A tale of two franchises: PWHL Minnesota and the Arena League's Myth
On Monday, first-year franchise PWHL Minnesota won its first playoff game in franchise history, ensuring that an encouraging first season wouldn't finish on a down note and sending more than 3,000 fans home happy from Xcel Energy Center.
On the same day, the first-year franchise Minnesota Myth sent its players home and folded after just two games in the turmoil-ridden Arena Football League.
If you want a study in what it takes to be a successful sports start-up these days, it's hard to find a more compelling case study in contrasts between these two teams.
I talked about both on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
PWHL is the study in doing it right. The first-year professional women's hockey league picked six strong hockey markets and had several others must-haves for success in modern pro sports from the outset.
Among them: A collective bargaining agreement, a television contract and a 10-year financial commitment from deep-pocketed owners Mark and Kimbra Walter.
Those factors don't guarantee long-term success, but they give PWHL a real chance to get itself established and to expose fans to a high-quality product.
Minnesota's PWHL franchise (nicknames and logos to come next year) drew more than 13,000 for its first game at Xcel Energy Center and had a loud contingent on hand for Monday's 2-0 playoff win over Toronto that pushed the best-of-five playoff series to a Game 4 on Wednesday back at the X.
The Myth, by unfortunate contrast, were on such shaky footing that nobody was sure if they would even make it through Monday.
Their head coach, former Gophers QB Rickey Foggie — who played for the Fighting Pike, Minnesota's last entrant in the AFL in 1996, which made it through one season before folding — quit a few days ago. A home game was rescheduled for a road game. And then Monday co-owner Diana Hutton sent emails to players that read, in part: "At this time, we believe it is prudent to allow you all to return home immediately."
The Myth's financial ground was shaky, and the league itself has had problems with multiple franchises already. Games were supposed to be on NFL Network, but instead they disappeared from programming.
With hopes that couldn't be turned into plans the Myth have disappeared, too, into the swirl of teams teams that used to play here but do not any more.
Here are four more things to know today:
*In news that might be of interest to Timberwolves fans and Rudy Gobert's bank account, John Goble is the crew chief officiating Tuesday's critical Game 5 in Denver. Scott Foster, the subject of Gobert's ire, is working the Pacers vs. Knicks game. Old friend Ed Malloy, though, is part of the Wolves/Nuggets crew.
*Chip Scoggins and I are planning to stay up late for Wolves vs. Nuggets tonight to bring you the freshest possible podcast early Wednesday.
*The Twins could beat the Yankees 50 straight times (they won't), and any series against New York would still feel like a measuring stick. That's how this three-game set at Target Field, starting Tuesday night, feels.
*Odds released this week suggest the Vikings have just a 25% chance of making the playoffs in 2024.
