Don’t count Minnesota out of new women’s pro hockey league

When it was announced June 29 that a new ownership group with deep pockets aims to start a new professional hockey league in January, it was immediately assumed by many that Minnesota would be the odd team out.

That was already the case in the Premier Hockey League, geographically if not competitively. The Whitecaps’ six league rivals were in New Jersey, Connecticut, Boston, Buffalo, Montreal and Toronto.

Furthermore, the new, unnamed league — which expects to announce name, teams and markets within a month, according to commissioner Reagan Carey — will be a team smaller than the Premier Hockey Federation, in which the Whitecaps have been playing since 2018.

Surely, a new league trying to establish itself as the first economically viable women’s pro hockey league won’t want to start with one market more than 800 miles away from its closest rival.

Well, maybe.

“We have (Minnesota) very high on our target list,” said Jayna Hefford, chairperson of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, which helped attract Los Angeles Dodgers chairman Mark Walter and Billie Jean King as investors in the new league. “We think it’s a market that could be very successful.”

Although the new league has set a goal of beginning play in January, there appears to be much left to be settled, from the six markets that will get teams for the first season to how much, if any, help the league will get from the NHL — a stated goal of all involved, and maybe a necessary one for the league to succeed.

The start-up is being bankrolled by the Mark Walter Group — worth $5.6 billion according to Forbes Magazine — and BJK Enterprise, “a data-driven, people-focused investing, consulting and marketing firm” started by tennis great King.

Hefford won four Olympic gold medals as part of Team Canada but played 15 seasons of professional hockey — under three different league banners — without making a dollar, U.S. or Canadian.

With the goal of changing that, the PWHPA set out to, essentially, create a league with a “sustainable business model, and the infrastructure and resources required to make it succeed” for its players. Seeking investors, the association interested investor groups led by King and Walter, who according to Forbes is worth $5.6 billion and is a co-owner of Premier League soccer club Chelsea FC.

They took it from there.

It remains unclear whether any of the PHF teams, or at least their names, will be a part of the new league, but it’s likely there will be teams in Montreal, Toronto and Boston, and perhaps in Pittsburgh, Washington D.C. and Ottawa. And maybe Minnesota.

All, not coincidentally, in NHL markets.

“There aren’t too many arguments that in hockey, Minnesota — and specifically for girls and women’s hockey — is the backbone of the nation in terms of growth and development, from youth to high schools to Division I and its longstanding presence at the pro level,” said Carey, Team USA’s longtime director of women’s hockey and former PHF commissioner who will lead the new league.

“I would imagine Minnesota continues to be a strong market and influence, and in this new league, everything is still on the table.”

Jack Brodt, longtime coach and general manager of the Whitecaps — which he co-founded in 2004 — believes there is no better market for women’s hockey than Minnesota. When the team played at TRIA Rink in downtown St. Paul, he said, the team averaged a sellout, 1,250 standing-room only, over two seasons before the COVID-19 pandemic.

For two seasons at the Richfield Ice Arena, he estimated, the team would draw between 400 and 600 (the PHF did not officially announce its attendance figures).

“We have unquestionably the best fan base of any city anywhere in the U.S. or Canada,” Brodt said. “We’d sell out our games. I’ve been to Connecticut and seen only 50 people at the game. I’ve been to Toronto four times, two times for four games, and there weren’t a hundred fans at any of those games. Here we are, in what is still probably the heart of hockey in Canada, Toronto, and there’s nobody there.”

According to Hefford, that makes a difference. But so do other factors, such as facilities. Right now, she said, the ideal venue would seat between 3,000 and 10,000 spectators. For reference, the University of Minnesota’s Ridder Arena seats about 3,500.

Being in an NHL market, Hefford said, “Makes sense but … isn’t a deal-breaker.” The Wild have in the past helped the Whitecaps with free ice time and some financial assistance, but there was no formal deal between the clubs.

And certainly travel costs will be an issue. A league featuring six markets that teams can reach by bus is attractive. While the costs didn’t keep the Whitecaps out of the PHF, it’s worth noting that the PHF didn’t have a sustainable business model. With a salary cap set for $1.5 million in 2023, Brodt noted, the Whitecaps were expected to lose upwards of $1.5 million this season.

The PHF’s assets have been purchased by the new ownership group, according to the Associated Press, and a collective bargaining agreement that includes an average player salary of $55,000 has been negotiated. The rest is waiting.

Will Minnesota be involved?

“In this new league,” Carey said, “everything is still on the table.”