PWHL Ottawa ready to roll in new women’s hockey league

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What’s in a name?

Ottawa’s newest professional sports franchise has already accomplished a remarkable feat.

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Still without a nickname, the city’s entry in the six-team Professional Women’s Hockey League has sold out the 8,200-seat TD Place Arena for its debut game on Jan. 2 against Montreal.

“We have been blown away by that,” said Jayna Hefford, the Hockey Hall of Famer who serves as the PWHL’s senior vice-president of hockey operations. “We’re very pleasantly surprised there has been this much noise and support so quickly.”

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Indeed, just about everything about the upstart league has been on fast-forward since officially being launched in late August.

Only a month earlier, Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group received an email, asking about its interest in hosting a potential franchise in the start-up. Adrian Sciarra, president of the Ottawa Redblacks and Ottawa 67’s, jumped on it immediately, wanting to get in on the ground floor to add another tenant at TD Place.

OSEG also works closely with Atletico Ottawa and the Ottawa BlackJacks, which, like the new PWHL franchise, have their own management staff while operating out of the facilities.

Few people, however, expected the new league to hit the ice so fast.

For the past decade, the women’s professional game has been mired in dissension and controversy, with limited ownership and fan support. Rival teams and leagues in Canada and the United States have come and gone, without the necessary financial backing to absorb losses.

Most significantly, the world’s top players had skated away from all of it for two years — they’ve barnstormed throughout North America in separate All-Star contests — striking in protest against low wages and unprofessional working conditions.

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While the National Hockey League had offered consulting support during the mess, there was no cash on the table.

Into that void stepped Mark Walter, majority owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and part-owner of the Chelsea Football Club, to bankroll the new league. Teams, all still without nicknames, are also based in Toronto, New York, Boston and Saint Paul, Minn.

Walter secured former tennis star and cultural trailblazer Billie Jean King as an investor and well-respected pro sports executive Stan Kasten sits atop the advisory board.

The game’s best players, guaranteed salaries of $35,000-$80,000, are back on board.

Last month, renowned Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Cassie Campbell-Pascal, a three-time Olympian and two-time gold medallist, joined the PWHL as a special advisor.

The league says it is being modest in expectations for year one and is committed financially long-term.

“The biggest excitement is that there is real money behind (women’s pro hockey) for the first time,” said Mike Hirshfeld, general manager of the Ottawa franchise.

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“There are real sophisticated people involved. The league owns all six teams, but every team has its own leadership group and a budget to build out the organization.”

Hirshfeld has an intriguing background in and out of sports, including time as an executive in the early days of the Ottawa Lynx, the city’s former Triple-A baseball squad. He spent time with the Toronto Blue Jays, was a Bay Street lawyer for 14 years, and moved on to start up the NHL Coaches Association in 2016, improving salaries and benefits within the industry.

Hirshfeld firmly believes the PWHL will be a springboard for future female leagues.

“I’m excited about building something here,” he said. “I want to help this league be successful. This league can have a huge legacy for women’s sports globally.”

The Ottawa franchise will have players from Canada, the U.S., Japan, Germany, Czechia and Hungary. Canadian national team goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer — a great hockey name to be sure — carries the promise of being an early star.

Around the league, a dozen countries are represented.

In the race to get started, Hefford says the founding group has been operating “with two feet on the ground, 24/7” for the past four months. The league’s first game was a New Year’s Day clash between Toronto and New York.

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“The best players were sidelined for two years and we had to get them committed to playing,” she said. “We had to put the whole league together, getting (team) staff in place, having a player draft, getting players’ visas and training camps set up.” Hefford adds that podcast and media coverage will be “more extensive than anything we’ve seen before.”

As for having official names that fans in each city can cheer for — the PWHL has filed an application to trademark the “Ottawa Alert” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office — Hefford says there’s no rush.

“We have a chance to build the markets first,” she said. “It’s one thing we don’t want to get wrong.”

Ottawa has made a significant mark in the women’s hockey world, playing host to the first world championships in 1990 and again in 2013. Pre-Olympic exhibitions between Canada and the United States at TD Place have been sold out.

Still, Ottawa was initially seen as a surprise to be part of the PWHL’s original six franchises because the city didn’t have a team in any of the previous national and international leagues.

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OSEG’s push to be a partner in the enterprise played a significant role in making it happen.

“The leadership group realized there’s a real opportunity for a market here, with all the kids hockey and the history of women’s hockey,” Hirshfeld said. “It’s a great sports town and there’s momentum globally, but I don’t think anyone anticipated this.”

He’s “cautiously optimistic” about how Ottawa’s team will stack up, pointing out that every team has stars. He also predicts it will be an eye-opening experience for fans who have previously only watched women’s Olympic hockey.

“I think fans will be blown away by the speed and competitive level,” he said.

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