PWHL expanding from 6 to TWELVE teams?

PWHL expanding from 6 to TWELVE teams?

Here’s Brody Brazil. The voicemail line is always open for you. The phone number is 8334. Brody, you call in with something to say. I listen to all of your messages and I get to play back and respond to the very best ones. Hey Brody, this is John from Staten Island, New York. Um, I don’t know if you’ve heard about a league, a women hockey league called the uh PWHL. Oh, yeah. Uh, they just expanded to 18. Uh, I’m a fan of the New York Sirens and I’m calling to ask what is what are your opinions on the PWHL? Uh, just re just recently they expanded from six teams to eight and they’re eyeing even further expansion. Yes, they are. And the games are very exciting. The players are very exciting. So, I just wanted to, you know, chime in and ask you, uh, what are your thoughts on the professional women’s hockey league? And um do you see that this league might say outgrow and outpace the uh WNBA? Wow. Uh thank you for listening and have a good one. John, thank you much for the call and for bringing up this topic. It’s definitely something that I’ve been paying attention to and I want to discuss here on the YouTube channel. My initial thoughts about the PWHL are twofold. number one, super happy to see a league like you say take off and have some momentum and have some traction, but in the back of my mind, right, there’s always just a little bit of that concern because of the preceding leagues that have come before it and how they ultimately had their respective demises. And and I guess I don’t see any of that for the PWHL. I’m just saying that because there have been other things that came before that didn’t go well or there was always a twist or a turn why it fell apart. You’re kind of saying, “All right, please let this one be good. Let this effort stick and make the PWHL a thing for not only years to come, but decades to come, but like forever to come. And maybe they’ll go and grow, and maybe someday they’ll be attached to or merge with or have a stronger bond with the NHL.” But I’ll talk more about that in just a second. So again, four to five previous efforts of modern women’s hockey leagues, they just failed. And so you’re you’re just in the back of your mind thinking, all right, please let this thing keep going and grow the right way. Now, the first two seasons, they started with their own like literally original six. And in fact, in the first year, the teams didn’t even have names. They were just PWHL and the respective city that they played in. Then in year two, they added team names, and that’s important, right? like an identity and a logo and just more than colors, but the mascots and you kind of get your fan base in there. And now from season 2 to the upcoming season 3, they’re adding Vancouver and Seattle. So, they’re going out west. And if you look at a map, a majority of these teams or where you’d expect around the Great Lakes and also in the Northeast region, a couple teams in Canada, they have hopes of getting to a dozen teams sooner than later. So, I’m here to tell you I think that going out west is ambitious. You’re you’re just adding more expense and travel and cost and like this league is taking definitely a step forward by doing that. But by doubling from 6 to 12, my only caution is and again just knowing the history of what has come before this. You don’t want to see anything dramatic like slow and steady might win the race. But I am excited like it’s twofold. I am excited about the prospect of this expanding and expanding because of good reasons. They’re not just saying, “Well, we need to get to 12 teams.” They’re saying, “Hey, attendance grew 33% from year 1 to year two.” They also did a nine city takeover tour. They went to places where they don’t currently have teams, like I think Detroit was on that list. Was Denver on that list, too? They they traveled, right? So, there’s only six teams, so really you don’t want to just play in three or four uh home cities per night, whatever. You want to try and move the league around, give it a little bit of exposure. So that takeover travel tour I thought was really good to test out future markets. So they’re seeing this go the right direction and they’re also looking at merchandise and sponsorship numbers. Like everything is going and growing in the right direction and that’s fantastic. And another huge part of this I’ll tell you is access. Now you ask me have I seen it? The reason I have is because me here in the United States, I came across it, especially last year on YouTube. And we’re not talking about a low-level, you know, lowquality production value of a broadcast and announcers I can’t hear and camera angles that are bad and replays that don’t happen. Oh, no. We’re talking about like a fully produced, top-notch, full-scale broadcast that you would also see on Amazon Prime or on TSN in Canada. And they basically took that and and used the model of, well, we need to have our league and our games get exposure. So, we’re not going to put this on some small tiny channel you’ve never heard of in the United States. Obviously, with Amazon and TSN in Canada, that’s getting forefront exposure. And I’ve got no complaints about it there. And I think the best thing they did is make make this available on YouTube in the United States because there were a lot of times where I would tune in last year and I got to be honest, I’m usually watching like an afternoon game out west that’s nighttime out east before I watch some other things at night or before I have my own work at night. And you can see that watching this PWHL game, there might be 25, 35, 45, 55,000 people watching the live stream as it’s happening. Like that’s really good. And the fact that it’s free and accessible and if I want to watch on my computer, I can. Or my phone, I can. Or my Apple TV device, I can. I think that’s one of the smartest things that they’ve done. And I get why initially you’d say, well, we got to make money off everything. We got to monetize our TV deal. And that may be enticing and eventually someday maybe they’ll get there. But the fact that they started this out on YouTube, oh, by the way, I’m here on YouTube right now. the the fact that they chose this route and opened people’s eyes to to show you their product. And that’s my other point. When I started watching games, I’m like, the quality here of of these games and the players that they’ve brought into their league, like they didn’t cut any corners. They’re doing this league the right way. The presentation, the the play quality, all that stuff. Like, they put it exactly where it should be. And so, I credit them for doing all those things the right way. So, on to some other thoughts here. Eventually, a partnership, some type of relationship with the NHL. Does it does it make sense? Now, maybe one reason why the NHL hasn’t attached fully yet is because they’ve seen the predecessors, they’ve seen other leagues come and go, and maybe the NHL is only saying, “Hey, we just want to make sure that you all last like 5 years.” and after 5 years like we’re in. But we just want to make sure this gets off the ground so that we don’t commit to something that has had challenges time and time again. And look, I’m not predicting that. I’m certainly not hoping uh that there’s any issues, but I I guess I would understand maybe that’s the NHL’s position. Other than that, and when we get to a five-year mark and when we see the trajectory and growth continued for the PWHL, I don’t know that the NHL is going to have any reason to say they couldn’t be part of some type of collaboration and cooperation, right? I’m I’m not wanting the league I’m not wanting the NHL to buy the PWHL. I’m just saying synergy, right? Cross promotion. like take take the biggest hockey audience in North America of NHL fans and expose them to the PWHL. The league, the PWHL, is owned by the Mark Walter Group. You may recognize that name. Owners of the Dodgers of baseball, the Lakers, uh just recently of basketball, the Sparks of the WNBA, and oh yeah, Chelsea FC, one of London’s premier, well, premier Premier League teams, soccer teams. So, there’s plenty of backing behind this, which is also tremendous. And it’s not just money, because a lot of times you can throw money at something and it still doesn’t hit and click, right? The league also hired a hundred staff members and advisers to make sure that this really felt right. It had all the right foundations upon launch. They also have implemented some fun rule twists, especially with penalties and the whole jailbreak thing and a playoff format where you get to choose your I’ve been saying this all along. league should have it where if you’re the top seed, you get to pick your first round playoff opponent. That is so awesome. And in a lot of cases already in the PWHL, the team that picked like the other team that they’ll face, the team that got picked beat the team and advanced over the team that picked them. I mean, drama like as it’s meant to be in professional sports. So, my overall thoughts, really encouraged. Can’t wait to see where it goes. I think that’s the best take I can have on this. I get the history. I get that it hasn’t uh nothing has lasted as long as it ever should. But I I think this is going to be the one that sticks. I’m happy for it. I would just caution them on going too fast and expanding too fast, but at the same time, I know there’s smart people behind this and they’re going to make the right decisions. You’ve got to go. You’ve got to move. You’ve got to grow. Do it carefully. Take your time. Uh nobody’s rushing this. They want to see it succeed more than anything else. Let me know what you think about the PWHL in the comments section below. Also, thumbs up while you’re down there helps me the video and the channel. And don’t forget to subscribe. I would love to see you back here next time.

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As impressive as the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s growth has been less than two years since its launch, with the league blowing past initial attendance and revenue projections, and already into its first phase of expansion, Stan Kasten says you’ve seen nothing yet.

The league’s advisory board member laid out an ambitious vision of the PWHL’s future during a phone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.

Kasten foresees further expansion — beyond the recent additions of Vancouver and Seattle to grow the PWHL to eight teams — within the next few years; the league capitalizing on the 2026 Milan Winter Games to broaden its reach internationally; and the prospect of turning a profit by 2031, when the league’s current CBA with its players expires.

Read More: https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/45281401/pwhl-plans-further-expansion-eyes-2026-olympics-broaden-reach

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