1st PWHL playoffs begin with Toronto hosting Minnesota

Jayna Hefford, the hockey great and now the chair of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association and she is making some time for me on a very big day. Good morning and welcome. How are you doing today on this very big day in the league? Good morning. I’m doing great. Our team is all incredibly excited to kick the playoffs off today. It’s been such a historic season and this is just another another first for us to lead into our championship. So, so write the script for these first ever PWHL playoffs. You know how how do they go if they go according to how you’d like it to be? So we have two best of five series. So we have Toronto playing Minnesota starting tonight, Montreal playing Boston starting tomorrow. Best of five. In an ideal world, we go to two game fives and and we battle it out so that the two best teams will play for the championship in a second best of five series. And the season has been so tight. The parody has been incredible. It came down to the final game of the season to determine who would be in the playoffs and we expect the playoffs to be no different. Toronto though is the team to beat. Is that fair to say? Toronto goes in as the number one seed, but we’ve seen across this season that every team is in every game and the standings were actually quite tight. So it’s going to be a tough series for all four teams, but it’s going to be really fun to watch. So what a story the PWHL has been this year, the debut season. Let’s spend a moment or two looking back on all of this. What has been the biggest joy to you, Jana? Watching it, it’s been truly remarkable. I think it’s hard not to look at that first game on January 1st in Toronto. It felt like the eyes of the entire women’s hockey world was on that game and felt that game and was emotional throughout it. To be at center ice and alongside Billie Jean King for the puck drop. It was just such an incredible way to enter our sport into an entirely new era. And then the season happened and we had incredible parody and competition. We had record setting crowds. The demand from our fans has been incredible as it relates to attendance, merchandise sales, sponsorship. It’s just exceeded all of our expectations and we know there’s a long way to go and a lot of work to still happen here as we continue to build. But we couldn’t be more thrilled with the launch. We’ll talk about the building yet to come in, in a second. But when you say it exceeded your expectations, I mean, when you were filling arenas with more than 20,000 fans and setting records, I mean, did you even conceive of that in your wildest dreams that it was going to be so well received? I would say we had wild dreams of that. But you never knew how long it was going to take for us to get to that point and to be able to do it in season one and not only do it in season one, but we’re seeing the type of demand where those, the biggest buildings in North America were selling out within 20 minutes. It’s just been incredible. And we know that the game is is at such a great place. The players are so skilled and talented. People love women’s sports. They want to watch women’s hockey and to be able to see it and experience it in real time has been incredibly special. So the challenge is yet to come. I guess they they revolve around the financial picture. It’s still not the huge economic success that I know you’re hoping for. What do you have to do looking through play offs and beyond to, to to really build up the finances here? Well, the really incredible part is we have an ownership group that has a long term commitment to this and they’ve invested really heavily in making this work and it’s not about season one or season 2. This is about long term sustainability and something that’s going to be around for generations to come. And so this is just the beginning and we’re building and you know it’s going to take some time to get where we want to go on the financial side of this and towards profitability. But what an incredible start and we couldn’t be more thrilled. And the work continues, but we know the excitement is there. So what are you building toward next season? I know they’re going to be nicknames. We’ve been talking about how we’re going to get the specific nicknames and specific team uniforms, team jerseys. Are those the main highlights to watch for going going forward or or are there other things that you now have the confidence to do given the inaugural season? Those are certainly on the radar in terms of getting team names and logos in place. We’re also looking at potentially you know where we’re playing, we’re looking at more neutral site games potentially. We did some in Pittsburgh and Detroit this year that were incredibly successful, but trying to to enter new markets and and understand the demand in those markets. So that’s a big one and we’ll have more games next season. We have 24 regular season games this year and that will bump up to 30 next year. So we’ll continue to drive momentum and excitement towards the league. OK, we’re going to pull up the bracket again. I don’t know if you can see this, Jane, but as you’ve been talking about somebody here, we have the bracket. We have all four teams, Toronto, Minnesota, Montreal, Boston, and then at the end of that five game opening series, then into the finals and then the championships and the awarding of the Walter Cup from your biggest financial backer. Do you get to award that in your, in your capacity as chair? Can’t let out our plans yet for the Walter Cup? And it’s incredibly exciting and you know, I can’t wait for the first player that gets to lift that trophy. It’s going to be a historic moment. Well, listen, there have been so many along the way. Thanks for giving us some moments this morning. Good luck with the playoffs. It’s been such an exciting season to watch. I’m sure the playoffs will be the same. Thank you, Jana. Thanks for having me.