PWHL - Your level of interest
- Thread starter Canadiens Ghost
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MMC
Global Moderator
You say this as if I or anyone else would give a shit if you one day decided to do that
Dessloch
DOPS keeping NHL players unsafe like its their job
- Nov 29, 2005
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This is the true hero of womens hockey btw, if anyone is interested, its actually an entertaining read as well! She should be praised, not the current evil & greedy top brass!
In the most divided women's hockey climate ever, NWHL founder Dani Rylan is often cast as the villain. But despite the negative noise, she remains focused on growing her league and building a brighter future for her sport.
www.sportsnet.ca
In the most divided women's hockey climate ever, NWHL founder Dani Rylan is often cast as the villain. But despite the negative noise, she remains focused on growing her league and building a brighter future for her sport.
Meet the most controversial and misunderstood woman in hockey
Bocephus86
Registered User
Oh man, did we just become friends? I dont give a shit if you love hockey or shuffleboard, I just dont like people that run though and gate keep their sports. As a far of women's sports, that gate keeping is brutal. As a hockey fan, its probably the worst version of it. Can you just let people love the sport no matter their skill level? Then we are friends.
Dessloch
DOPS keeping NHL players unsafe like its their job
- Nov 29, 2005
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I would do the following:
1. Reduce size or weight of pucks a bit so women can have the same velocity in shooting as men, that will make the game more exciting and punish team that turtle around their own net as women have harder scoring from distance.
2. Allow hitting full on, will make for some drama and increase emotional investment from fans and create more competitive tension between teams!
3. Remove cages and full shields to make players more personal on the ice. Its annoying only seeing cages and no personalities out there. New fans need to recognize the players easily.
That could be a good start in the right direction! And thats coming from someone that watches womens hockey every week and has been for years.
1. Reduce size or weight of pucks a bit so women can have the same velocity in shooting as men, that will make the game more exciting and punish team that turtle around their own net as women have harder scoring from distance.
2. Allow hitting full on, will make for some drama and increase emotional investment from fans and create more competitive tension between teams!
3. Remove cages and full shields to make players more personal on the ice. Its annoying only seeing cages and no personalities out there. New fans need to recognize the players easily.
That could be a good start in the right direction! And thats coming from someone that watches womens hockey every week and has been for years.
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Bocephus86
Registered User
The womens game is fine IMO, it is what it is. Cages dont stop us seeing those people because, as a personal that loves the NHL, non-fans cant tell the difference between a full shield and a half shield. The change comes with showing characters (ahem, PASTA) while wearing their jerseys between play.
What Im saying is we have to find actually entertaining people, let them be that, and focus on the jersey
This, one of the main reasons for small market leagues like this to fail is when even the few people that want to follow it don’t have an easy/inexpensive way to follow it. They are off to a bad start with how today I wanted to check the scores and their website wasn’t giving live score updates.
Fatass
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2017
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Gabe Kupari
Registered User
Dessloch
DOPS keeping NHL players unsafe like its their job
- Nov 29, 2005
- 3,238
- 3,112
Indeed. The Premier Federation has existed for 4 years.
"Daryl Watts took a financial hit when the Premier Hockey League was bought out and the Professional Women's Hockey League took its place. The 24-year-old forward from Toronto signed a two-year contract in January with the PHF's Toronto Six that would have paid her a league-record $150,000 US in 2023-24."
With the PWHL she will make just 55 000$, so she lost 2/3s of her salary when the PWHPA nuked the Premier Federation!
Fatass
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Wow! Not too sure how this league will survive. Can’t see fans flicking to girls’ hockey. There’s just no visceral connection to mske a fan buy in. Hope they can make it, but seriously doubt they will. 1 season and then it’s done imo.
Rob Brown
Way She Goes
- Dec 17, 2009
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One key difference being that if you aren't into F1 or another sport you can just ignore it and not consume any of that content. In the context of the PWHL, Sportsnet, as an example, is likely going to try to make it part of every single NHL broadcast for the rest of the season, so it's a bit harder to simply ignore like you are suggesting.
Zero. But I have very little time or interest in any hockey league outside of the NHL and my kids league. That said, I just cant see it being a very good product but wish them the best and hope they succeed I guess.
Bocephus86
Registered User
Rob Brown
Way She Goes
- Dec 17, 2009
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Do you doubt that it will? I can't give you a definitive answer for today since it's day one for the league and the only NHL game today was the TNT broadcast and not Sportsnet, but the Sportsnet panel has definitely talked about the PWHL in the past. Additional example is how the NHL has had female players in the ASG a few years now.
My point is that you are advising people to just 'ignore' it as if it's F1 or table tennis or something totally unrelated, when in reality there is likely going to be an attempt by the NHL and Sportsnet to wrap it into NHL discussion to try to drive awareness. It's just not as clear cut a division as you implied.
Bocephus86
Registered User
This is exactly it.
I wouldn't watch Midget AAA if it was on TV, and that is objectively a much better product than women's hockey. Why would I want to watch this junk?
Most people have only ever been exposed to the women's game at the international level, and due to the nature of international competition, and the fact that you're watching the creme da la creme of female hockey players, it can make for some good entertainment. This will not be that.
Any women's league will lose money hand over first until it gets shut down, unless the NHL decides to subsidize it like the NBA does the WNBA. The WNBA has been around for a quarter of a century, and it has NEVER turned a profit.
Nothing about this league makes business sense. It is entirely an exercise in social justice.
MMC
Global Moderator
Rob Brown
Way She Goes
- Dec 17, 2009
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I pretty clearly said that it's been discussed in past Sportsnet broadcasts, but I can't answer definitively since the PWHL season started since there has been one NHL game since that happened and it wasn't even a Sportsnet broadcast.
You're the one that compared F1 to another hockey league as if it's just as easy to ignore.
How about this then - there's a 3v3 PWHL game in this year's ASG. Does that make it easier for you to understand that people can't just ignore it while consuming NHL content?
dahrougem2
Registered User
I mean it has started a bit. When doing their "favourite moments of 2023" with Kelly Hrudey, Kevin Bieksa, and Jennifer Botterill, the males gave NHL answers (Vegas championship, Bedard arrival) while Botterill said the creation of the PWHL was hers.
Now, it's personal for her for sure. But it just feels forced.
The first idea is probably controversial because people will find it “belittling” to women, but those dozens of clean, unpressured cross ice passes that get fumbled and all of the horrible muffin shots could likely be resolved by just taking a couple of ounces off of the regulation puck.
Allowing hitting wouldn’t only increase entertainment value because people like violence or crap like that, but realistically it’s what makes the games emotional, creates rivalries, bad blood, rising tensions - the story lines that fans invest for and come back for year over year.
The final point may also be contested but these women are every bit as old - there likely isn’t one younger than Bedard - as any adult in the NHL. They should be free to wear half shields and it would be a MASSIVE boon to growing the game. People relate to faces and characters. Let them hit and then let them scrum and chirp and have personality and don’t obscure it behind a fishbowl. It’s a better product. And unless the woman are unanimously against taking a stick to the chiclets, it’s actually sexist not to make the choice up to them.
These things all would genuinely improve the product.
His overall idea makes sense though as the NA sports market is over saturated and it's easier to gain a new market than trying to steal an existing market away.
If the PWHL is going to succeed they need to drive that new market as there simply won't be enough interest in the existing one.
Bocephus86
Registered User
Fair enough good friend, let's toast to the new women's hockey league, and hope they have nothing but success. Your support is appreciated.
Right so you don't have an example, you can just say 'not yet' too.
Your point about soccer doesn't work though as hockey fans don't need to leave the continent to see those 7 better leagues and that's what makes this leagues success so much more difficult.
Also the league having a single owner may be problematic long term but maybe not.
