PWHL Differs From WNBA, NWSL With League-Chosen Team Names

The Professional Women’s Hockey League unveiled its six team names Monday: Minnesota Frost, Boston Fleet, New York Sirens, Victoire de Montreal, Ottawa Charge, and Toronto Sceptres.

During its first season this winter and spring, each team went by the name of its location, like PWHL Minnesota and PWHL Toronto. The league has yet to announce puck drop for next season, but a media consultant for the league confirmed on a conference call Monday it will be earlier than last season’s start date of Jan. 1.

The way the fledgling PWHL selected team names is a bit different from how other leagues do it. The league spoke to general managers and looked through fan comments on social media, but the decisions were ultimately made at a league level among a small group of people. Oftentimes, like in the recent expansions in the WNBA and NHL, teams select their own names, and lean on audience surveys to learn what fans want.

The artwork for each team was due in May, which means all parties involved kept the names and logos under wraps for several months. All general managers and some players gave feedback in the beginning stages of the process, but teams weren’t consulted in the final decision, and didn’t find out their new names until the last few weeks.

Players also weren’t involved, which isn’t necessarily a radical break from tradition. Several team captains told reporters they supported their new team names, even though one said it wasn’t what players had expected. 

Sceptres captain Blayre Turnbull pointed to the league’s success last year despite not having names or logos. Now fans will have even more to “rally behind,” she told reporters—potentially including mascots. “These team names and our logos and colors, they represent more than just our team. They represent our cities and our fans and all the support that we had in Year One,” she said.

Amy Scheer, the league’s SVP of business operations, said the group did run the names by the PWHL’s advisory board, which includes tennis legend and women’s rights advocate Billie Jean King, but the real challenge to picking a name is getting the intellectual property rights in both Canada and the U.S.

The structure of the league is likely the reason for the tight-lipped process. The PWHL doesn’t have individual team governors, but is one central unit collectively owned by investor Mark Walter. It’s a structure more akin to the NWSL than the WNBA, which has individual franchises and owners. Given the setup, the PWHL doesn’t need to consult individual stakeholders about the model for their team. Moreover, all marketing is done at the league level, so that’s where the decisions were made (though activation of the new brands are done by the teams).

The move in some ways breaks precedent. The original WNBA team names were decided collectively by leagues and teams when it was founded in the late 1990s, and for more recent additions like the Golden State Valkyries, the Golden State franchise took input from fans. In a write-in survey conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle and consulted by the team, 25% of respondents had suggested the Valkyries. Several NWSL team names were also decided by the organization or leaned on fan input. This year, the NHL’s new Utah Hockey Club has been outspoken about its fan input on its new team name, sending out a series of surveys to whittle down suggestions.

Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league’s VP of brand and marketing, said on the call that they gathered input from fans on social media throughout the year, including in YouTube comment sections during live broadcasts. She also said they had “in-depth conversations” with “fans in each market,” but didn’t specify the details of those talks or mention any surveys. A league spokesperson said that included visiting arenas and speaking with fans.

Fans have been reacting to the new team logos online. Two of the logos have been compared (in jest) to existing ones: the Charge’s “C” looks similar to the Calgary Flames and Cleveland Cavaliers logos, some pointed out, while the Sceptres’ “TS” resembles the logo from an old Taylor Swift music video.