trying to figure out how to say this delicately. i do think that the pwhl is going to make some progress, and already the support for the league is showing how much of a market there is for women's sports even from a few years ago. but it's kind of been irking me to see so many posts that act like there has never been any arena for women's pro hockey before. like do you understand how many people — how many leagues!! — came before this to even make the pwhl a possibility. do you know how many people have fought tooth and nail for women's pro hockey for DECADES. i'm not saying don't support the league, but don't act like it's the perfect solution to a brand new issue
As a fan of the PWHL and a woman in business I can appreciate the power of some of the cut-through messages the league has decided to go to market with. Even the ones that have seemed to diminish mine and my former, now-retired, teammates playing experiences or made me question whether my time in the former leagues (i.e., NWHL, CWHL) should still be considered professional (it was and still is).
Professional women’s hockey has for a long time been an exciting and compelling product but it operates under the same conventional rules of business– you can’t sell a product that nobody knows how to find. We are now experiencing the marketing the sport has long deserved, but it behooves us to remember that just because you’re inundated with the messages of ‘first’– or ones that imply it– it doesn’t mean these things are the first of their kind.
Purple haze feedback being promoted by fans as a Fugio book only for 50% of it to be about Fugo reminiscing about how much he (platonically) loves Bruno and feels as if he failed to protect him is lowkey gold (Narancia and Abbacchio too but Bruno is usually Fugo’s main focus in the book)
I can imagine someone seeing people only talk about the one scene that Giorno and Fugo talk in, picking it up expecting more scenes like that with them, and sitting through 100 pages of an actual plot with little to no Giorno and Fugo thinking about how much he misses his dead brothers in between the actual plot instead
Phf fans are accidentally tricking shippers into reading not just platonic fanficton about the Bucci gang but also a story with a new cast of characters under the guise of it being a ship fuel jojo book and that will forever be my favorite thing about the book’s existence
meanwhile in women’s hockey: “it’s really important that we do this. it’s important in my opinion that all sports leagues and all sports teams do it. we have an obligation as athletes to use our platform for positivity and for good and there’s a lot of kids who are sitting at home right now questioning who they are as people. and when we push back and we don’t put a jersey on because it means something to us personally, we do damage to those kids. so i’m proud of our group for showing up. we have messaging in our locker room that always, no matter what, people are included. and that’s what it’s all about.”
love to see the phf build something incredible from the ground up, work their asses off to improve player conditions and salaries and expand, all just for them to be fucked over by a league that has constantly disrespected and belittled them — and is acting the same way in the absolutely despicable nature of this buyout. pwhpa players getting priority contracts, phf players finding out at the same time as the public, and there being less teams than the phf so there is inevitably job loss for players and staff alike … just fucking shitty. a united league is fine, but so far, this does not seem like unity. this seems like a coup.
I dont care about Jojos part 5 I dont care about Jojos part 5 I dont care about Jojos part 5 I dont care about Jojos part 5 I dont care about Jojos part 5 I dont care about Jojos part 5 I dont care about Jojos part 5 I dont care about Jojos part 5 I dont care I dont care about Golden Wind IDGAF!!!! and like at the end of the day I dont GAF about these guys or there relationships with each other or anything I FR do NOT care!!!!! Also I can go into crazed detail about any of these points but I won't bc ummmmmmmmmm
“I really do think people are kind of missing the whole story. Yes, this will put the best players in women’s hockey in one league, and definitely promote it, definitely get better over the years. But it kind of did ruin a lot of people’s lives in a very quick, 10-minute Zoom call,” she says. “I think people should really see the other side of it. You know, all the people in the PHF that signed contracts were relying on this money, relying on the job for next year. And now there’s a very big [sense of] uncertainty.
“With the limited amount of teams [in the new league], that means not everyone’s going to get a spot. Someone that’s at the bottom of the PHF probably could have made $50,000, and is now thinking, ‘I have to go get a full-time job because my likelihood of making this league is not very high.’ So, you know, I feel for a lot of people that are now trying to think, ‘Do I want to continue playing hockey, or should I just start my life and figure out if I need to go back to school, get a full-time job?’