The new professional women's hockey league CBA has no mention of revenue or revenue split in terms of player salaries, or media and broadcasting rights.
The new professional women's hockey league CBA has no mention of revenue or revenue split in terms of player salaries, or media and broadcasting rights.
Revenue is a common component of most professional sports collective bargaining agreements. For the CBA negotiated between the PWHL and PWHLPA, the word revenue appears in only one location, while defining potential "Player Showcase Games."
The term appears only in the definition of Player Showcase Games, twice, in the 62 page document related to league revenue, or more specifically in revenue and profit share/split for players. Many leagues discuss revenue share primarily to support lower earning franchises, but with a single owner for the entire league, team-to-team sharing is not necessary. Instead, the more meaningful absence from the collective bargaining agreement is an absence of a revenue split between owners and players related to salary increases if the league's revenue skyrockets, and in relation to media rights or other future revenue streams.
Instead, raises in salary will be fixed to 3% annually for the next eight years, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2031. This is a rate well below surging inflation levels, which in the United States and Canada has skyrocketed to as high as more than 9% month over month in recent years. Only a massive slowing of the inflation rate will keep women in the new league from making less money due to the cost of living during each year of the CBA. The lack of a revenue sharing model, or profit split for media and broadcasting rights with players embedded into the collective bargaining, will guarantee salaries remain low until 2031, when the league minimum salary will have climbed from $35,000 to $44,336.95, while the guiding average salary will have increased from $55,000 to $69,672.35.
Instead of a traditional "salary cap" driven by league revenue, the PWHL / PWHLPA agreement uses the average salary of $55,000 to guide the "cap," without an ability to increase wages as revenue climbs.
According to the CBA, individual teams could vary from the $55,000 average by as much as 10%, although on a league level, the average will be maintained.
Across the majority of professional sports leagues in North America, a revenue split between owners and players exists. In the NHL, that split is 50/50.
According to Just Women's Sports, "In the WNBA, the players receive 50% of the the league's incremental revenue. In the NBA, players receive 50% of all revenue. That means WNBA players share in only the revenue earned above the league's revenue target for that season. The revenue target goes up by 20% each season, but the actual numbers are unknown."
In the WNBA, these nearly unattainable targets to be met before revenue sharing kicks in, have caused gaps between profit earned by owners, and that of players.
Despite the rapid growth of the WNBA's broadcasting coverage and revenue, players aren't reaping the benefits. It's the reason why the players' union is expected to exercise an option in 2024 to abandon the final three years of their current CBA, signing in 2020, to renegotiate. It's a lesson learned for WNBA players, who similar to the PWHL deal, where "base salaries are locked in at a set rate for the contract’s duration, with an annual increase of about 3% for inflation."
If the league struggles, the absence of salary increases tied to revenue splits could benefit players in the league in that salary will still increase by 3% even if the league loses money, as many professional leagues in North America saw during the pandemic. As Bloomberg stated however, while discussing the unequal share of profit in the WNBA between players and owners, "During the pandemic, the locked-in salaries meant players were largely shielded from empty stadiums. But now that the WNBA — and women’s sports in general — is seeing a surge in interest, players are getting none of the upside in their paychecks."
If the new PWHL can draw crowds, and broadcasting deals are struck, players will suffer a similar unequal share.
The NHL saw a decrease in revenue during the pandemic, resulting in the salary cap remaining constant for three seasons. Prior to the pandemic however, between the 2006-2007 season and 2018-2019 NHL seasons, the league saw an average salary increase of 6.48% each season. The league is projecting 4.79% and 5.14% increases the next two seasons.
From the time the NHL salary cap was first introduced in 2005-2006, that increase has resulted in the cap growing from $39 million per team up to $83.5 million per team next season.
Tying salary to revenue has risk, but it has paid off for players in the NHL, and with rapid increases in viewership, sponsorship, and attendance in women's sport, the opportunity for players to capitalize off their own entertainment value is large.
To avoid the risk tied to ovrerall revenue, some leagues like the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), whose CBA was signed in 2022 and closely mirrors the PWHL / PWHLPA agreement, only include a revenue split if the league is profitable. For the NWSL, that split involves only broadcasting rights, where NWSL players will receive 10% of net broadcast revenues if the NWSL is profitable in years three, four, and five of their CBA.
For the new professional women's hockey league, media rights are discussed, but without mention of revenue or profit sharing for athletes. As "Article 29 Media Rights" reads, "The PWHLPA agrees that the PWHL and all League-related entities have the right during and after the Term of this Agreement to use, exhibit, distribute, or license any performance by the Players under this Agreement or the Standard Player Agreement, in any or all media, formats or forms of exhibition and distribution, whether analog, digital or other, now known or hereafter developed, including, but not limited to, print, tape, disc, computer file, radio, television, motion pictures, other audio-visual and audio works, Internet, broadband platforms, mobile platforms, applications, and other distributions platforms (collectively, “Media”)."
The PHF did not have a formal revenue split agreement in place for media nor league profit, only a share to players on merchandising that used their names, for example player jerseys. In that circumstance, players received 15% of net revenue.
The new professional women's hockey league does have a payment system for "Use of Commercial Rights" as outline in Section 22.3, which will pay the PWHLPA $550,000 total in 2023-2024, increase by less than 3% annually to $676,430 in Year 8 of the CBA. The Agreement could also have a merchandise agreement, but it has yet to be negotiated. The CBA stipulates that within 90 days of ratification, "the parties will meet to engage in good faith discussions concerning a commercial rights payment structure so that Players may share in the proceeds of merchandise sales. If the parties reach an agreement, this Section 22.3 may be amended to reflect a revised payment structure."
If the new professional women's hockey league is profitable, that profit will go to the owners alone, not the players. If the new league loses money, the players will continue to receive their 3% increase in average salary. Due to Article 25 of the current CBA, which includes a "no strikes / no lockouts" provision, both scenarios will remain unchangeable until the CBA expires in 2031.