Women's hockey eyes its Olympic moment
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The reigning PWHL champions Minnesota Frost are going for a three-peat this season. Photo: Adam Bettcher/Getty Images
International sporting spectacles helped launch women's soccer and basketball leagues into the stratosphere. Now, Professional Women's Hockey League leaders hope the upcoming Olympics can do the same for them.
Why it matters: The PWHL opens its third season Friday with two new expansion teams and promising attendance figures — but without a national TV deal in the U.S. that could secure the fledgling league's financial future.
The big picture: League backers view the Olympics as a pivotal moment — and players from Minnesota, or for the reigning PWHL champion Frost, will be key in making the league's pitch.
- That Minnesotan group comprises one-third of the U.S. team, including scoring machines Taylor Heise and Kendall Coyne Schofield, and Olympic veterans Kelly Pannek and Lee Stecklein.
What they're saying: "If you look at the history of women's sports post-Olympics … there's always a wonderful tailwind that you get to ride for a bit. We are setting ourselves up to make sure we take advantage of that tailwind," PWHL executive vice president Amy Scheer told reporters this week.
- "It will be our job," Scheer added, "to turn that casual fan who might be tuning in for the first time into a PWHL fan."
Case in point: After the 2019 World Cup, the National Women's Soccer League parlayed the U.S. national team's victory into a three-year, $4.5 million deal with CBS and Twitch, according to the Sports Business Journal — and ESPN also agreed to pick up some games.
- The NWSL's latest deal is now worth $240 million.
Plus: The U.S. women's basketball gold medal in the 1996 Olympics helped set the tone for the WNBA's 1997 launch.
- Three decades later, "the W" now has a $2.2 billion media rights deal.
Catch up quick: The PWHL has eight teams, including four in U.S. markets: Minnesota, Boston, New York, and the expansion Seattle franchise.
- The PWHL has national coverage of its Canadian teams (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and newcomer Vancouver), but leans on regional networks — NESN, MSG Networks and FanDuel Sports — and local broadcasters to cover its U.S. teams.
- The league also streams games for free on YouTube.
What we're watching: During a recent series of Olympic tune-up games between Canada and the U.S., PWHL stars have comprised roughly two-thirds of the American roster and the entirety of the Canadian roster.
- The league plans to take a monthlong break for Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February — and "global eyeballs will be able to follow our players as they come back to PWHL," said Jayna Hefford, another league executive VP.
Follow the money: The PWHL is backed by a heavy-hitting investor group that includes tennis icon Billie Jean King and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Mark Walter and Stan Kasten.
Between the lines: Already, the league has vastly surpassed its predecessors, which struggled to draw eyeballs and required players to buy their own health insurance.
- Last year, the PWHL drew 12,000-14,000 fans to pop-up games in NHL venues in Denver, Detroit and Seattle, and it plans another "takeover tour" in 16 more North American cities this year — including 10 games during the run-up to the Olympic Games.
The bottom line: Scheer nodded to previous leagues' struggles in her comments to reporters.
- "It's our job to make sure history doesn't repeat itself," she said, "because it often has a habit of doing just that."
What's next: The Frost open their season in St. Paul against Toronto at 6pm Friday.
- Expansion teams Seattle and Vancouver also square off Friday in British Columbia.