In Hockeytown, on March 16th, history was made. The first professional women’s hockey game in Michigan took place, the first professional women’s hockey goal in Michigan was scored, and the U.S. attendance record for professional women’s hockey was broken.
Hockeytown and the state of Michigan weren’t granted the opportunity to host one of the original six Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) teams. But that didn’t stop 13,736 fans from flocking to Little Caesars Arena to watch Boston take on Ottawa, just going to show how high the demand is for professional women’s hockey. These fans ranged from older generations knowing they were witnessing history being made to girls so young they will never have consciousness in a world where women cannot be professional hockey players. For those who haven’t heard of the PWHL, it is the first sustainable professional women’s hockey league. Emphasis on sustainable. There are two leagues that came before the PWHL that set the stage for professional women’s hockey: the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) and the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL, now known as the Premier Hockey Federation or PHF). The most you need to know about these two leagues for this article’s sake is that the CWHL was the first centralized league for the world’s top talent but did not have the revenue to pay its players; the NWHL did have the revenue to pay its players, making it the first professional women’s league. However, they could only afford to pay their players $10,000 to $26,000 a year… that’s where the word sustainable comes into play. These two leagues could not keep its players afloat but they paved the way for the creation of the PWHL. In its inaugural season, the women of the PWHL make anywhere between $35,000 to $80,000. On January 1st, 2024 the world turned into one where women began making living wages for the sport they have dedicated their entire lives to.
Now that we are up to speed about the facts of the PWHL, let’s talk about the feelings around it. The Boston v. Ottawa game that took over LCA, with better attendance than some Red Wings games I have attended there, is an experience I will never forget. The pregame show took my breath away, projected onto the ice were photos of all the amazing women of the PWHL through every phase of their lives as “Outro” by M83 played. All the photos just reminded me how special this moment in history is, how amazing this inaugural season of the PWHL has been, how many women fought for this ice time, for this league, and for this trailblazing moment in women’s sports. I feel so lucky to be even a small part of it.
When the starting lineups were introduced, you could see on every player’s face how thankful they were for the opportunity they’ve been given. The opportunity to make history, to be the trailblazers of the inaugural season of a league that is changing the world. I could see the tears of joy in their eyes and that feeling of “Finally. Finally, we’ve done it.” There are few times in a person’s life when they can be living through an event, knowing that they are witnessing history and true legends in the making. This was one of those moments for me. I looked around at all the young girls around me. At their age I didn’t even think girls could play hockey, yet alone become a professional. Now, those girls will only know a world where they dream of being a professional hockey player and see someone like them doing it. And that is a beautiful thing to know.
We are witnessing history in real-time. We are witnessing a shift in women’s sports from the leagues to the viewership and support. From Nebraska volleyball with 92,003 fans in attendance, to Iowa (v. Michigan) basketball having 1,075,000 viewers on the Big Ten Network, to the PWHL, new records in viewership are being broken left and right. We are living through history in the making. Women’s sports are in high demand, they are on the rise, and most importantly, women’s sports are here to stay.