. It was really cool; now let's do it for women's hockey.
Maintain an "Everyone is welcome" culture. There is a now retired podcast out there called "She Shoots, She Scores," by people that I know only as Brad and Lise-Marie, fans of the Canadiennes. Listening to these two made me want to live in Montreal and be a Canadiennes fan. They made the atmosphere at a Canadiennes game sound incredibly welcoming, plus they were passionate about debating the hockey and all that went with it. Funny story, it's an English speaking podcast, but Lise-Marie kept saying "Caro," pronounced in French of course, on the first episode I listened to. Over and over, I heard her talk about Caro and how great she was. I'm like who the heck is Caro? I've never heard of her! Then, my English brain finally caught on. Care-oh-line Oh-let as I pronounce it English. Yea, Caro is pretty good.
Anyway, Brad and Lise-Marie encouraged people to participate in CWHL fandom in anyway that worked for them, including volunteering. And they put not one single criteria on who was welcome. No matter who you are, no matter your hockey knowledge or background, you were welcome. Lise-Marie literally said in one episode, "if you are a person on this earth, the CWHL is for you." Pretty cool. It reminded me of all my playing experiences with women's hockey. I never played on a team where someone wasn't welcome, probably because women's hockey always needed numbers so you ended up on a team with people of all different ages and abilities. But you were a part of the team, and you were not just welcome, you were needed, and there was always just this anything goes, no matter who you are, you are welcome vibe. It's one of the coolest things I experienced as an athlete and if we can replicate that in pro hockey fandom, let's do it.
More coverage of women's hockey, more people participating in the conversation about women's hockey. Last but not least the topic of media coverage. I'm not going to beat this to death as I think it's been covered. We need more mainstream coverage for sure. Certain small outlets covering it now, but doing a great job include The Ice Garden, The Victory Press, Women's Hockey Wednesday on Pension Plan Puppets, and Women's Hockey Life. Discovering that that group exists was the thing that brought be to following women's ice hockey as a fan. I played for over 20 years but until I found these guys, it never clicked as a fan.
Mainstream outlets produce content as well, my favorite is definitely the Athletic. We need more of everything though, more media, more voices, more bloggers, more transparency and communication from leagues and teams, more people talking about it on twitter, more podcasts, more making it easy to find the stuff that does exist, more everything. Not a shocker right?
So that's my incomplete list of my dream for pro women's hockey: living wages for the players, women working in every aspect of the league, best on best in one league, hockey teams in new markets, a chance to watch games on TV, a welcoming culture, and more coverage. There are things I didn't even touch on, but this is more than long enough. What's on your list?
