The catch-up, pt. 3: New women's pro leagues are making waves
The Professional Women’s Hockey League and Pro Volleyball Federation have smashed records in their debut seasons.
Hi, friends! Today we’re finishing our #CatchUp series by giving a quick overview of the two new professional women’s leagues that have debuted in 2024, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) and the Professional Volleyball Federation (PVF).
I’ve got more in-depth pieces on both leagues in the pipeline, and we’ll be reviewing results from both weekly in the #checkin starting next week, so I’m not going to go too far into the weeds. But we’ve got to start somewhere.
Professional Women’s Hockey League
We’re about two months into the inaugural season of the PWHL, the new women’s hockey league founded by the Mark Walter Group last summer. The league consists of six teams: PWHL Montreal, PWHL Toronto, PWHL Ottawa, PWHL Boston, PWHL Minnesota, and PWHL New York. The teams do not have names or logos or branding yet because it launched so quickly and they ran out of time. Which sounds bad, I know. It’s not ideal. But it’s far from the end of the world.
The league has a few very important things going for it: Deep pockets, the best talent in the world, and, perhaps most importantly, a CBA.
Mark Walter is a billionaire who sees the PWHL as a long-term investment, meaning he (hopefully) won’t pull the plug on things if he doesn’t get his money back overnight. There was an eight-year CBA in place before the first puck even dropped, which gives players an average annual salary of $55,000, $1,500 monthly housing stipends, year-round healthcare, and a guarantee of professional and safe training and playing conditions. And, while the road has been rocky, the PWHL does provide a unity between the previously-fractured women’s hockey community that ensures that the best players are out on the ice.
There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. After all, there have been 42 games so far; 23 of them have been decided by one score, 11 have ended in overtime and three have gone to a shootout. The drama is intense. The play is physical and skillful. It is awesome.
Here are the standings so far
Montreal is leading the way, with both Minnesota and Toronto close on their heels. Thanks to the PWHL’s innovative points system, Boston, Ottawa, and New York are all just a couple of wins away from being right back in contention.
Speaking of the innovative points system …
In the NHL, teams get two points for a win, one point for a loss in an overtime or shootout, and no points for a loss in regulation.
The PWHL, however, has adopted a 3-2-1 points system, where a regulation win is three points, an overtime or shootout win is two points, and an overtime or shootout loss is one point.
I absolutely love it.
The playoff format is bold, too!
Playoffs will begin on May 6. The top four teams in the league will make it, and the semifinals and finals will both be best-of-five series. Here’s the fun part: The No. 1 overall seed will get to choose its opponent in the semifinal round, picking between the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds. I’ve heard something like this be proposed by fans and media members for other leagues, but I’ve never seen it in action, and I am SO EXCITED to see how this plays out!
The PWHL is also pioneering a new draft system
Another fun thing the PWHL is doing? Adopting the Gold Plan for determining draft order. The Athletic has a good explainer on all of this, but basically: Once a team is officially eliminated from playoff contention, they begin earning “draft order points” based on the existing point system. So the top two picks in the draft will be based on the two non-playoff teams who earn the most draft order points; this makes sure that teams aren’t tanking and each team is motivated to win each game. We love stakes!
Stand-out players
Natalie Spooner leads the league in scoring with 11 goals for Toronto. The 33-year-old Canadian took some time off over the past two years and gave birth to her son, Rory, in late 2022. But the leading scorer in Ohio State history has looked as agile as ever, and is a huge reason why Toronto has won seven games in a row.
New York’s Alex Carpenter actually leads the league in points, with eight goals and eight assists. Right behind her is Montreal’s Marie Phillip-Poulin with seven goals and eight assists — including one goal and two assists in Montreal’s latest win on Saturday.
There are so many goalies I could highlight right now, but I’ll give a shout-out to Corinne Schroeder, who has been absolutely crushing it in the net for New York. She’s second in the league in save percentage, but has played five more games and logged 250 more minutes in net than Montreal’s Elin Chuli, who leads the way.
At pretty much every turn, the PWHL has set attendance records
On January 2 in Ottawa, the league set the attendance record for a pro women’s hockey game with 8,318 fans in the arena.
On January 6 in Minnesota, 13,316 fans came to watch, smashing that record.
On January 27 in Montreal, 8,646 fans set the record for a women’s pro hockey game in Canada.
Then, on February 16, 19,285 fans packed Scotiabank Arena to set a record for the largest crowd to watch any women’s hockey game, ever.
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The league isn’t expanding immediately, though
Despite early success and numbers that are “ahead of projections,” the PWHL dos not plan to expand beyond six teams in the next year, PWHL advisory board member Stan Kasten told reporters last week. While it will test new markets with neutral-site games, it’s focus will be on building fanbases and support in the original markets. Considering there isn’t even branding yet, I think that’s a very smart idea, even if I am anxious to get a team a little bit closer to North Carolina.
How to watch
If you’re Canadian, you’re in luck — all PWHL games are available between TSN, CBC, and Sportsnet, and their respective streaming services.
In the United States, coverage is more regional: New York games are available on MSG Networks, Boston games are available on NESN, and Minnesota games are available on Bally Sports North.
The best news for the rest of us? ALL GAMES ARE AVAILABLE TO STREAM LIVE ON YOUTUBE!!!
Required reading:
This is a great ESPN Daily episode with Greg Wyshynski that’s essentially PWHL 101.
Hailey Salvian at The Athletic takes us inside the PWHL’s first trade.
Salvian also gets to know the PWHL’s youngest player, 22-year-old Japanese national team forward Akane Shiga, who plays for Ottawa.
Maitreyi Anantharaman of the Defector looks at Alex Carpenter’s shootout superiority.
Anantharaman also takes us inside Toronto’s six-game winning streak.
Karissa Donkin of CBC Sports writes about how Corinne Schroeder has become New York’s “brick wall.”
The Sports Business Journal dives into the business side of the league at the halfway point of the inaugural season.
The PWHL will play two neutral-site games in Pittsburgh and Detroit on March 17.
Be sure to follow the Victory Press and The Ice Garden for in-depth coverage of all the games.
Here’s a playoff prediction model that The Athletic will update after every game day.
Games this week
Ottawa vs. Minnesota (Tuesday, March 5; 8:00pm ET)
Montreal vs. New York (Wednesday, March 6; 7:00pm ET)
Boston vs. Toronto (Wednesday, March 6; 7:00pm ET)
Montreal vs. Toronto (Friday, March 8; 7:00pm ET)
New York vs. Boston (Sunday, March 10; 3:00pm ET)
Ottawa vs. Montreal (Sunday, March 10; 4:00pm ET)
Pro Volleyball Federation
The PVF debuted on January 27 and has seven teams in action during its first season — the Atlanta Vibe, Columbus Fury, Grand Rapids Rise, Omaha Supernovas, Orlando Valkyries, San Diego Mojo, and Vegas Thrill. Each team will play 24 regular-season games, and the regular season will end on May 11.
The league is founded by Dave Whinham, president of The TEAM Management, LLC, and Stephen Evans, president of The Remedy, and features many high-profile investors, such as Jason Derulo, Trent Dilfer, and Joe Burrow.
All players in the league reportedly make a base salary of $60,000, with bonuses at the end of the season that could tally $100,000.
Here are the standings
There is so much talent in this league!!
Honestly, it’s hard to figure out who to highlight in this space. But let’s start with Asjia O'Neal, shall we? The collegiate superstar from Texas was the No. 1 overall pick in the inaugural PVF draft in December, and is currently crushing it with the Columbus Fury, who are on a four-match win streak and sitting at second in the standings.
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O’Neal’s teammate Reagan Cooper was named PVF Player of the Week last week after notching a season-high 22 kills versus Omaha last Wednesday. Other Players of the week so far this season are Bulgarian Emiliya Dimitrova of the Grand Rapids Rise, Adora Anae of the Orlando Valkyries, and Leah Edmond and Alli Linnehan of the Atlanta Vibe.
The PVF is shattering attendance records, too
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Omaha Supernovas are setting the standard when it comes to crowds. In the league’s inaugural match, Omaha set a record for highest attendance for a professional women’s volleyball game in the United States with 11,642 in attendance. In total, almost 25,000 fans attended three games in the first week of action.
On February 18, the Supernovas broke their own record when 11,918 fans came to watch them defeat the Orlando Valkyries 3-1.
Expansion plans
Unlike the PWHL, the PHF does have immediate plans for expansion — three teams are slated to start play in 2025: the Indy Ignite, and yet unnamed teams in Dallas and Kansas City.
The pro volleyball landscape in the U.S. is getting crowded
The PVF is actually one of three women’s pro volleyball leagues in the United States this year, along with Athletes Unlimited and League One Volleyball (LOVB). Athletes Unlimited, which holds five-week seasons in single-site locations, will host its fourth season of pro volleyball later this year. LOVB — pronounced “love”— will start play in November 2024 in six cities: Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison, Omaha, and Salt Lake; it will be more of a direct competitor to PVF.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how this all shakes out. It seems to me that pro volleyball is about where pro women’s hockey was about a decade ago, and where pro women’s basketball was almost three decades ago. There will be power struggles and the talent will be fractured for the foreseeable future. It will be frustrating for fans, at times, but ultimately, it will push the sport forward.
Required reading
NPR sets the scene for the state of pro women’s volleyball in the United States right now.
Get to know Asjia O’Neal, the face of the Columbus Fury.
The Fury get the Axios breakdown.
Larry Hamel at Volleyball Mag breaks down some of the early-season television woes the PFV dealt (/is dealing) with, including one announcer’s extremely inappropriate monologue against spandex.
The Supernovas had a coaching change just two games into the season.
How to watch
For now, you can stream the matches live on YouTube! There are also ways to watch on Bally Live, Stadium, Tubi, and other apps; more information can be found here.
Matches this week
Grand Rapids Rise at San Diego Mojo (Monday, March 4; 10:00pm ET)
Atlanta Vibe at Vegas Thrill (Monday, March 4; 10:00pm ET)
Columbus Fury at Grand Rapids Rise (Saturday, March 9; 12:00pm ET)
Vegas Thrill at Atlanta Vibe (Saturday, March 9; 7:00pm ET)
Omaha Supernovas at Orlando Valkyries (Saturday, March 9; 7:00pm ET)
Hi Lindsay: Terrific post, yet again. Just wanted to let you know that I have been trying to reach you via email. Sent them through melissa.ludtke@gmail.com. If you've read my message, perhaps you could find a moment to reply. Or let me know a better way to reach out to you, please. Melissa Ludtke