The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), a professional women’s hockey league, will set up one of its new franchises in Montreal next season.
The league, which has six teams, made the announcement on Tuesday. She is planning a two-team expansion. The other will be in an unspecified US market.
The PHF currently has teams in Boston, Toronto, Monmouth Junction (New Jersey), St. Paul (Minnesota), Danbury (Connecticut) and Buffalo.
The league also announced that its salary cap will double for next season to US$750,000 per team. This increase in the cap — set at US$300,000 this season — will increase the average salary to US$37,500 for a team of 20 players, or to US$30,000 for a squad with 25 skaters, the maximum allowed.
The individual salary of female hockey players will not be capped, as long as the salaries of the entire roster remain under the cap.
Gradual ascent
The PHF board has also pledged to invest more than $25 million over the next three years, moves that are intended to warm relations with members of the Canadian and United States national teams, who n haven’t joined the only women’s professional circuit in North America in large numbers.
These new investments will allow teams to provide insurance coverage to players, improve their training complexes and increase the number of practices. Players will also own up to 10% of their respective team shares and have control over their marketing opportunities.
The league had doubled its salary cap for the current season, from US$150,000 to US$300,000, in addition to adding the Toronto squad to its ranks. It has also signed television partnerships with ESPN+ in the United States and TSN in Canada.