Women's professional hockey finally has a unified league. Now what?

For at least four years, women's professional hockey players advocated vociferously for one unified league.

About one week ago, it finally happened when Mark Walter, a co-owner of MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers, announced his company bought out the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) and would cease its operations. Days later, the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) ratified a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Walter group to begin a new unnamed pro league in January 2024.

There will reportedly be six teams evenly divided between Canada and the U.S., with player salaries ranging from $35,000 to $80,000 US.

One hard part is over. The next one, however, is just beginning.

Experts say among key next steps in ensuring the league's success are identifying the correct markets, fairly allocating players across the league, negotiating a fair media rights deal and securing sponsorship. A deal with the NHL could be beneficial, they say, but only on certain terms.

Laurel Walzak, who was chair of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) board when it folded in 2019, told CBC Sports the new vision for women's hockey is promising — especially with the backing of Walter, who also co-owns English Premier League club Chelsea and whose estimated net worth, per Forbes, is $5.3 billion.

"The way that it was done with the media rights deal before and the sponsors before and events before and all that stuff like that, it can't exist that way. If it exists that way, then it's going to fail," she said. "I don't believe for one second that it'll exist that way anymore because so much has changed since then."

Both Walzak and Ann Pegoraro, the chair of sport management at Guelph University's business school, said the