PWHL begins second season, and other thoughts on women’s sports

“I was born in Newton, lived in Foxborough for a few years, my father was born and raised in Framingham, his entire family lives in the Greater Boston area. Being a Boston sports fan wasn’t a decision I could make. That was forced on me,” Marmer said in a telephone conversation on Friday.

“I remember my dad showing me videos of Bobby Orr, the Big Bad Bruin days, Rick Middleton, that era of Bruins hockey. He liked to talk about the lunch-pail, blue-collar style of hockey surrounding Boston sports in general. It’s exciting for me to lead a Boston sports team and to be able to pick pieces and really build the roster and build it around this identity, this is what Boston Sports is all about.

What she did was clear to observers. “They seem to be one of those organizations that has got its act together and built an identity on and off the ice,” said Ian Kennedy, the women’s editor of The Hockey News. “Boston is certainly one of the epicenters of women’s hockey, not just in America but in North America, rivaling any city. It is so historically fundamental to the growth of women’s hockey in the US, dating back to 1917, and it remains one of the most consistent locations for the growth of women’s hockey, whether 100 years ago or through the Boston Blades, the Boston Pride and now the Boston Fleet.”

After the Fleet lost Game 5 of the Walter Cup final, Marmer added speed and finesse to match the core, which included goalkeeper Aerin Frankel and captain Hilary Knight, with top designer Hannah Bilka and Russian forward Ilona Markova leading the newcomers .

“A few complementary pieces compared to the physical identity we have,” Marmer said.

With the regular season set to begin on Nov. 30 (the Fleet game in Toronto), the PWHL will build on last year’s breakout debut, when it proved its place in a landscape that Deloitte predicted would surpass $1 billion in revenue by 2024 . Kennedy highlighted how the Toronto and Montreal franchises have had to find bigger arenas this season and season ticket sales have increased everywhere.

“It’s year 2, but it feels like 1B because we built it as we went along,” Marmer said. “When I was hired, it was, ‘You have three weeks before the draft, but hire a staff of more than fifteen people.’ The first game I didn’t know what the rest of the schedule would look like. It is incredible what we have achieved. In year 2, if you have the time to plan it, so much that we weren’t able to do in year 1, even naming the teams, this is a little bit where the expectation comes from. Now we have team names, an identity we can stand behind. More neutral site appearances. More partnerships. More games. More of everything.”

As for the new name, Marmer wholeheartedly endorses it.

“We were really fortunate that they were able to convey the essence of Boston and it fit nicely with our identity,” she said, “the idea of ​​being stronger together and a fleet that is stronger together. It’s really what we built this team on and what we talked about last year. Team first, all hands on deck.”

▪ Kennedy’s recently published book, “Ice in Their Veins: Women’s Relentless Pursuit of the Puck,” does an excellent job chronicling the history of women on the ice, their struggles for playing time, recognition and opportunity. I especially enjoyed the section detailing how former Northeastern Beanpot star Kelly Dyer revolutionized women’s gear. No more having to cut off sanitary pads or gloves or loosen your pants just to strap on your skates.

▪ Another book on the growth of female sports comes from Jane McManus, an adjunct professor at NYU and former ESPN columnist and TV/radio host. “The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women’s Sports” tackles the long-standing myth that people don’t care about women’s sports, using data on sponsorships and broadcast deals, as well as interviews with experts, to show how much investment has grown and how much more potential still exists.

As Billie Jean King put it, McManus “provides insight into where we’ve been, where we’re going, and why it matters.” The book is available for pre-order on Amazon.

▪ Another Caitlin Clark appearance, another mob scene, this time at an LPGA pro-am in Florida. Clark’s time playing on the front nine at Pelican Golf Club with world No. 1 Nelly Korda and on the back nine with the eponymous Annika Sorenstam drew a bigger crowd than many tournament rounds. But as good as Clark is at basketball, a few bad tee shots and a look at Korda’s game left her saying, “Golf is hard.”

▪ So many professional women’s leagues (like the NWSL and Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball), with more to come. Women’s professional baseball is on its way back as the WPBL announces plans for six teams by 2026, the first women’s professional league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, known as “A League of Their Own.” Rugby is also on the horizon, with another kick start from Team USA’s bronze medal stunner in Paris. Not to be outdone is professional women’s lacrosse, which will also be launched in 2025.

▪ Meanwhile, breakout Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher continues to impress on ‘Dancing With The Stars’, earning her first 10 of the season for her and her partner’s quickstep this past week.

▪ The New York Liberty’s WNBA championship was a long time coming, with the franchise having lost five previous Finals appearances. An even more astonishing fact is told by owners Joe and Clara Tsai, who purchased the team in 2019 for a reported approximately $15 million, saving it from the benign neglect of previous owner James Dolan. Dolan moved the Liberty out of Madison Square Garden, making them nomads through Radio City Music Hall and the Westchester County Center before the Tsai’s conquered the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

What about the return on investment: When Dolan was sold, the team’s attendance was 2,239 fans per game. In 2024, that figure was 12,730, second only to Clark’s Indiana Fever (17,036). Oh, and the team’s value is now about $200 million.

▪ When Coco Gauff outlasted China’s Qinwen Zheng at the recent WTA final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, she took home the largest paycheck in WTA history, $4.8 million.

▪ A sobering reminder of how tough the road has been for women can be seen in the well-crafted but maddening Netflix documentary, “It’s All Over: The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football.” A World Cup victory tainted with misogyny and sexism thanks to the bosses of the Spanish federation who thought they could act with impunity.

▪ I loved seeing senior Shea Larkee lead Norwood High in Saturday’s Division 1 hockey playoffs and state finals. The Cornell-bound scorer, who recently recorded her 150th career point (despite missing a season due to knee surgery), got to play this season with her sister Maureen, a freshman also on the varsity. Maureen is a former Irish dance teammate of my daughter’s at Smith-Houlihan School in Norwood.

Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @Globe_Tara.