Journalist Karissa Donkin is a sports fan, and her new book – Breakaway – is the kind of book she wanted to read growing up. It offers insights into fan-favourite players and teams. At the same time, it describes the grind and hard business realities on the long road to development of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).

Breakaway moves through the start-and-stop history of women’s hockey, with leagues like the National Women’s Hockey League (Canada) started in the late 1990s and operating until 2007; the Canadian Women’s Hockey League that followed until it shutdown in 2019; and the National Women’s Hockey League (U.S.) that would rebrand to become the Premier Hockey Federation. All preceded the PWHL, launched in 2023.

Donkin told Atlantic Business Magazine the successive iterations of a top-tier league for women shouldn’t be taken as a bad omen, or any kind of indication of future commercial success for the PWHL. “When you look back at the history of the NHL, that [a first-try start] wasn’t the case for the NHL either. There were stops and starts before the NHL. It was just so long ago that none of us know, because none of us were around when it happened,” she said.

Indeed, it’s fair to say few people today might recite much about the origins of the men’s Canadian-American Hockey League or the National Hockey Association.

Donkin describes a PWHL able to find its way early commercially in a way that makes it stand out from predecessors. There are many reasons for this, but much credit is owed to the senior players who sacrificed in the early years, taking the hits of hard financial and operational lessons along the way. They did the research, developing formal recommendations and engagement for the PWHL on everything from labour relations to where to locate teams. Those efforts started even before investors were at the table.

The PWHL of today also has the benefit of standing alone, whereas earlier time periods would see a predominantly Canadian and separate American league operating simultaneously. Leagues were competing on many fronts, even if not on the ice, splitting top players, their audience and ultimately potential revenue.

“I think honestly it was finding the right model, the right investment and the right marketing,” Donkin said of the PWHL’s solid start.

Not least of all in what Donkin reveals is the added, significant benefit of growing experience in the back rooms. That includes the four-person advisory board established to govern the PWHL at the start: Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss, Stan Kasten and Royce Cohen.

Kasten is a good example of the cross-league and even cross-sport pollination behind the scenes that helped bring the strongest-yet women’s hockey league to life. As Donkin writes, Kasten made a name for himself when he was hired at age 27 as general manager for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, being lauded as an executive in men’s basketball and then earning acclaim in Major League Baseball with the Atlantic Braves, Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Women’s hockey was new to him though. And he’ll admit that. When he first started on this project, this was something a little bit different, I think, than he’d ever done before. So he needed to kind of take some time and figure out what it was all about,” Donkin said.

But what was key, she suggested, was the mix of experience from the management perspective in what has worked and not, in building the proper environment and platform for professional sport. Cohen also came with experience in the Dodgers executive, for instance.

It wasn’t just on the starting advisory board though. Another example highlighted by Donkin is Amy Scheer, who became the PWHL’s senior vice president of business operations. She came with past experience as an executive in top-tier rugby, soccer and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

Billie Jean King is the standout name who inspired players, even though she was then in an executive role. The former tennis star who fought for recognition and equal pay for female tennis pros sparks more than simple name recognition, since — as Donkin describes, with heartbreaking examples — the senior women fighting for a professional league in their sport had careers featuring little to no pay for many years. Along with her wife, Ilana Kloss, King was offering advice to the players at an early stage. Through Billie Jean King Enterprises, King and Kloss then played an essential role in the puck drop for the PWHL. Well beyond any cheerleading, Donkin notes moments like their boardroom appeals to convince people like Mark and Kimbra Walter to become lead investors to the new league. Kim Walter is an attorney with prominent philanthropic roles. Mark Walter is CEO of global financial services firm Guggenheim Partners.

As a peak behind the curtain of professional sports, Donkin’s book speaks to business matters like labour issues with players as well as staffing as the different leagues competed for basics like referees. While championing individual players like Marie Philip-Poulin and Laura Stacey, and the current teams, she points to the many indicators of fan support and potential financial growth.

As a fan, Donkin emphasizes the PWHL is not the first professional women’s hockey league. “It’s the most professional iteration that we’ve had. There’s no doubt about that. But women have been playing hockey for a long time before this and I think it’s important to understand how we got here,” she said.

The author began her work on the newly released book, published by New Brunswick’s Goose Lane Editions, in her spare time while working with the CBC’s Atlantic investigative unit. She has more recently taken up a post with CBC Sports.

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In Book Report, Atlantic Business Magazine is highlighting non-fiction focused on Atlantic Canada and Atlantic Canadians, and from Atlantic Canadian publishers. These short pieces will offer details from upcoming business biographies, Q&As on new releases and in some cases fresh commentary from non-fiction authors on the subjects of their published works.

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