Where's The Professional Hockey League for Women?

Last night was game six five of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals. Normally, I wouldn’t pay much attention to the finals of any major sport but this is the first time since 1971 that the Chicago Blackhawks have been in the Stanley Cup finals. The operative word is Chicago and this town has Blackhawk fever! Hockey has been the lead for local newscasts. News anchors, shuttled to Philadelphia, give commentary on Philly Steak sandwiches when the players are not on the ice, and of course, hockey is on the front page of the major newspapers. With all of the commotion, I thought about female hockey players. Just as there are no women in the NBA or MLB, there are no women in the NHL.

The last major stories about women in hockey were reports from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The story about Canada women winning gold was overshadowed by pictures of the gold medal team drinking alcohol and smoking cigars…on the ice…after the medal ceremony. Shades of Brandi Chastain doffing her shirt after making the winning goal in the finals of the world cup soccer! Women do such shocking things! Thank goodness. Unfortunately, at least one player was under the legal age limit to consume alcohol and she was caught…in pictures…drinking…and smoking. Not cool at all.

Alcohol aside, where is the professional women’s hockey league?

In researching this post, I read about Karen Koch, the first woman to play professional hockey in NORTH AMERICA. She played for the semi-pro Marquette Iron Rangers team. She was signed on at the age of 18 in 1969. She was the only woman on that team. In 2003, Manon Rhéaume played in pre-season games for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lighting. Manon was a silver medalist in the 1998 Olympic Games; the first time women’s hockey was played as an Olympic sport. But these women seem to be few and far between and although there have been leagues for women to play in, most notably the National Women’s Hockey League, Western Women’s Hockey League, and Canadian Women’s Hockey League. The National Women’s Hockey League is now defunct. Was money a factor in its demise? That’s a situation that seems to haunt women’s leagues including the WNBA.

Will there ever be a time when women’s teams are funded enough so that female athletes can make a living by playing sport? What are the problems associated with women’s leagues that make it difficult to support? There has been talk of partnering with the NHL in order to form a women's professional league, but so far I haven’t found that it has gone beyond talk.

Hey, I’ve take the easy way out and thought that it’s probably better that we don’t have the leagues. Why? Well, I’ve never given myself a clear answer on “why” we shouldn’t, but it probably has to do with rocking the boat and “What if”. But, what if we allowed ourselves to dream of these leagues being successful? What if we then allowed ourselves to work toward the success of the leagues? Would it be so bad? Would it be so awful to view women as professional players who make a living playing a game they love?

Would it be so awful?