Anyone have a good way to watch the new Women's League? Would love to support it in my small way.
PWHL - to be named later
- Thread starter LogansDad
- Start date
A lot of the games seem to be on TSN or CBC (regular Canada sports cable channels). They also are all streamed on the PWHL You Tube channel as per my cursory Google search.
That's excellent. They worked hard to get as many options for watching games available for fans as they could. Seems to me to be a solid strategy.
I watched the whole thing, it was pretty good game. Boston just missed tying it at the end. Minnesota’s goalie is legit.
Also they announced the attendance at 3550 but Tsongas holds 6000 and it looked pretty full on TV. Probably a decent amount of walk ups.
Yeah I watched the first ever game between Toronto and New York (the one thing I find odd is they haven't chosen team names / logos) and it was very entertaining until New York scored 3 quick goals in the third, at that point I started concentrating a bit more on not burning the turkey carcass soup I was boiling.
Ticket sales in most cities are encouraging. Toronto sold out every single ticket for home games in 2 days as per the Athletic (maybe they should have picked a bigger venue), Ottawa just broke a record for attendance for a professional women's hockey game, I agree it looked like Tsongas had more than 3550. I think there is definitely a market out there, seems like they have done most things right so far. Helps to not have 2 different leagues fighting with each other.
Ticket sales in most cities are encouraging. Toronto sold out every single ticket for home games in 2 days as per the Athletic (maybe they should have picked a bigger venue), Ottawa just broke a record for attendance for a professional women's hockey game, I agree it looked like Tsongas had more than 3550. I think there is definitely a market out there, seems like they have done most things right so far. Helps to not have 2 different leagues fighting with each other.
I’d be willing to bet that the 3550 was the advanced sale number, and they weren’t counting day of game box office sales. I bet there was 5000 in the building. I know it was the first game, but it was still mid week in January. I think that they could pull that number for 12 home games. The quality of play was there.
any chance of breaking out the women's league chat? I'm thrilled that this may actually work this time
I'm looking forward to seeing how the different rules play out. I'm big time in favor of 3-2-1-0 points so sold on that already. The short handed goal ends a (minor only) power play idea intrigues me. I don't care either way about the 5 person instead of 3 person shootout. I think that's basically it?
I also think it's an incredible mistake to not have logos/team names. Just a total missed marketing option.
I also think it's an incredible mistake to not have logos/team names. Just a total missed marketing option.
I thought they were planning to eventually go to team names and logos. And they will then sell a bunch of that merch on top of all the stuff they sold for this season.
I hope so. I planned to get my daughter a jersey, but they’re so boring right now. A far cry from the J. Dempsey Pride jerseys, which I rather liked.
https://theathletic.com/5082370/2023/11/22/pwhl-jerseys-team-names-logos/?amp=1
This was back before the season and matches what I thought I remembered. They basically had a compressed timeline and decided to not force the branding into the accelerated timeline they already had for all the other stuff they were trying to accomplish.
These games are a ton of fun to watch. They've all basically been close and competitive.
I’ve been watching various games via the PWHL YouTube channel & it has proved to be an entertaining product. Used to watch the Boston Pride & that league was fun.
I’m happy this launch seems to have gone well. Can’t wait to see what they’re able to do long-term with the league.
I’m happy this launch seems to have gone well. Can’t wait to see what they’re able to do long-term with the league.
PWHL Boston gets their first regulation win tonight, 3-2 in Toronto. Loren Gabel can really shoot the puck. Her two goals tonight (including the game winner) were top corner snipes.
The Free-On-Youtube, less for the "free" part and more for the "available anywhere easily" part is certainly a reason I've put the games on when I've seen them on.
The Bostons are on NESN now, up 3-1 against the Minnesotas-- almost halfway through the game, the Bostons have 3 goals on only 5 shots on goal.
Rooney having a rough day for Minnesota, although she hasn't gotten much help from her team.
Apparently Toronto are playing vs Montreal and have moved the venue to ScotiaBank Arena (where the Leafs play). They expect a near sellout, so likely another attendance record for pro women's hockey.
They're already reporting a sellout so 18,800 tickets sold already. I for one think this is absolutely amazing and the popularity of the PWHL is really great to see. Unlike the WNBA it seems the PWHL will be able to stand on its own. Obviously it's early and time will tell but early returns look great.
It is for now but it’s also new. They were smart in putting it in a few hockey mad cities that are all relatively close to each other. But it also still has the new car smell. I hope they can sustain because more hockey is good for everyone but I wouldn’t point to early success as an indication of a long-term sustainable league just yet. Good thing is the businesspeople behind these endeavors seem to be smarter than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago.
Keep in mind unlike the WNBA the NHL isn't propping up this league and the startup owners (the Walterses) own all the teams and have promised a 10 year plan. Both have stated they understand they'll be in the red for several years and went in to this knowing they'll lose money. It's more than early success. They've absolutely blown away projections and like you said put the teams in perfect locations to take advantage of hockey markets. Even when the newness wears off if they maintain even 70% of their current numbers this league isn't going anywhere.
But all that being said you're very much correct in that time will tell and when the newness wears off the proof will be in the numbers and hype. I've got high hopes they continue to be successful.
At my (Toronto-area) supermarket, it's not uncommon to have kids fundraising by bagging groceries while wearing jerseys with logos/etc. Earlier this week, it was a local (high school or so, age wise) girls' hockey team. I got a chance to ask the young woman about the league. She pretty much glowed.
So, based on one random encounter, I think PWHL can succeed by drawing even a small proportion of the folks who'd watch any competitive hockey game, plus a bunch who see role models on the ice...
So, based on one random encounter, I think PWHL can succeed by drawing even a small proportion of the folks who'd watch any competitive hockey game, plus a bunch who see role models on the ice...
They announced the attendance as 19,200 or thereabouts. Was a decent game. I like how they are using different venues to showcase for other cities. (There is a game upcoming in Pittsburgh, which seems to want an expansion team.)
Kendall Coyne posted 19,285 was the attendance. Which is absolutely fantastic, they're outselling some NHL teams currently.
Went to USA-Switzerland last night.
I felt bad for the Swiss! Fun game to go to. We'll see how my schedule is, but I think I'm going to try to catch the Finland Canada game tonight. Probably a little more competitive (and the Swiss were really good, but the USA team was something else). The game strongly resembled 60 minutes of an offensive zone drill.
I felt bad for the Swiss! Fun game to go to. We'll see how my schedule is, but I think I'm going to try to catch the Finland Canada game tonight. Probably a little more competitive (and the Swiss were really good, but the USA team was something else). The game strongly resembled 60 minutes of an offensive zone drill.
I like the "Gold Plan" for determination of PWHL draft position. Once a team is eliminated, they earn points towards draft position using the same point scheme. So once NY is eliminated, they still have to try in remaining games in order to earn draft points. Most draft points drafts first.
A team could be eliminated with 10 games to go, lose all remaining games, and watch a team who was eliminated with one game to go win their final game and usurp the 1st pick.
A team could be eliminated with 10 games to go, lose all remaining games, and watch a team who was eliminated with one game to go win their final game and usurp the 1st pick.
Agreed. Thought it was genius & after watching the Boston PWHL team’s apparent inability to score, I have been hoping they stay in that five spot.
Yeah, I was kind of thinking about Boston earning more "draft points" than NY. As an aside, I suspect the PWHL would have preferred that at least one of those teams made the playoffs...