PWHL - Professional Women's Hockey League

[PenguinHunter]

Missed the first round because I assumed this started I. The evening. Watching this for a bit with my daughter right now, so that's fun ��

I watched it on my lunch break.

I thought it was awesome.

I wish it was on in the evening so I could watch it with the kiddos.

Weird timing - but low budget for sure.

One of the ladies in the first round was interviewed and asked what she was going to do to celebrate after the draft.

She responded along the lines of - grab a bite to eat with the family and then we have to catch a flight back home tonight.

[Canucks_fan18]

I hate to say it but they won't get enough support to sustain. I would like to see it as I have a daughter and want her to see strong female athletes but there just isn't enough interest in these kind of leagues.

[PenguinHunter]

I hate to say it but they won't get enough support to sustain. I would like to see it as I have a daughter and want her to see strong female athletes but there just isn't enough interest in these kind of leagues.

I was thinking about this when watching.

They are using the same six sticks for each draft pick as they get selected.
Different team name - depending which team drafted the player.

The NHL has the major TV deals.

Is there enough TV money that the PWHL can get some of it? - I am hopeful but doubtful on this.

I am just not sure what it would take to make a Womens league successful.
Hopefully they have some plans in place that will work his time around!

[Canucks_fan18]

I was thinking about this when watching.

They are using the same six sticks for each draft pick as they get selected.
Different team name - depending which team drafted the player.

The NHL has the major TV deals.

Is there enough TV money that the PWHL can get some of it? - I am hopeful but doubtful on this.

I am just not sure what it would take to make a Womens league successful.
Hopefully they have some plans in place that will work his time around!

I searched afterwards if the WNBA is profitable, and apparently they lose on average 10 million per year. I don't think it could stand on it's own. I live in Edmonton and we got Connor freaking McDavid and sometimes it's hard to give free tickets away for a Monday game with our company's season tickets. The women's league would have to be subsided heavily. I guess I would put it this way if you were looking to buy a business outside a passion project, buying a professional women's hockey team wouldn't be where the smart money would be.

Off the cuff, the only two really successful professional sports leagues I can think of for women are LPGA and Tennis.

[PenguinHunter]

Did anyone watch any of the first couple games?

It was good to see the inaugural game being played on TSN.
During the broadcast they mentioned that all of the Toronto home games have already sold out for tickets.
So that's a good start.

[2014olympicgold]

There is no team womens sport league that ends up being successful in terms of a business. Is it because of how it's ran, or the product? I'm glad it's working so far, but I wonder what will happen in 2yrs when the honeymoon phase is done.

The good thing right now is that the games are being broadcast and are easily accessible and not behind a obscure channel. And with the upcoming NHL ASG being in Toronto, we'll see more of a public push for it. I do wonder about how successful it'll be long term especially running at the same time as the NHL.

[Pengwin7]

^Well, the WNBA has been around since 1996.
Almost 30 years now.
And the players are really high-level now.
Women's professional basketball is probably the most polished of women's sports.
Women's soccer is very good now too.
So - the model is there. And it can be made to work.

WNBA is... still unprofitable.
They make revenue, yes, but its still at a loss.
(Mostly, I believe this is because the "venue" is convenient... but also... too big. Like renting an actual business space to sell lemonade. I'd go to a lemonade brewery and sit and have a few glasses... not for everybody though, LOL.)
Still - if the world does NOT take measures to give women a chance to do all the exact same things as men... then we are NOT really trying for "fairness" and "equality".

[This is going to seem like a lecture - but getting women's professional sports to work is more important, IMO, than it seems by just coining it a "business risk".]

Men are simply lucky to be born into their genetic bodies.
We do have more high-end athletic bodies.

And people will always want to see the best-of-the-best... so men's professional sports will always dwarf women's professional sports.
That said - I (personally) think we need professional sports to be linked to really show that equality.
Every men's professional sports team should be required to manage and run a women's professional sports team.
Set some sort of "profit-sharing" between gender leagues.
Maybe a men's baseball takes profits left for players and splits them 90/10 to men's/women's.
Those numbers seem ridiculous on the surface... but that money would go a long way.

The over-arching reason the United States continues to be "seen" as the top country to migrate to is "opportunity".
Kids are still being born at 50% male / 50% female, last time I checked.
And who wouldn't want their kids to feel like they can truly (TRULY) "be anything they want and try hard to be"?
THAT - IMO, is the mark of a good place to live.

Women are going to rule the world one day in the future. (For real).
Countries that make an effort to "try" to provide real opportunity are going to be the superpowers.
And those that don't will be left in the dust. Nobody will trust their governments and they will eventually rot.

Thumbs up to the PWHL.
And the NHL needs to figure out how to join in and help.
If the NHL helps - and links - fans will too.
Fan revenue would make a women's league profitable - so that is the base achievement for success.
But... true... the "inferior product" because of the "inferior body" is impossible to overcome.
And that's when measures need to be provided to help - when there is truly no "fair" chance to be of same level.

And - separate topic - for as much as people loathe Bettman - I think he may pull it off.
It's a delicate tip-toe to get 30+ old-rich-white-men on board with such a concept... but it needs to be done eventually... somewhere... in some men's sports league.
[In fairness to the old-rich-white-men, I do think a women's league has to show all the markings of a "well-thought-out-start-up"... basically "Shark Tank"... once somebody can get a women's league pointed in the right direction... the investors - NHL owners & Bettman here - should* jump in and help fund it.]
We'll see.

[2014olympicgold]

From a business standpoint was something I added in purposely.

However, I guess you could argue the Womens sport gets the female audience watching the male sport a bit more and you could see more profit on that side because of the women's sport.

It could be looked at as a loss leader the women's leagues.

[PenguinHunter]

Another interesting rule that is not the norm - love seeing these.

The first place team gets to pick their playoff opponent.
They can pick either the 3rd place or 4th place team.

This is awesome!

[2014olympicgold]

I like the anti-tanking rule.
Once a team is eliminate, a "draft pick point" total starts. The team with the most amount of points after they're eliminated gets the 1st overall pick (or highest lottery odds, I can't remember). This would help a lot of tanking in the NHL over the final couple of weeks when all these injured players for non-playoff teams start getting surgery. I 100% understand from a business standpoint, but from a fan standpoint it can't be fun hoping to see a star and he elected to have surgery 2 weeks early and the team was fine with it because they'd lose more.