Thursday June 29, 2023

Laura Everett & Abbi Holt

Boston Women’s Sports

-this is a developing story-

Late Thursday night, news broke first on Twitter of the sale of the Premier Hockey Federation and the subsequent voiding of all player contracts, including those of The Boston Pride. 

Billie Jean King Enterprises and the Mark Walters group will be the new owners of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF).

At the same time, the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) was also bought by the same ownership team from Billie Jean King Enterprises and the Mark Walters Group. Melissa Burgess of The Victory Press reports that the PWHPA had signed a prior letter of intent with Billie Jean King Enterprises and the Mark Walters Group to explore a new league. 

It appears that Billie Jean King Enterprises and the Mark Walters Group intend to merge the two leagues into one league, taking the seven teams of the PHF and the four teams of the PWHPA down to six teams in the yet to be named new league. What teams remain in the theoretical new league is entirely unclear.

PHF, PWHPA, players, staff, and fans from both leagues all appeared surprised by the purchases. 

Thursday night was a storm of strong reactions and further instability in professional women’s hockey. The PHF had just announced increased salary caps to $1.5 million for the 2023-2024 year. Players have signed off-season deals and have moved to new markets. The PWHPA is in the middle of negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). This sale causes enormous personal and economic disruption to players and staff. 

For those unfamiliar with the divisions in North American professional women’s hockey, there have been multiple related, but separate leagues since 2019. The Boston Pride were among the four charter teams of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) in 2015, at a time when the teams were owned by the league which would later be rebranded as the PHF. 

The PWHPA was created in 2019 as a player-formed and player-led non-profit professional league, following dissatisfaction with the underinvestment in the NWHL. At the time, the NWHL was not paying their professional players a livable wage nor health insurance.  

Also in 2019, The Boston Pride were sold to an independent ownership group with private equity partner  Miles Arone. John Boynton is also part owner of the Boston Pride, the Toronto Six, and the Montreal Force, via his group BTM partners.  What happens with the independently owned teams of the PHF, and which teams remain in the yet to be named league is entirely unclear. 

Additionally, for those familiar with women’s professional sports, chronic underinvestment because of systemic sexism and racism has created the conditions for abuse across every league. Instability creates vulnerability for players and staff. We need only glance over to the most recent Yates report regarding women’s soccer to see how the implicit threats of the National Women’s Soccer League folding led to an environment where players did not feel safe to report sexual and racial abuse.
As of 11pm Thursday June 29, no statement had been issued by PHF, PHF commissioner Reagan Carey,  PWHPA or the Boston Pride.