N.W.H.L. Prioritizes Independent Team Ownership in New Model
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NY Times Hockey
The league is replacing its commissioner, the league founder Dani Rylan Kearney, as it seeks to secure independent ownership for four of its six teams heading into its sixth season. Tyler Tumminia has been named the interim commissioner of the National Women’s Hockey League, replacing the league’s founder, Dani Rylan Kearney. The N.W.H.L. confirmed the change on Monday and announced that it was switching its operational model to an unincorporated association with a six-person board of governors to ensure “alignment of interests between the league and its teams.”
Although the league sought independent owners for all six franchises, only two teams are independently owned — the Boston Pride and the Toronto Six, an expansion club for the 2020-21 season.
This differs from the models used by the N.H.L. and the N.F.L., which the N.W.H.L. will now attempt to mimic.
For five years, Rylan Kearney had been the lone visible face of N.W.H.L. leadership and took the brunt of criticism for missteps.
At the time, women’s professional hockey was almost nonexistent in the United States, with one team in Boston playing in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. Rylan Kearney saw an opening to bring women’s pro hockey to the U.S., starting with four teams in the N.W.H.L. The league signed Olympians and stars from the C.W.H.L., like Hilary Knight and Meghan Duggan.
Although the league sought independent owners for all six franchises, only two teams are independently owned — the Boston Pride and the Toronto Six, an expansion club for the 2020-21 season.
This differs from the models used by the N.H.L. and the N.F.L., which the N.W.H.L. will now attempt to mimic.
For five years, Rylan Kearney had been the lone visible face of N.W.H.L. leadership and took the brunt of criticism for missteps.
At the time, women’s professional hockey was almost nonexistent in the United States, with one team in Boston playing in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. Rylan Kearney saw an opening to bring women’s pro hockey to the U.S., starting with four teams in the N.W.H.L. The league signed Olympians and stars from the C.W.H.L., like Hilary Knight and Meghan Duggan.