Dodgers Owner Walter, Billie Jean King Back New Women’s Hockey League
The Premier Hockey Federation and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association are consolidating, according to people familiar with the deal, as the two professional women’s hockey organizations have agreed to back the formation of a new, single North American league set to launch in January 2024. The leagues confirmed the news Friday.
The move will unite women’s hockey’s pro ranks ahead of what was planned to be the PWHPA’s fall launch, alleviating concerns about the viability of two competing leagues. It also starts with labor peace. The new league has already established a collective bargaining agreement that was negotiated by a group of PWHPA players including Olympian Kendall Coyne Schofield.
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Mark Walter—Guggenheim Partners chief executive, owner of MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and backer of the upstart PWHPA—and his wife, Kimbra, will financially support the new league, which has yet to be named. Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss and Dodgers president Stan Kasten, all also PWHPA supporters, will be on the board. PHF governors Johanna and John Boynton (who currently own four PHF franchises) were also involved in forming the new entity.
“I have always believed that professional sports should bring the highest levels of performance and organization, and this new league will have the backing and resources it needs to represent the very best of women’s hockey,” Walter said in a statement.
The new league will include players from both the PWHPA and PHF. It is unclear how many of the PHF’s seven existing teams will be part of the new entity, but PHF assets will be folded in. Neither league immediately responded to requests for comment. Attempts to reach Walter and Kasten through a representative were not immediately successful.
The now nine-year-old PHF, formerly known as the National Women’s Hockey League, was founded as a single-entity operation in 2015. The first four years of the league’s existence were rocky as the then-NWHL struggled to build its business operations, land consistent broadcast slots and, at times, to even pay players. (The NWHL’s Canadian counterpart, the CWHL—which only paid player stipends as opposed to salaries—faced similar challenges and ultimately dissolved in 2019.)
As a result, several of the sport’s most decorated players—including Olympic medalists Hilary Knight and Coyne Schofield—left the NWHL in 2019 to form their own nonprofit entity.
The PWHPA began with exhibition games and, with help from Deloitte, eventually secured financial support from Walter, who also owns stakes in Chelsea FC of the Premier League and the NBA’s Lakers, and Billie Jean King Enterprises to formally launch a league. Brands including Adidas, Gatorade and Canadian financial services giant Scotiabank also backed the upstart entity as it began preparing for its debut.
The PHF, for its part, recalibrated in 2020. Leadership changed and corporate partners were quickly added, as was a milestone broadcast deal with NBC Sports, amid the transition from a single-entity model to independently owned teams. PHF owners then made a $25 million investment in the league in early 2022, including significant year-over-year boosts to the salary cap, which was on track to double for 2023-24 to $1.5 million.
Longtime USA Hockey executive Regan Carey took over in 2022 and, in her first year on the job, signed corporate backer Discover to a key extension and solidified a two-year broadcast deal with ESPN that includes international distribution in Canada via TSN. The TV pact has already paid dividends. The league’s 2023 Isobel Cup championship clash saw a 219.4% jump in viewership year-over-year on ESPN2.
Carey’s role in the new league is unclear, as is the fate of the PHF’s other owners. Several of its teams were still temporarily entangled in shared ownership groups. BTM Partners, led by the Boyntons, currently owns four franchises—the Montreal Force, the Toronto Six, the Boston Pride and Metropolitan Riveters. NLTT Ventures owns the Buffalo Beauts and Minnesota Whitecaps. The Connecticut Whale is the only PHF team that does not share ownership.
While there are still details to be sorted, the sport will no longer have to worry about one league cannibalizing the other. The return of top players like Knight and Coyne Schofield to a single pro hockey circuit could also help boost broadcast ratings and attendance at games, as well as consolidate corporate partners.
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