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The National Women's Hockey League, which consists of four teams in the northeast -- Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, N.Y. Riveters and Connecticut Whale -- "drops the puck on its inaugural season Sunday," according to Cassandra Negley of SPORTING NEWS. The league will "play an 18-game schedule with one game a week stretching into late February." The NWHL's choice of founding cities was "based primarily" on USA Hockey's girls membership numbers. A '15 report shows that 36.3% of female hockey players "were on ice in the Northeast." The "first and most important step" in seeing sellouts will be "keeping eyes on the league past the initial 'this is happening' impact." The NWHL and teams "have Facebook pages, Twitter handles and Instagram accounts as with any business to reach fans." The NWHL "uses hashtags such as #FutureDraftPickFriday and #SisterhoodSunday to not only promote itself, but interact with a growing fan base and shine a light on young girls' love of the game." The league "does not have a TV contract but every game will be streamed on the NWHL Cross Ice Pass" (
SPORTINGNEWS.com, 10/8). SPORTS ON EARTH's Joe Delessio notes the minimum salary for an NWHL player "is set at $10,000, and the average salary is expected to be $15,000." The league's teams, with 18 players apiece, "will have a salary cap of $270,000." NWHL Commissioner Dani Rylan "calls those figures a first step and says that 'obviously the big goal is to make this a full-time job in the coming years.'" For now, though, the league "has designed its schedule so that its players can hold other jobs during the season." Pride LW Amanda Pelkey said, "What's so exciting about it is that we get to be part of the start of history. It's nice to know that women can be considered professionals as well" (
SPORTSONEARTH.com, 10/9).
A SOLID START: THE HOCKEY NEWS' Jared Clinton reported tickets for the first game in league history, which features the Whale hosting the Riveters, "have completely sold out." While it is "not an NHL-sized crowd, it’s remarkable that the league was able to sell what neighbors on 1,000 tickets for their first game" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 10/7).
