THN Archive
THN Archive: Three Women's Pro Leagues Look To Launch In 1997
The history of professional women's hockey has been long and winding leading to today, where the singular PWHL is looking to once and for all end the power struggles for a league.
Prior to today, there has been the PHF, NWHL, CWHL, NWHL (again), WWHL, and other iterations that came and went in a blink of the eye, some without ever touching the ice.
In 1997, "no fewer than three professional women’s leagues," The Hockey News' Ken Campbell wrote.
At that time, the game was being pulled in many different directions. As Campbell wrote:
"One group in Canada wants to start play in 1999 and approached members of the Canadian Olympic team with letters of intent. The Women’s Professional Hockey League claims to have substantial financial backing and received signed letters of intent from 16 of 20 top American players, but alltime leading international scorer Cammi Granato said she hasn’t signed anything. The proposed league wants to begin play this spring with three teams in Canada and three in the U.S.
Then there’s the U.S. Women’s Professional Hockey League, which wants to begin with a 10-team exhibition schedule next season before. expanding to 26 teams in four divisions, including cities from Honolulu to Edmonton to Beijing to Biloxi."
Recommended Articles
“I received some information about a pro league and I noticed that Providence was in the same division as Hong Kong,” USA national team coach Ben Smith said at the time, “so I didn’t put a whole lot of credence into it.”
As Campbell wrote, the top league in the world at the time, the Central Ontario Women's Hockey League (COWHL) was dropping teams at the time. "There aren’t enough quality players to support one super league in Ontario, which doesn’t bode well for three pro leagues," Campbell wrote.
Campbell also discussed the level of play, mentioning Canada's loss that year to a team of Alberta 'AAA' teenagers. "The skill level is improving all the time, but before you start lining up for season tickets in Biloxi, you’d better realize what you’re getting," he said.
It's obvious the game of women's hockey and the market for professional women's hockey has come a long way since 1997 when three leagues, rather than one, were looking to gain footing in the women's hockey world.
To read the full article, visit THN's Archive.
THN Archives is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit the archives at THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com
