I’ve watched womens hockey (Olympic) and it’s awful.

I didn’t even know there was womens pro hockey. Maybe they’d get paid more if more people watched it.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Does that mean you also weren't jacked to hear the US Women's soccer team World Cup line-up announcement today?

Was a swimsuit competition part of it?

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Exactly! If you want to market your sport to men (and women) you need attractive women, scantily clad. It's marketing 101. If those women hockey players want to get paid like men they need to bring in viewing numbers like men have. Try playing the game in bikinis, if it fails at least they tried.

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

That’s one way.

Ronda rousey made a shit ton of money. Why? She got butts in the seats and PPV buys.

Getting kind of sick of this gimmie gimmie gimme crap.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

And...... no one cares.

This is on par with a boycott of professional shuffleboard

It's actually pretty good hockey, have been to a few games to see the Boston Pride with my daughter where she plays. I've been able to see a few of the players from both the US and Canadian Olympic teams in those games and the speed/skill is impressive. I also work with a girl who plays for the Pride and starred at Harvard.

One problem with the professional game in the US and Canada is the lack of financial backing/marketing assistance from the NHL where the WNBA has had full backing from the NBA since day one. Bettman said the NHL would be able to support one women's league, and the CWHL just shut down last month. The Bruins have helped support/promote the Pride (they play at the Bruins practice facility) and sold out most of their games this past season, but they are an exception rather than the norm.

It's too bad that they don't draw the numbers since the product is good and the talent/skill definitely there.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Would you have gone if it hadn't been with your daughter?

Fair point. I'd say maybe but not definite, but it's been worthy enough to keep going back where we've been a few times. The NWHL does need to do a better job of marketing their product and growing the game, but needs the support of the NHL for it to truly be successful.

One challenge that the players face in addition to the low salaries (most work in regular career jobs) is the lack of practice time (not all players live/work in the cities in which they play) where if they do get ice time, it's maybe an hour or so a week so they are forced to skate with local college teams in stay in shape. Also no health insurance provided by the league, so if they get hurt in a game unless they have their own insurance already they are on their own.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

And if you get hurt in beer league or I get hurt playing flag football.

To solve the "issues" you've identified costs money. Where is this going to come from? The WNBA has probably half as many players and a lot less in equipment needs and would fold in a season with the NBA subsidies.

If the product was as good as you claimed there would be no issue with money. I find this boycott to be childish and at the end of the day the one remaining league will fold. Bravismo.

That's apples to cumquats - team sport vs. individual. Rousey packed em in because she was a dominant force ana a winner in dramatic fashion - and there was blood. Hockey is a long, protracted game with a different skill set that doesn't translate well in the men vs. women sense - like NBA vs WNBA. No contest on an athletic/entertainment basis.

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"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare" - Juma Ikangaa

http://www.litespeed.com

Uh, yeah.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Feeble.

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_________________________________________________
"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare" - Juma Ikangaa

http://www.litespeed.com

This is my whole point. Women, generally, make less in sports because they, generally, suck and it’s more entertaining to see the men.

One PROOF of this is RR. She was good and she was entertaining. People watched and loved it.

And she was paid accordingly.

If you want more money generate more revenue and you’ll get it.

Womens hockey doesn’t generate interest/revenue because it sucks. And since they’re all bundled up in giant hockey breezes there’s no hope for any eye candy. At first glance it’s not even apparent that they are womens. All you see is some high school JV level shitty hockey and wonder why the fuck it’s even on tv.

And WNBA? Does anyone watch that besides a few dozen lesbians?

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

"people are drooling to watch our sport" (1:46)

Really???? Then get your shit together and get a league going. Hell, Lavar Ball got a basketball league going from scratch in like 6 months (not that it was successful but still). If people really want to watch, they will show up. Or how about promoting your sport by putting on summer camps or coaching somewhere. Go to Europe, Asia and have a 10-20 year plan. Seems like these women want to go about it the easy way or take a huge short cut. Pro-Mens leagues took decades to get off the ground. I got nothing against women's hockey, but they gotta put some effort into making their sport popular. Lets face it, hockey is an expensive sport as it is and so its going to take a lot of time and money to get "people to drool" over it.

Kinda seems like 'socialism in sports' with all the revenue sharing. I actually like the idea if it can pay off after several years, but if it doesn't generate any revenue, then why bother? Maybe there is an argument to be made that a society with many pro-female sports is a much healthier society and its good for everyone. Didn't US tax payers spend a trillion dollars in Afghanistan getting girls educated? When will that ever pay off?

There is only one remaining league now. CWHL announced they folded in March, and shut their doors 2 days ago - which is a better end than AAF.


From 15 to 17, Boston supported 2 womens pro teams. Last year the Boston CWHL team, the Blades, moved out to Worcester - so for the 18-19 seasons, there were 2 pro womens teams 40 miles from each other.

The NWHL team plays in an arena owned and operated by New Balance, at NB HQ that is also the Bruin's practice arena. Seats 800...
The CWHL team in it's last year played in a much smaller facility without real stands.

To be honest I don't find it to be good hockey. It's pretty sloppy.

I've been to OHL games (Oshawa Generals) and frankly it's better than women's Olympic hockey. I can't imagine that the pro women's league is better than women's Olympic hockey.

Anyway, all the power to them but I don't see this working out so well for them unless the league crumbles and the NHL decides to create it's own women's league. (although that might be their hope with this action)

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Women's hockey is going to be a pretty tough sell. 20+ years ago I played some pickup hockey with some top level women. I'm sure there has been a lot of progress in the women's game, but I suck and could play with them just fine. If I compare that to the one time I played pickup with a recently retired NHL pro (Bondra) it is stark. He toyed with us like we were babies. He was entertaining as hell to just be around. So fast, so accurate, such finesse. I would pay to watch that for sure. As was already said, the equipment makes it pretty darn hard to distinguish that it is men vs. women, so you are essentially judging the product more by the quality of the game itself and the quality of the game itself is really far off the pro men's game.

Some of the best pure hockey games I have ever seen were the USA vs Canada women's hockey games in the Olympics. Edge of your seat, end to end action with some outstanding passing/play making. If you don't watch, you are missing out.

I was working for the Rail company for the Olympics in 2010 and got tickets for Women’s gold about 8 rows up. Cost about 800$. Contrast that to men’s Gold final at about 20000$ for 2 seats in the same location. That’s the difference in relative market for medal round.

What struck me with the Women’s game was how incredibly nasty it was behind the play, both verbal and after the whistle hacks, shoves, face washes etc. The US and Canada truly hate each other.

Some people might shit a brick on this, but I think if everything dies and a new North American League comes about they need to adopt the men’s NHL rules, IE allow more contact and fighting.

Maurice

Did you ever watch the women's game when they were allowed to hit? It was just as vicious/nasty then. Adding hitting and fighting wouldn't make it any better.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

No, the one and only time would have been 1990 in Ottawa.

The argument that 12-14 year old boys can play with contact and women can’t is silly. They’re aren’t really structural, technical or safety arguments to disallow contact.

Maurice

I am not arguing that 12-14 year old boys should be allowed to hit.

And I did watch that hockey. Honestly it was way more vicious than anything I have ever watched. It seemed to me as though they were trying to kill each other.

So a little slashing and facewashes when they are wearing masks? That's comparative childs play.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

That’s one anecdote from 30 years ago, the game has changed a lot since then on both the men’s and women’s side.

No contact related penalties basically extend the game, interrupt flow and create unsafe situations, or at least it is very much proven that across all levels of men’s hockey allowing certain forms of legal contact increases safety.

At this point I don’t see a reason why the women’s game and rules should be different if you had a new North American League.

Maurice

How many players on the team? How many games? How much are tickets? 800 multiplied by whatever people are willing to pay not getting the team into a position to pay players 50K a year or whatever random nonsensical wage they want.

I can't remember the exact details, but didn't the women's national team face off against a team of teenage boys (can't remember the league... But I think they were 15-16 year olds) and get absolutely slaughtered by them?

Junior hockey is really, really good quality. I go to see WHL games on occasion and I'm blow away by the skill and speed of the players. It's hard to believe some of them are barely old enough to be babysitting.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

They typically play against Triple A, which IIRC is one level below major junior or NCAA. They try and do the same in the US and other countries (Finland etc) the women usually have a winning record as the boys have to play by the no contact rules.

Maurice