Professional Women’s Hockey League ready to roll

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An eight-year collective bargaining agreement and a deep-pocketed ownership group says what generic jerseys cannot; the Professional Women’s Hockey League is exactly that.

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Essentially willed into existence on a virtually unreasonable timeline, the six-team PWHL got almost everything ready for puck drop on Monday, when the Toronto unknowns host the New York fill-in-the-blanks. That their team nicknames and logos were left too late says league staff were doing everything else.

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“Those are things that, if we had 18 months or two years, there is no doubt we’d have those in place,” said senior vice-president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford. “But those are not the things that are going to hold us back. Our focus has been on making sure that the professionalism exists; that what the fans see on the ice, we get all of that right. We’re happy with where we’re at. I can guarantee you we’ve got a lot of people working 24/7 and will be right up until Jan. 1.”

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The single-entity league includes teams in Montreal, Ottawa, Minnesota and Boston, and is owned by the Mark Walter Group, which also counts the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball among its properties.

So there is plenty of money to back up financial commitments made in the CBA; a thorough, professional document that suggests the PWHL is focused on a top-notch player experience and steady growth of the business.

“The players will be the first ones to tell you it was never about just salary,” said Hefford. “It was about professionalism, it was about resources and infrastructure. It was about playing in great buildings, having full-time dressing rooms, how they travel. The entire compensation package is more than just salary; it includes a housing stipend, pre- and post-game meals. There is support for maternity leave and nursing moms. There is so much in there and I think we are all very proud of what that has become. Being the only league to launch with a CBA in place positions us to work together really well over the first eight years of this league to get the foundation really strong.”

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While on the road, players receive $81 per diems based on $21 for breakfast, $25 for lunch and $35 for dinner. Those sums, which will rise by three per cent per year, are in addition to the team meals already provided. The housing stipend is $1,500 per month. Trades are allowed as of Monday, and there is a relocation allowance of $2,500, plus temporary lodging costs and rental car for up to 14 days.

When travelling more than six hours, teams will fly commercial and all reasonable efforts will be made to book direct flights and either window or aisle seats.

In addition, players must get at least one day off from all team activities each week, and if those players thought they would spend that day skydiving, cliff-diving, bobsledding, luging, hot-air ballooning, wrestling or hang-gliding, they had better think again. The CBA outlaws those activities unless the league offers consent.

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The focus is clearly on professional hockey, and the league’s playoff champions will split a bonus of $63,250 while the runners-up divide $40,250. The league MVP earns a $5,000 cheque, while the top defender, forward, goalie and rookie of the year each get $4,000 on top of a salary that has to be at least $35,000. Six or more players on each team have to earn at least $80,000. For a 24-game season, that’s not embarrassing.

When players make commercial appearances on behalf of the league or a team, they get paid $1,000 for a two-hour commitment. Group commercial rights payments from the league to the players association start at $550,000 in year one and rise to $676,430 in year eight.

“Of course over time when the league is really successful and makes money, everyone would like to see the player earn more money, higher salaries,” said Hefford. “But I think we all understand this is about setting up the business so it is successful first and foremost. We have an ownership group that knows how to do this; one of the most prominent sport owners in the world in Mark Walter. He knows how to run a business and he knows how to run a professional sports organization. We all trust they are setting this up for success. One thing we know and we can all say to date is they treat people well and they treat people fairly so I think everyone is in the same boat.”

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The previous ships were full of holes and all the money leaked out. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League did not pay salaries. Players in the Western Women’s Hockey League had to buy their own sticks and equipment, but had most travel costs covered, so the loop was at best semi-pro. The first iteration of the National Women’s Hockey League debuted in 2015 and became the first to pay salaries, but cut them in half for year two.

That can’t happen this time. The CBA stipulates the PWHL minimum salary will rise by three per cent annually. The average salary must be $55,000 this season and it too will jump by three per cent per year. The number of games rises to at least 30 and no more than 32 for the remaining seven seasons covered by the CBA.

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“It comes down to the level of investment that’s been made,” said Hefford. “The hockey in the past has always been good but we haven’t had the marketing support and the ticketing support and the professional venues and the type of broadcast deals (that have been announced with TSN, RDS and CBC in Canada, MSG and NESN in the U.S.).

“The reality is there are going to be some losses in the early years and some of them are probably going to be fairly significant losses, but this is an investment that’s being made over a long period of time and we all believe this is going to be successful long-term.”

Short-term success looks like full buildings in Toronto and Ottawa for home openers.

“The season openers have had a really strong response and our job now is to continue to draw people to games two through 12 in their markets,” said Hefford. “We know we’re going to have to work hard to do that. We’re going to have to put entertainment value in front of them. And we’re going to have to earn their time and their money to come back game after game.”

dbarnes@postmedia.com

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