3 Simple Things The CWHL Must Do To Survive

by Colleen

I am pretty excited.  The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) expanded this season, adding a team here in the Boston area.  It is the first U.S. based team in the league now comprised of five teams; 3 teams call Ontario home, the other is based in Montreal.

I am also a bit anxious.  My biggest concern is that the CWHL is going to fail to create enough buzz around the league to fill the seats.  No ticket sales, no money.  No money, no next year.  The league has received modest support from the NHL.  The money they have in the bank needs to be spent on the teams, there is no extra cash for fancy billboards or TV spots during the Bruins’ games.

So, what’s a team (or a league) with no marketing budget to do?  I think there are 3 simple things these teams can do to help get the word out and get some folks to the arena for that all important first game.  Not surprisingly, they are all centered around leveraging social media.

Leverage facebook:  I’d be willing to bet there isn’t a player in this league that isn’t on facebook.  All players and coaches need to reach out to these connections and invite their friends to the games.  Many of their friends may already be “planning” to attend the home opener, but without that last nudge, that last message saying “can’t wait to see you there!”, there is a decent chance something else comes up that keeps them away from the rink.  If you want people to come to your game, invite them…and then remind them! Also, ask them to like your team pages.  I was encouraged to see that the Boston team’s facebook page is up and running and frequently updated.

Create some content: I am what some may call a women’s hockey “insider”.  I’ve played the game, coached some and know many of the people involved in the efforts of the CWHL.  Still, I have no idea what tryouts were like, who some of the superstars are that I can see, how these women are feeling as they approach such an historic and significant winter.  Tell me!  The women playing in this league are all college educated.  The coaches are, too  and the management teams are experienced professionals.  It is going to have to be a collective effort of blogging, uploading impromptu interviews to YouTube and their facebook pages and sharing this content using every channel they can think of; online and offline.

Get smart about Twitter: There are a lot of hockey fans out there and a LOT of them are tweeting away.  There are a ton of supporters of the women’s game and you can bet they’d be willing to leverage their networks to help promote this great game.  The only problem is, if you’re not out there and involved, you can’t reach them and they can’t reach you.  Now is the time to take that leap.  You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can get connected.  And you don’t have to focus only on your team.  There are a ton of great conversations going on from grassroots topics to the NHL.  Get in the mix.

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On The Canadian Women Celebrating Their Gold Medal Victory

by Colleen

A few people tried to make news of the celebration the Canadian women’s ice hockey team threw following their Gold Medal victory in Vancouver.  To be honest, if I wanted to, I could probably come up with a handful of reasons why that was a bad idea.  Good reasons.

That said, I really do believe that, in the big picture, this wasn’t a newsworthy event of the 21st Olympic Winter Games.  While on the ice with the American team and the Finnish team, the Canadian women were jubiliant, but respectful.  Nothing in their initial celebration struck me as offensive or unsportsmanlike.  The Canadian fans were especially gracious given the depth of the rivalry between those two teams.  Some time after the ice had cleared and most of the fans had vacated the building, the Canadian women came back to the ice to revel a little more in their moment.  I’m sure they never wanted to leave the ice in the first place.  This was by far the biggest stage they had ever played on.  They were expected to deliver a victory against an incredibly strong American team and they did it.  We are talking about a country that has images of hockey players on their currency.  This is not a game they take lightly and, under tremendous pressure, they gave their fans and their country what they promised.  If you’ve ever even aced an exam, you know that feeling of relief, the feeling of knowing that every hour, every minute of preparation resulted in the perfect outcome.  Multiply that times 4 years!  Those women deserved to celebrate.  It was an unfortunate moment of indescretion and, due to the circumstances, it was placed under a magnifying glass.

I suspect the IOC and the Canadian Olympic Committe have addressed this to the satisfaction of most. I hope it is nothing that will be remembered in the years ahead.

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Women’s Olympic Hockey, A Work In Progress

by Colleen

The commentary surrounding the 2010 Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament has been pretty critical.  I can’t say that I don’t understand it, though  much of the commentary is coming from people who really aren’t familiar with the sport (i.e., Kevin Paul Dupont) and only pay attention to it once every four years (since 1998) or, perhaps, once a year for the NCAA championship game.  I know this because if they were really paying attention, they’d realize that the women’s game is pretty much right where we’d expect it to be; based on history, that is.

Fact: the scores have been pretty drastically lopsided.  Canada defeated Slovakia 18-0 in their tournament opener.  That was followed by a 12-1 shellacking delivered by the U.S. to China.  Canada followed up their performance with a 10-0 win over Switzerland and the U.S. defeated Russia 13-0 in their second match.

The short story is, it is pretty clear there are 2 teams in this tournament that have a legitimate chance at bringing home gold; Canada and Team U.S.A..  The remaining teams in the field are pretty competitive with one another with Team Finland being the favorite for bronze in my mind.  What these critics don’t seem to want to acknowledge is that the men’s game had a very similar start when it became an Olympic sport.

Here is a little quiz for you.

  1. What is this? Canada, Canada, Canada, Canada, Great Britain, Canada, Canada – These are the countries that were awarded the first 7 Olympic gold medals in men’s ice hockey, from 1920 [exhibition year] to 1952.  Oh, and that team from Great Britain that won in 1936?  12 of the team members resided in Canada.  8 of the next 10 Olympic gold medals awarded would go to the Soviet Union (known as the Unified Team in 1992).  The other 2 would go to the U.S. “miracle” teams of 1960 and 1980.
  2. What is 6-1? – this is the score of the first ever Gold Medal game in the history of men’s [Winter] Olympic ice hockey in 1924.  Canada defeated the United States in the final match of the inaugural event.  It was the closest contest of the Games for Team Canada.
  3. What is 110-3? – this is the margin by which the Canadian team outscored their opponents in the 1924 Winter Olympics.  110-3!  They only played 5 games.
  4. Who are the Toronto Grads? This was the team that was sent to St. Moritz, Switzerland for the 1928 Olympics to represent the country of Canada in men’s ice hockey.  Correct.  They didn’t send a team selected from the entire hockey playing population, they sent the team that won the Allen Cup that year.  Even so, the Canucks outscored their opponents by scores of 11-0, 14-0 and 13-0 (versus Sweden, Great Britain and Switzerland, respectively).  Just to list a few.  What’s more surprising is the fact that the Swiss Olympic officials decided to give the Canadians a free pass to the final round, stating their superiority to the rest of the field as the reason.
  5. What significant change took place in 1964? – This would be the first time Canada would send an “Olympic Team” to the Winter Games.  That’s right; all their gold medal performances of the past were delivered by amateur teams (like the Toronto Grads) from their senior amateur league.  Imagine if they had actually sent their best players!

So, have these games been tough to watch?  For most people, I would say, without a doubt.  However from the perspective of someone who has played the sport, seen it change and watched it grow, it has been more bittersweet than painful.  Canada and the U.S. have continued to elevate the sport.  When these 2 teams meet at any time, never mind in the Olympic Games, it is a legitimate event.  High speed, high intensity, and plenty of animosity.  It’s a great spectator sport.

It has taken a lot of hard work to get to where we are.  We absolutely need the the other nations to step up.  Four years ago, Sweden surprised us when they knocked off the U.S. and took silver.  Although I always want the U.S. to win, there was a small part of me that was almost relieved.  It seems they have taken a step back since then (or, perhaps failed to advance).  We need them to get back on track.  We need Finland and China and Russia and all the other nations to really commit to our game. It’s not lack of talent that is holding them back. These are great athletes.  They need direction, coaching and resources.  I am hopeful that in the next few years, we’ll really see this sport tighten up.

If you have thoughts on this, I’d love to hear from you.  Do you think these other nations are up to the task?  Why?  Why not?

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