thoughtsafter3am

In THEORY I'm into everyone

rip kori chevrie

Having BOTH expansion teams struggle this season is detrimental to the goal of dismissing those concerns/rhetoric, which are far more commonly espoused in Male-fan dominated spaces. The league does not want to risk 1/3 of their teams further proving the sexist points of these groups. The league wants these groups to be potential fans- not just because it's an established, tested, and plentiful market, but because it will make all of the teams far more appealing to any future owners.

It is becoming abundantly clear (anecdotally and recently statistically proven) that women's leagues are bringing in a new type of fan- Fans who may have never been into sports before, or fans who were tangentially aware of local and family allegiances to franchises, but did not participate openly in the community around those teams. That's great for these leagues! Those fans are now going to fill seats and post content and open their wallets for a sports team when they never would have before- but those fans aren't quite proven yet. They might not have the tolerance for bullshit that these older fans have. These new fans could jump ship at the drop of a hat- and the league knows it.

But, the number of current fans they piss off with these decisions are nothing compared to the hoards of fans who may have their minds changed with competitive local teams. Losing a few thousand, maybe 10,000 fans now? Absolutely worth it when you could potentially gain millions more from the NHL franchises (or lack thereof!) in these expansion markets.