NWHL To Pay Its Players: Can They Reach A Living Wage?

By far the most exciting news of the day (well, my day. Maybe someone out there had a baby – that’s pretty exciting, too, from what I understand) was the announcement of the draft and start of the National Women’s Hockey League.

The NWHL will feature four teams: the Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale and New York Riveters.

The NWHL logos for the Boston Pride and Buffalo Beauts

Founder and future league commissioner Dani Rylan was able to get Howard Baldwin Jr. to agree to let the NWHL use a Connecticut Whale logo very similar to that of the now-defunct Connecticut Whale, which mimicked the style of the Hartford Whalers logo of the team that his father, Howard Baldwin, brought to prominence in the 1970s.

Screenshot of the NWHL logos for the Connecticut Whale and the New York Riveters

Like its Canadian counterpart, the CWHL, the NWHL will function as a not-for-profit corporation, as its Pointstreak website states.

However, it is not affiliated with the CWHL in any way.

"The NWHL Foundation is a charitable and educational nonprofit corporation that provides long-range financial support for the NWHL and promotes the growth of women’s hockey.The Foundation’s primary goals are to enhance the NWHL’s mission and activities; to provide funding for education, training, and opportunities to increase women’s participation throughout the country. The Foundation will leverage the sport of hockey to advance the lives of women and teach the core values of hockey: loyalty, sportsmanship, commitment, perseverance and teamwork."

The CWHL has made great strides in women’s representation in hockey over the duration of its life, going so far as to announce a partnership between the Montreal Canadiens and the Montreal Stars only a few days ago. It has served as a home for many former Olympians, and league attendance is growing year to year. However, it still has not managed to prioritize paying its players.

This is where the NWHL differs from the CWHL.

Financially, the leagues are in two very different places. The CWHL operates on a budget of $1.5 million per season, divvying that up equally between the teams. Players are responsible for providing their own equipment, training in their off time, and most maintain full-time jobs for actual income. You know, for things like food and shelter.

According to this Puck Daddy article by Jen Neale, the NWHL has decided on a total of $270,000 per roster of 19, or approximately $15,000 per player. And even more interestingly, not all players will receive the same amount.

Even assuming that all the women going in agree upon parity in their salaries and each earn only $15,000, that still leaves them scraping by for half the year while searching for jobs they are only required to work from April to September.

Like the NHL or other men’s pro leagues, General Managers of each team are not required to pay players equal amounts, and players are responsible for negotiating their own salaries.

This could mean that some players are left with salaries of $5,000 or less, and in a New England / Mid Atlantic league, there is no way for players to pay for food and housing. Even assuming that all the women going in agree upon parity in their salaries and each earn only $15,000, that still leaves them scraping by for half the year while searching for jobs they are only required to work from April to September.

One of the best ways to mitigate cost of living expenses is to house players with billet families, as many junior hockey teams do. This is not necessarily something women in their twenties are interested in doing for more than a few years, however, and could be more off-putting than enticing.

The financial hurdle is a large one.

Connecticut is the wealthiest state in the nation, with a median income of approximately $53,000 according to this census report, but what this means for Connecticut residents is that your cost of living is significantly higher. According to this data set released by the U.S. government in 2014 (using data collected from 2008-2012), that $53,000 doesn’t go very far. Nutmeggers pay an average of 10% over the national price for goods and services, and are in the lowest quintile in the U.S. for income growth.

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MIT reports that a living wage for a single adult in Connecticut is $22,205 per year. And that is the second- lowest of the four teams. In Massachusetts and New York, the two other states involved in the NWHL, the cost of living for a single adult hovers around $26,000 in the cities, likely due to the increased housing prices and transportation alternatives. Buffalo, however, comes in at just over $18,000.

If each team were to commit to paying their players a living wage, Connecticut would have to have $396,000 available for 18 rostered players. Buffalo would be the basement bargain at $324,000 and Boston and New York would each come in around $468,000.

Rylan has said that she has a five-year plan for the league — hopefully more information on that will be forthcoming — and that the league is at 20% of its current financial goal. While no players have yet been officially connected to the league, Neale reports that approximately 20 well-known players have verbally committed. Many USA hockey fans are hoping that means Minnesota senior Amanda Kessel (sister to Toronto Maple Leafs winger Phil Kessel) is available, as she would bring great hockey and some instant star power to the league. And with interest comes donations.

Another solution here, initially brought up by one of the Watch This Hockey founders on Twitter, would be to begin the league as a part-time commitment from players.

It seems as though the founders of the league have already thought about this, as their draft registration page specifies the following:

"Any woman who is eligible in compliance must register for the draft by June 1, 2015.In the registration form, the player may designate a team she would wish to play for only for the following reasons: She is already committed to living with family in that city. She has a full-time job already in that city. She is already committed to living with a partner in that city."

As Neale says, women players getting paid is the start that we need to grow women’s hockey. If Rylan is able to reach the donations she needs to get the league rolling, there is a chance we could see American CWHL players come over to the NWHL as free agents. The Boston Blades might find this of particular interest, considering the player’s strike in November of 2014 when they were, according to anonymous sources of Zoë Hayden’s, asked to commit to three more years with the league without pay. Though it has not been made public what agreement the Blades and the CWHL came to over their disputed contracts, the Blades forfeited two games to the Montreal Stars during the strike.

And let’s not forget that the CWHL asks its teams to pay $35,000 to participate in the league’s Finals, expenses which are, in part, passed on to its players.

There will be a formal NWHL launch party on April 13th in New York City where, hopefully, questions on the five-year plan and financials will be answered.

Next: NHL Canadiens and CWHL Stars Partner To Grow Women's Game

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