Two months after taking investment from Monumental Sports, women’s sports media brand The IX Sports is expanding. The company has acquired women’s hockey-focused publication The Ice Garden as it develops a 24/7 women’s sports newsroom. 

Launched in 2016, The Ice Garden had been independent since Vox Media and SB Nation cut ties with it and numerous other publications in 2023. Mike Murphy will remain as managing editor, with The Ice Garden staff continuing to oversee editorial operations while The IX Sports takes over business responsibilities. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but The IX Sports founder Howard Megdal said the money involved will allow the site to “grow really significantly.”

Monumental’s investment came with the hiring of two full-time business employees for The IX Sports, starting with former WNBA player Bella Alarie joining as senior VP of sales and marketing. While the business has largely relied on reader subscription revenue to date, it has its eyes on brands’ growing appetite for women’s sports exposure. Women’s sports saw 12% growth in sponsorship deals in 2024, according to SponsorUnited data. 

“We’re hoping to add more sports in 2026,” Alarie said. “The market potential is massive with women’s ice hockey, as with plenty of other sports that we hope to cover in the future.” 

The IX Sports, itself founded in 2019 by veteran journalist Megdal, launched a women’s basketball vertical in 2020. The hoops site says it reached more than 30 million readers in 2024, putting out more than 100 reported pieces each month and growing free subscribers by 82% in the past year. The IX Sports also regularly covers golf, gymnastics, soccer, and tennis.

“We want The IX Sports to be a place that pushes forward comprehensive coverage of women’s sports, and no one has done this work better in women’s hockey than The Ice Garden,” Megdal said in an interview. “We want nothing less than putting an end to the idea that covering women’s sports is something that the best journalists in the field have to do by paying for it out of their own pocket.”

The investment in ice hockey coverage comes before the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s third season, including two expansion teams’ debut campaigns in Seattle and Vancouver, and the 2026 Winter Olympics in February. 

“We had a little battery running this whole thing, like a nine-volt running this thing,” Murphy said. “By selling and working with Howard, we’re hooking up to a generator. … More people are going to read our work, and all we’ve got to do is keep doing what we’ve already been doing.”