When the formation of the NWHL was first announced in March, it was met with a healthy dose of skepticism. The most common questions were regarding how the league was being funded, who would sponsor them and whether there was enough public interest.
NWHL scores Dunkin’ Donuts as 1st corporate sponsor in multi-year deal
Now, we know the answers. On Tuesday, the league announced that its first major sponsor, is international coffee giant Dunkin’ Donuts.
Dunkin’ officially announced its sponsorship of the NWHL during a press conference at Boston’s TD Garden. Meghan Duggan, the captain of both the US Women’s National Hockey Team and the Buffalo Beauts, received a personal services contract from Dunkin’, as well. Although the details of both deals remain unknown, it was confirmed that both are multi-year relationships.
“Our policy at Dunkin’ is that we don’t disclose financial or term information about any of our sponsorships,” explained Tom Manchester, vice president of field marketing for Dunkin’ Brands. However, he said with confidence that “we are in it for the long haul with these folks and with these players because we want to see them succeed.”
In fact, it was Dunkin’ that originally expressed interest in supporting the NWHL.
“We actually saw the launch of the league through their press announcements and learned a little bit about what Dani [Rylan]‘s vision was for it,” Manchester continued.
“We knew we wanted to get involved with this and sort of attack it in a way that’s different from our regular team deals. We wanted to be a marketing partner and also a supporter of the league and give these female athletes a place to play after college. For us, it’s sponsorship 2.0. We want to be more vested in it than in a traditional sponsorship.”
Duggan, a native of Danvers, Mass., was thrilled at the news.
“Honestly I was blown away,” she said. “Dunkin’s support of this league and of women’s hockey is above and beyond anything that any of us expected. To have a huge brand supporter like Dunkin’ Donuts is just putting women’s hockey on the map even more.”
Even though the specifics will likely go unknown, a partnership like this is highly significant for the stability of the league itself and that of the players’ salaries, as well. Rylan expressed that one of the pillars of the league since its formation was the desire for these women to be treated like professionals. With this deal, Duggan joins the likes of David Ortiz, Rob Gronkowski, Odell Beckham Jr. and Eli Manning, who are also player representatives with Dunkin’ Donuts. Manchester said it will be a “360 degree approach to marketing,” including advertisements and in-store marketing.
Above all, the sponsorship represents an investment and belief that the league is a viable business partner. Rylan began the NWHL in the Northeast because 33 percent of America's female youth hockey players are registered in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. The league was created with the public interest of thousands of young female hockey players in mind, and the effect is clear.
The question of who invested in the league to get it off the ground, however, has yet to be answered.
"These are people who are totally comfortable and okay with being anonymous," league commissioner Dani Rylan told ESPNW in October. "They definitely have a huge part in the decisions that the league is making. But as far as being in the public eye, they've asked to remain anonymous, and I respect that."
Rylan played at Northeastern University while earning her master’s degree sports leadership, helping the Huskies to win the Beanpot in 2012. Her own playing career ended after graduation, as it does for most other female hockey players. Even for US Women’s National Team players and Olympians, the gap between training camps for those teams is detrimental to their readiness to compete.
After Rylan made a bid to bring a CWHL team to New York and failed, she decided to make a league of her own. She pitched the idea to four-time Olympic medalist and Hockey Hall of Fame member Angela Ruggiero, who shared her enthusiasm for creating a new, paid women’s league. Using her network of contacts she had built during her years of playing hockey, she reached out to players, venues and equipment companies. Rylan looked at the struggles and successes of other women’s professional sports leagues.
Additionally, as she wrote in a piece for The Players' Tribune, "data and social media became the driving force that made our league come together." Rylan was able to get the ball rolling on the NWHL in less than a year. She is, as far as we know, the one making all the business decisions for the league. Ruggiero acts an adviser, but little else is known about the inner workings of the NWHL.
The first order of business was, of course, to recruit players. The league held an Entry Draft on June 20 in Boston, open to all female college hockey players graduating in 2016. Drafting players a year ahead of time allows them to finish school and apply for jobs in the city of their new team. The majority of the NWHL’s players have a day job to supplement their hockey salary.
Each team has a salary cap of $270,000, with the lowest possible salary being $10,000 and the highest $25,000. Only one player, Kelli Stack of the Connecticut Whale, is making the league maximum, while 16 are being paid the league minimum. For most, this is not much money, but it is almost more important symbolically than financially. The NWHL gives female hockey players a legitimate opportunity to play hockey and be paid for their talents and efforts for the first time in history.
By the Aug. 17 free agent deadline, all 72 available roster spots had been filled and the league had signed 46 free agents. Each team includes four practice players, bringing the grand total of athletes to 88. Many of those free agents were players who left the CWHL, a non-salaried league which only pays a stipend to championship players, to join the NWHL because of the league’s potential and the vision presented by Rylan.
Just as Rylan imagined it, young women playing college hockey will no longer have to watch jealously as their male counterparts are drafted on TV while they fill out job applications and dread the day they’ll hang up their skates forever.
Now, that day doesn’t have to come.
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