(Dennis DaSilva/UBS Arena)
ELMONT, N.Y. — Jayna Hefford, one of the most decorated women’s hockey players of all time and now the senior vice president of hockey operations of the newly-formed Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) knows that she has to practice patience.
The six-team league which launched just two months ago on New Year’s Day has already made remarkable steps forward. They’ve smashed attendance records — a Jan. 6 game in Minnesota drew 13,316 fans at Xcel Energy Center, the home of the NHL’s Wild — and secured important national broadcasting and regional sports network deals.
“We’re thrilled with the launch,” Hefford said on Sunday before PWHL New York took on Minnesota at UBS Arena. “I keep looking at the calendar and we’re only two months in so we’re keeping things in perspective that it’s still early. But we’ve outpaced all of our projections as it relates to attendance and I think media coverage and sponsorship and merchandise sales, all those areas we couldn’t be happier with how we’ve launched.”
But New York is going to play a vital role in all of this to help secure the new league’s place in the sporting landscape in North America.
“I really believe in the importance of New York and what New York means and the sporting community here,” Hefford said. “This is a really important market for us.”
This is where patience comes into play. Not only is Hefford trying to help establish the PWHL — the concept of a pro women’s hockey league has failed on multiple occasions across the past two decades — for long-term success, but doing so with one of its “Original 6” franchises competing in a market with eight “Big 4” men’s sports teams, two men’s and one women’s pro soccer clubs, and a WNBA franchise.
It has prompted a soft launch of sorts within the New York City Metropolitan area. PWHL New York had five of its nine scheduled home games played at Total Mortgage Arena…
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