The women's hockey league is capitalizing on its inaugural season success at an ideal moment as women's sports continue to thrive.
Less than a year since getting off the ground, the Professional Women’s Hockey League has staged its inaugural season with 72 games around North America televised or streamed and attendance records broken over and over, putting the sport in the spotlight like never before.The PWHL’s launch finally brings together the best players in the world on a regular basis and beyond the annual world championships or Olympics every four years.
“This has been in the works for quite a long time,” said Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s senior VP of business operations, who has also worked in the. “This has not happened overnight, and it continues to be a movement and it will have to continue to be a movement. There’s no time where we can take our foot off the pedal and feel complacent or feel comfortable. This is hard work every single day.”
“You’ve got the kind of barrier of overcoming just the sort of marginalization of hockey in American culture and then on top of that added in this additional layer of the marginalization of women’s sports in American culture,” said Cheryl Cooky, professor of women’s gender and sexuality studies at Purdue University. “Adding those together, it creates this sort of double jeopardy for women’s hockey.
“These kinds of role models that show women that they can be fierce, serious athletes, I can’t think of anything better,” Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman said. “The strength of the fan support speaks to the fact that there was something missing, that there was something that was needed."
The PWHL has deals with companies running the gamut from equipment manufacturers like Bauer and CCM to Canadian Tire, Molson, Tim Hortons and Barbie. More agreements are coming soon, as is eventual expansion, though that will have to wait, as will increased salaries for players and other modifications.
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