Jamie Nye: Women hockey pros quit, but will it work?

More than 200 women’s hockey players have had enough playing for a pittance and say they will not play professional hockey until they get an upgrade in pay and health coverage.

You can’t disagree with the premise. It’s crazy to think a professional league has many playing a season for $2,000 and don’t have coverage to take care of injuries.

The biggest push is for the NHL to pay up and bring women’s hockey under its umbrella to start a league similar to what we see in the WNBA.

But like anything in professional sports, you need interest and you need a financial plan that makes sense.

The women’s game has grown to the point where you can see enough talented women can fill out a league with a similar size to the CFL. And the business plan could be similar on an even smaller scale.

But to get things going, with better salaries, you need fans in the stands and money coming in. The only way it works otherwise is if you have someone willing to take a loss. You don’t see many of those people in pro sports.

Over to you Gary Bettman.