CWHL to discontinue operations

[Resolute 14]

Anyway, the question is apparently moot for at least one year, as it seems the players and the NWHL have agreed on a CBA for next year: https://twitter.com/battaglinoa/stat...886169109?s=21

Basically, a 50% increase in salary - partially covered by expanding the season from 16 games to 21 or 22 - and revenue sharing on advertising. We'll see how this goes, as the league has already had to slash salaries once in the past when revenues fell well short of what was needed to pay the bills.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Anyway, the question is apparently moot for at least one year, as it seems the players and the NWHL have agreed on a CBA for next year: https://twitter.com/battaglinoa/stat...886169109?s=21

Basically, a 50% increase in salary - partially covered by expanding the season from 16 games to 21 or 22 - and revenue sharing on advertising. We'll see how this goes, as the league has already had to slash salaries once in the past when revenues fell well short of what was needed to pay the bills.

This is....basically just hope. I dont see how well this is going to go since the CWHL has effectively been selling everything just to pay its debts and even that isnt going well.

The Ladies might have to take a page out of the KHL's book and demand their salaries in cash up-front.

Bags of cash.

[Resolute 14]

Should note that the union that signed this deal isn't the same union that is threatening the boycott.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Should note that the union that signed this deal isn't the same union that is threatening the boycott.

Oh. Theres multiple Unions? That cant be bad.

[CroFlames]

As a dad with daughters, I would love if there was a professional league for women to aspire to play in.

However, I just don't understand why people expect the NHL to subsidize a league that has no hope of viewership. There are other worthy (worthier?) causes that the NHL or other pro leagues can throw money at. Why not sledge hockey? Other para-olympic or special-olympic sports? Women's soccer? (which is more popular than women's hockey).

The fact is that in the most hockey-crazy country in the world, people just don't care to watch women's hockey. For the fringe fans who do, there are options.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

You mean exactly like women’s professional basketball before the nba stepped up and created the WNBA? Fans won’t support something if they know it isn’t going to last. Look at all the lacrosse leagues that have come and gone. The most stable Nll teams were the ones that were owned by NHL or NBA franchises. This has become a model of success for ownership groups.

I don't think the situations are all that similar. There had been previous unsuccessful attempts to launch professional women's basketball leagues going back to 1978, all of which foundered. Div I women's basketball in the NCAA regularly draws attendance figures in the 1,500s, while women's college hockey does not even see 1/3 of those types of figures. If anything, women's professional hockey is at around the same place that women's professional basketball was 40-years ago, and rightly or wrongly it took decades more to gain enough traction in order to form the WNBA.

I think at present women's professional hockey is simply not viable. It does not have the rate of exposure necessary at the top amateur levels yet, and is not nearly popular enough to generate revenue in order to be sustainable. Maybe that will change one day in the intervening decades, but until there is a stronger footprint at the elite college level; until there is a legitimately competitive model at the international and Olympic level I believe the women's game is still a long way away from succeeding in professional leagues.

[sureLoss]

Flames, Leafs, and other donors donate money so the CWHL can pay bonuses still owed to players

https://theathletic.com/1060015/2019...hockey-canada/