The ownership group for North America's new Women's Professional Hockey League (PWHL) has a business plan that spans at least 10 years, according to Los Angeles Dodgers president Stan Kasten, who is leading business operations.
The Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises, financial backers of the Women's Professional Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), originally planned to launch a women's league in 2024. In June, it acquired the existing Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) and all its organizations. Assets were leveraged to create a single unified women's ice hockey league in the United States and Canada.
Revealing plans for the first season at a press conference on Tuesday, Kasten, who runs the business on behalf of Mark Walter and the ownership group, said investors have spent a lot of money to get the product up and running. He emphasized that he is committed to
“We didn’t do this for short-term purposes,” he said. “We didn't do this for the long term. We did it to make it permanent.
“We have a plan and so far our business model will last 10 years, but we will go longer if needed. We know it will be expensive, especially in the early stages. However, we consider all of these amounts to be investments, not expenses.”
As a single-unit league, the league, which is financially supported by Walter, owns the teams and employs general managers to run the operations of individual franchises. Kasten told reporters he has received calls from people interested in purchasing the franchise, but he said the league is not willing to accept bids at this time.
Kasten declined to reveal the budget for the PWHL's first season. The collective bargaining agreement stipulates that six players on each team will sign three-year contracts worth “$80,000 or more.” [€73,130] Most of the other players are on one-year contracts, but every league year.”
Regarding marketing expenditures for new properties, Kasten outlined: “We also put real money and budget into promotions and community activities.
“We understand that just because we announce there’s a game, people aren’t going to show up. We need to promote the game and the community around the game, we need to promote Yes, you will need to sign a sponsorship agreement to spread the word.
“So everything you see in modern professional sports is a tool that we employ.”
PWHL is still working on a streaming agreement to ensure all games are available and aims to make the games available on terrestrial television as well.
The league will begin in January 2024, with six teams playing 24 games (12 home, 12 away), with a break for the IIHF Women's World Championship in April, and the season ending in late May or early June. end. Subsequent seasons will feature more games and run from November to May, with the league eventually expanding, but the league wants to “get the model right first.”
Similar to the National Hockey League, the teams that form the PWHL's unique “Original Six” are located in Boston and Minneapolis/St. Louis. Paul, New York City area, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.
The three American teams and three Canadian teams will play in arenas of varying sizes, but the arena, which is expected to be larger than PHF's, will be announced at a later date, and the leagues will be able to play neutral matches at multiple home venues. It is also possible. The New York market could include games in New York City, but the league confirmed it is also considering hosting games in nearby states like Connecticut and New Jersey.
“We're going to be in some big buildings, and we know there are some nights those big buildings won't look good,” Kasten said. “So we're working on securing some areas of the building to make the game look nice. We're in some big buildings, but we're in some is in the AHL of [American Hockey League] and OHL [Ontario Hockey League] For us right now it's a better scale than the NHL building, but later this year we'll also be in the NHL building in the NHL city. ”
Jayna Hefford, former commissioner of the Canadian Women's Hockey League and chief operations consultant for the PWHPA, is the PWHL's senior vice president of hockey operations. Former NHL executive Brian Burke, who was fired by the Pittsburgh Penguins in April, is helping run the PWHL Players Association. The new league's board of directors includes King, athletic director Ilana Cross and Dodgers senior vice president of business strategy Royce Cohen.
