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Tag: CWHL

  • Women’s Hockey News – 200 Women to Boycott for a Viable Long Term Hockey League

    Women’s Hockey News – 200 Women to Boycott for a Viable Long Term Hockey League

    A little before noon today over 200 professional female hockey players announced that they will be boycotting this upcoming season until the get a “Long-Term Viable” Professional Women’s Hockey League.

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    In the statement above that was released by around 200 professional female hockey players it states that it is time to create a sustainable league for Women’s hockey that will give them the abilities to have health insurance, have the ability to train adequately for games, and most importantly, making a livable wage playing hockey.

     

    A couple hours after the #ForTheGame announcement was made, NWHL put out the following statement:

    Screenshot_20190502-134630_Yahoo Mail

     

    In this statement from the NWHL, the biggest takeaway is that they have all intentions moving forward with the 2019-20 season, and that they will be offering increased salaries, and a 50-50 in revenue from sponsorships and media rights deals after long constructive and positive conversations with the NWHL Player’s Association over the past month.

     

    In regards to the NWHLPA, Director Anya Battaglino had the following statement when reached for comment on the news:

    “In the off season the NWHLPA has been working hard to continue to drive the betterment of our professional athletes every day. This announcement halts our ability to finally have the best players on one stage, and unfortunately sets the Women’s Hockey game backward. With the powerful opportunity we have this year to drive unprecedented growth, this new fragmentation will only slow that growth.”

     

    While examining Mrs. Battaglino’s statement here, we have to agree with her assessment on this situation. While yesterday, May 1st, marked the official end of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) as they closed their doors, the NWHL acted swiftly and added two more teams to their league with the prospects of a third team to make it an 8 team league when the initial announcement was made in an effort to give more women an opportunity to play professionally in the NWHL.

     

    Also, look at the growth of Women’s hockey in these last two years specifically. From the US Olympic Hockey Team winning the gold medal against Team Canada, to setting a US attendance record for a Women’s hockey game at the NWHL All Star Game in Nashville, to having Kendall Coyne Schofield becoming the first woman to participate in the NHL All Star Skills Competition. These women have made great gains only to halt it’s momentum to a near dead halt, and it’s a damn shame.

     

    Do these women deserve to play professionally, and make a living wage doing so? Oh hell yes they do. They deserve it, and most importantly they’ve earned it, but what they are doing does not seem like the way to go about it. While we don’t have the answers here ourselves, we do believe that there has to be a better way to accomplish the ultimate goal, and that is to have the ultimate professional Women’s hockey league that brings great stability and a long term viable option for women to play the game.

     

    We do know that one player has spoken out against the #ForTheGame movement as reported by The Ice Garden, and that is Boston Pride player Kaleigh Fratkin.

     

    We will have more here on TXHT as everything unfolds, but to quote our Connecticut Whale writer Christopher Vasilas ( @shaggy901516 ):

    “We’re definitely at the crossroads, every decision by the league and players is gonna have huge impact on future generations”

  • TXHT Podcast – 4/2/2019

    TXHT Podcast – 4/2/2019

    The TXHT podcast is back with Serious Hockey Talk for Serious Hockey Fans!

     

    Audio Version:

     

    This week on TXHT, Michael Lindenbaum is joined by our friend from The Hockey Writers Nate Oliver.

     

    Both Michael and Nate talk about the sudden announcement of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League ceasing operations effectively May 1st.

     

    Plus they discuss the impact that this will have on Women’s Hockey, and the recent announcements made today by the National Women’s Hockey League.

     

    This week’s episode was recorded on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019

    Opening Music: “Human Chess” by Crimson Orchid

     

    Have a question you want answered on the show? Ask us! Comment on here or on one of our Social Media outlets, and we’ll answer it.

  • Women’s Hockey News – CWHL to Cease Operations on May 1st

    Women’s Hockey News – CWHL to Cease Operations on May 1st

    In shocking news, it was announced yesterday that the Canadian Women’s Hockey League will be ceasing operations effectively May 1st, 2019.

     

    A key note from the press release was this:

    “Unfortunately, while the on-ice hockey is exceptional, the business model has proven to be economically unsustainable.”

    This is an interesting note indeed given the recent success of the Clarkson Cup the weekend prior which brought in 175,000 viewers, a record for Professional Women’s Hockey.

     

    Since the announcement the NWHL has issued a series of statements starting with the following:

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    A major takeaway from the statement is that it acknowledges the fact that the two leagues were meeting, and had more meetings planned for this month. However, with the recent announcement by the CWHL those meetings have been canceled.

     

    When reached for comment about the players and fans up in Canada, NWHL Commissioner and Founder Dani Rylan had the following to say:

    “We will pursue all opportunities to ensure the best players in Canada have a place to play. Those conversations have started already and have quickly become a priority.”

     

    With these comments a lot of speculation has begun in regards to what the NWHL will do. While a major theme to this past season was the players wanting one league, the more likely preferred scenario would have been for the two leagues to merge. However, given that both leagues have differing business models, logistically there would be a lot of hurdles both sides would have to overcome including the ultimate goal of having all of the players paid a living wage and how that would be accomplished.

     

    A while back during this past season comments by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman were made noting that both the CWHL and NWHL business models were not ideal to how the NHL would like and insinuated that if both leagues were to fold then the NHL would step in to create a professional women’s hockey league of their own. Obviously these comments, or at least the way the comments were made, did not sit well with many. It also shows how out of touch Bettman is when it comes to the women’s game and why their business models are constructed the way they are.

     

    Now with the NWHL as the only professional women’s hockey league, whether Bettman likes their business model or not, it is time for the NHL to embrace them and get behind them 100 percent to help them grow.

     

    Currently the NWHL has five teams based in Buffalo, Minnesota, Boston, Metropolitan (New Jersey), and Connecticut. Of the five, three have partnerships with NHL franchises while the Buffalo Beauts are owned by the Pegula Family who own the Sabres. The only franchise to not have a partnership with an NHL franchise is Connecticut.

     

    For the CWHL they have three teams with NHL partnerships that could come into the NWHL to make it an eight team league starting this upcoming season if the NWHL chose to. Those three teams would be Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary. It also helps as they are three of the four most marketable teams in the CWHL. The fourth being Markham.

     

    With the World’s starting on April 4th, one would have to agree that the timing is horrible to announce this news. The CWHL has 25 players playing in the tournament, and now instead of being asked on ice World’s questions, instead they will be bombarded with off ice questions pertaining to the CWHL folding. It’s not fair to the women, the game, and their mutual growth.

     

    In due time we will see what both the NWHL and NHL will do in regards to this latest news, but one thing we must be is patient. There are a lot of moving parts right now, and we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.

     

    As more information becomes available, we will report on it.

     

    We also highly recommend reading this amazing article by Michelle Jay of The Ice Garden: