As reported by Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek tonight, PHF commissioner Tyler Tumminia is resigning from her duties. She plans to stay on through the end of the PHF regular season and playoffs.
Tumminia originally entered the PHF world in April of 2020, when she was named chairman of the expansion Toronto Six. Just six months later in October, however, the PHF named Tumminia the interim commissioner of the league after restructuring their administrative model.
She retained the interim commissioner title until August 2021, when the role was given to her permanently. Tumminia resigns from the job after just six months.
The PHF’s playoffs take place in late March, meaning Tumminia will only stay on for the next six weeks, approximately.
The news comes less than a month after Alex Sinatra resigned as the Executive Director of the Players’ Association of the PHF.
While I think the name Premier Hockey Federation is just awful (are they hiding that it’s a women’s league behind what sounds like a third tier Russian league?) at least they are trying to grow the sport, build a fanbase and, you know, actually play games.
The other women whose plan is to pout and whine and hope to destroy this league in the hopes that Gary Bettman will build a league for them need to wake up and take an Econ 101 class.
The first thing you need to build a reasonably successful league is to have people who want to see it and pay money to do so. Sorry to say, but that doesn’t exist for a womens pro league.
I can understand that these ladies have invested a lot of time and their parents money into pursuing hockey as a career, but unfortunately there just isn’t enough interest in it as a professional sport to be viable. I’m not knocking their skill or commitment in any way. I think there are a lit of smart, hard working women with a lot to give to professional hockey. I just don’t think enough people are willing to spend their hard earned dollars on watching women play professional hockey given the economic realities right now in this country and with the vast amount of options available when looking for a few hours of entertainment.
Wish the PHF the best. You always hear about folks including Bettman talk about growing the sport of hockey. Having a strong and successful women’s pro hockey league would be a definite step in the right direction.
The next GM of the Chicago Blackhawks
The PHF and womens hockey have a problem. It’s the same problem that the WNBA has. They want everything the NHL and NBA has right now. They don’t seem to want to put in the decades of work that it took to make the NHL and NBA successful.
it took those two leagues 50 years before they got absolutely settled. And it took those leagues 50 years before the players who played in those leagues were able to only play those sports full-time. Because up until the mid to late 70s almost every single player in every single professional sports league had to have a part-time job in the off-season to be able to afford to live. And on top of all of this, there are at least a dozen professional sports franchises just in hockey and basketball loan that just don’t exist anymore because they couldn’t cut it. Some of them moved, some of them went out of business. But they had to go through the growing pains.
But instead, these ladies complain that they’re not paid enough money. And they complain that it’s not fair. and they file lawsuits like they’re owed something just because they are women. It’s pretty ridiculous actually.
I agree with your assessment completely.
Alex Sinatra did not resign, she was relieved of her duties.
The viewership for the Canada – US gold medal game in Canada was higher than any NHL game this year. There’s definitely a market for top tier women’s hockey and that rivalry is the best ongoing international rivalry of the last ten years.
And viewer ratings for Olympic curling are high too. Comparing Olympic ratings to any sports league is apples to oranges. People are cheering on their countries irregardless of the sport.
Looks like we are both making baseless arguments then.
This is absolutely missing the point, until people are actually choosing to pay to see live games in numbers that will support a team it can’t be a viable league and unfortunately that’s simply not the case. Using Olympic viewership is not relevant the the financial realties the league must overcome. Don’t make it a male female thing it’s a dollars thing.
It’s absolutely relevant. People are interested in watching elite level women’s hockey. There is not a league in place at the moment that facilitates that, but there are absolutely signs that an audience is there. The gold medal game is one of those signs and I think arguments to the contrary are poorly formed.
Huge news in Womens Hockey
….said no one ever.