32 Thoughts: The Podcast - What’s In A Name? From the NWHL to the PHF

Episode Date: September 7, 2021

The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) is rebranding to become the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). Tyler Tumminia, the commissioner of the PHF, joins Jeff and Elliotte to talk about the rebrand, why they made the change, conversations with other leagues, why they took “women” out of the league name, how does a rebrand of a […]

Okay, coming down in three, two, and one. Welcome once again to another special edition of 31 Thoughts, the podcast. And Elliot, today's guest is no stranger to this program. The NWHL, a six-team women's league comprised of the Boston Pride, the Buffalo Buttes, Connecticut Whale, Metropolitan Riveters, Minnesota Whitecaps, and the Toronto Six. Or should we say, was. The league has now been rebranded as the PHF, the Premier Hockey Federation.

And as you'll notice, the word women's is no longer in the league's title. Since the last time we had her on the podcast, Tyler Tumini has had the interim tag removed from her commissioner title with the league, and she's making headlines with today's announcement. She joins us now. Tyler, first of all, thanks for joining us once again on the podcast. How are you on this very exciting and some would submit controversial day? It's my pleasure, and I'm doing great.

I think it's an exciting time to be a part of this league and feeling really good about today and about the change. The change is a big one. Can you walk us through what went into the decision to remove the word women's from the league title? Yeah, so I think when we started talking about this collectively between the board of governors and I, we were coming out of season six,

we're heading into season seven, and there was a lot internally, as you guys know, that has changed, right? Like the league is its most committed and, you know, deeply invested partners ever. So the ownership and leadership at the club level has also been stronger. The salary cap was doubled. And we just really had a great, a lot of momentum coming off of season six with some really exciting stuff. And we just kind of felt like it's really new. It's really different. It looks different under the hood, this league, you know, since it first started in 2015. So if the topic was first broached, right when you get to that seven year itch mark anyway, right? You kind of just say, Hey, look, we need to kind of mirror what's going on internally, externally. So we were talking

about the name and we were all sitting around and I said, you know, why do we have to keep putting the W in there? You know, these are phenomenal athletes, right? They're not like female phenomenal or, you know, the NHL is not, you know, the National Men's Hockey League, right? Or the NHL is not the National Men's Hockey League, right? So let's kind of be provocative here and take it out. There's no one-size-fits-all approach for any human. So whether that be gender or identified gender or sexual orientation, everyone is really a unique individual. And we think it's just getting to the point where we just don't need to put people in boxes anymore, right?

That whole no labels, no limits. So the new logo, while it presents like, you know, homage to the NWHL and, you know, we took the stars and the color aspect of it, it's really a true refresh of the brand. And it comes around this idea of redefining the league based on the skill and talent of our players in a way that's gender neutral. The way we construct our rosters look different, right? I've got some athletes that define themselves as women or some athletes that are non-binary. And so as we embark on the next couple of years, socially, I just felt it was the right time to do this now. And social change often happens first in women's league, let's be honest. So it just felt like it was the right time. Was it easier than you thought to do it? Was it harder than you thought to do it?

What did you get in reaction to what you expected? So we had a couple of focus groups prior to the unveil, and it was across many different platforms, right? Like sports, outsider sports, in sports, sponsors. We had discussions where it is a very polarizing topic, but once we presented to our athletes and to our broad and key sponsors, they embraced it. And it was clear that we should move forward, that there was no reason to wait.

But, you know, look, like we expect a wide range of responses. But we hope what comes from this is that we can facilitate an important conversation about viewing professional sports in a gender neutral way. What do you expect the reaction of other women's sports leagues to be? And dovetailing that, do you think this is where women's sports is headed anyway with the removal of the women's tag? I think we're starting to see it a little bit too at the college level, right? So March Madness, Baylor this week. But, you know, again, like I can't speak to the WNBA, WTA, LPGA and NWSL.

I mean, we're definitely entirely focused on what we're doing here in the PHF. It's definitely a question that you got to ask them. But I mean, if you just kind of look at society and where we're heading, you know, maybe we're about two to three years removed. But we definitely felt like it was important for us to kind of come out there and we really believed it. And once the athletes were, I mean, I got to tell you guys, like, I mean, it's empowering for these athletes when we, you know, had this conversation, you know, it totally embraced it. They want to be defined as hockey players, period.

You know, just that Baylor story that Tyler was mentioning there in case you're not familiar, everyone is that last week, the Baylor bears women's team, they were always known as the lady bears. They said, they're going to stop doing that. And,

you know, Baylor's men's team won the national championship last year in men's basketball. The women's team has won three of them. They're one of the most successful programs in the United States. And so they just made a decision last week. They say they're going to stop doing that. And it's something that resonated with me because back when I was a student reporter,

we used to, at Western, we used to call them the Mustangs and the Lady Stangs or the Lady Mustangs. I always felt as a reporter, why did we need to do that? I mean, you can simply by watching the games, you know that there's obvious physical differences between the players. I realized that my opinion isn't the most important one, but I completely understand this point of view because it's something that I just felt as a reporter for a long time, it kind of wasn't necessary. Yeah, I mean, again, we just believe our players should be defined by their talent and skill. And I agree with you, like, to define them as lady, I mean, I don't know.

To me, I grew up in a very gender-neutral home, obviously. Like, my parents, God love them, but, you know, back in 1970-something, they named me Tyler. Like, they didn't see, like, what, okay, well, obviously, like my parents, God love them. But you know, back in 1970 something, they named me Tyler. Like we didn't, they didn't see, they didn't see like what, okay, well, Tyler is a very male oriented name, right? Like they don't see that. So it's the same thing here with this league is I just want, and they want to present themselves with that intensity, that grit, that skill on the ice. And they just want to be known as elite hockey players. That's it. So I felt like this was the best way we can respect and pay homage to them by renaming it and raising the W. Did you let any leagues know, for example,

did you reach out to say the WNBA or the women's tennis tour or anything like that? Did you let anybody know that you were thinking of going down this road? Members of their league were part of our focus group. Yeah. And it's been wildly received. I wonder if this is going to start a trend. Yeah. I mean, I hope so.

Right. Like it'd be great. But again, you know, just bringing it back, I can only say like this definitely was something that, you know, we felt that it was just the right time to do. And it's just been a very exciting and kind of energetic day. We've been waiting for this to happen, right? The last couple of months.

So I'm just so happy it's here. Tyler, let me preface this question by saying, when it comes to this issue, my opinion comes in last place. I think when I'm dealing with something like this, the best thing I can do is bring people like yourself forward and let other people talk. I'm in last place on this discussion.

Let me ask you this. Having said that, when dealing with equity seeking groups, women's hockey, you know, with equity seeking groups, women's hockey, we've all known about the struggles to be looked at as equals up against the men's game, for example. One of the arguments, and maybe you've come against this or across this, when you remove the term women, you remove a very specific spotlight from people who need it. And those same people might say, this is not a helpful move. How would you address that question? Sure. I mean, we're not running away from the subtext of what we are, right? Like we're still North America's professional women's hockey. And we still, you'll see that in our marketing

material as well. But like, if you look at historically a league name between the men's and the women's, it's something that on the men's side, obviously, is not as creative, right? I mean, historically, the league like we can't get too creative with our league name, but we can get, we can get behind some passion and we can get behind a movement and define ourselves. That's unique. And we are today unique in the women's sport, but we're definitely not shying away from the fact or using it within our subtext that, yeah, look, we're still North American professional women's hockey, but the league name will be Premier Hockey Federation. Why Federation?

So there's actually many factors that went into the rebrand and Federation just sounds bigger than one country. We already like our league with several international players, right? Like we've got Austria, Finland, Slovakia, Sweden, Czech Republic. So historically we've had athletes internationally. And it was one of the league's goals going, coming out of season six is to draw some more attention and dominance out of the international market. We had our first international draft this year pulling from Hungary and Great Britain and Japan. And so we just wanted to attract the best talent we can from around the globe. And we think that Federation has this international familiarity and appeal. I think the best way I can say it is like when I was talking to Janine Weber from the Connecticut Whale, she's Austrian, right?

Like she just, as soon as I said it was going to be federation, she was like, yeah, it's global. That word is very foreign to here in the US, but we've become more of this larger international governing body. we've become more of this larger international governing body and if I just can flip it for a second out of the hockey world and just base it on the economics or the business model the word Federation and premier hockey Federation opens up the door is a little bit more inclusive from when I'm having conversations with businesses that are international like so for the other day when I'm on the phone talking to Italy and we're having conversations about sports apparel out of this one company in Italy, like it's not even a question, right? Like it just, it's a little bit

more of an open feel, an open door feel on the international market. And so where we'd like to take it in the next couple of years, you know, especially when you have twofold, right? A presenting title sponsor, PHF, chop down the acronyms in the sport, and you get this like really regal global sense in Premier Hockey Federation that's universal if you throw a presenting title sponsor's name before that. And then it also opens the door on a lot of the sponsors or partnerships that we're trying to gain or garner internationally now that we have this influx of international athletes on our rosters. When you go through a process like this can you walk us through as economically as you can what do you do what comes first what comes second what comes third like how do you do a league

rebranding sure so first um i've got a report to my eight bosses, my board of governors, and I have to broach the topic of why I feel it's time for a rebrand based on the economics of the league, based on some objectives and missions that we're trying to do going forward. You know, I sit there and it's not just one conversation, guys, right? It's multiple conversations over a couple of months. And, you know, I mean, truth be told, like you're sitting there, it's not just a walk in the park, right? Like you have eight different personalities, right, that I have to try to, you know, have a buy-in on. So you're talking to them first and then you're kind of seeing how, you know, how the votes lay. And then you start having conversations internally based on how it's going. And then for me right away, because my nickname's legal, is I get right on the phone with the trademark attorney

and I start walking down a couple of different ideas on what's out there. And for league names, there's not much, but you kind of go down that road and then you start having outside conversations, right? Just kind of getting the temperature read, like, Hey, you think we're heading in the right direction here? And then importantly, right? I have to go to my sponsors now, my current sponsors and say, Hey, look, this is what's happening. Or I go to my media exposure deals that I'm trying to work. And I say, Hey, this is what we're trying to do here. Like, what are your thoughts? And it's just been really great. I think this is the right time to do it. And where we are is in the landscape of the world. I think people are understanding that, you know, this is something that the athletes themselves would like to be defined as. And,

and then at that point, you point, you start having conversations with, what does this look like? What are we trying to do? So if you look at the logo, we keep saying we're raising the W because essentially what we did was we took the makeup and construction of the stars and we made it into a loose W crown on top of the PHS. And so there was a lot of, you know, historical tie-in paying homage to the fact that, you know, there's history with this league and there's, there's been meaningful games, but as we go forward, it's different. Like we're trying to do some really good stuff and some really powerful things. And again, I keep bringing this back to the women's game in particular, which is why I really have been enjoying my time here is that the social change,

the social conversation, I love, not everybody's going to agree and it's okay. It's just that conversation, like bring it back to the dining room table. Let's have a good discussion. And so it's been really fun. You know, this is a big year and it's olympic year we just had a very successful uh world championships where a big canadian television audience turned in for a really entertaining final between canada and the usa look at you well like like a lot of people in this country i was watching just like everyone else the fantastic championship winning goal by marie-philippe poland you know just where do you think everything of people in this country I was watching just like everyone else the fantastic championship winning goal by Marie-Philippe Poulin you know just where do you think everything stands right

now I assume because this is an Olympic year it's probably you know a lot of the top players are going to be with their national team so kind of where does it stand right now yeah I mean I think it's such a great time to be a part of women's hockey, right? Like it's hot. Look at the viewership and congrats by the way. So yeah, I mean, it's, it's, there's a, there's a lot of energy going into the pre-Olympic year. There's a lot of attention being, you know, talked about with hockey and hopefully a larger discussion of, you know, once going beyond once every four years and seeing these athletes perform and compete. Hopefully that is just the start of what we're trying to do here.

So is there anything going on with the NHL now? You know, you can say, I guess. I think they've always been a very nice partner of ours, right? They've been very supportive and they continue to be. And I have nothing but wonderful things to say about the NHL. They've been really great. If you look at our drafts, you look at our cross-marketing, you look at them helping us grow the game numbers. That's like what we care about and they very much care about that. And so I think it's nice synergies between us too. And, and growing the game is what it's all about.

And so, yeah, it's, it's been nothing but positive on our end from where we stand. Okay. I'm going to go on a little fishing trip here. Like me, I think Tyler needs a good editor. And on this podcast, Ty, Elliot's never shy about saying, Jeff, that's a dumb idea. I don't know if you have an Elliot in your life, but I've made this point a couple of different places

and I'll make it to you right now, that there's a sort of WHA, World Hockey Association spirit that you have with the PHF. You talked about your eight bosses. Can you share any experiences or ideas that you had where they really said, now Ty, much like Elliot's told me numerous times, that's a really bad idea? Yeah, I mean, I'm not looking to get fired anytime soon, but

I think why it works for that relationship between my board of governors and I, candidly, is that we can have very spirited, transparent, truthful conversations going back and forth where we don't necessarily agree. But I got to tell you, the board of governors is very unique because the one thing I think that we have gained in the very short period of time in the last 10 months, because I've only been on this job 10 months, is trust. So they might say to me, hey, Ty, that's wild, right? But at the end of the day, they'll say, it's you. You're the commissioner of the league. So I'm very thankful in that way that I can, you know,

kind of be myself. And I mean, yeah, sure. There's been, there's been a couple of times, maybe, um, my minor league promotional, um, head came on and I might've towed the line probably, um, too much, but they'll let me know. And then it's a give and take, like with any of our situations with our, our bosses, whether that's personally or professionally, you know when to pick your battles. But for the most part, I think the reason why we've seen a lot of success is not only because of the Board of Governors and allowing us to have some dinner table conversations, but our partners, our sponsors, they've allowed it too, right? So I've got a lot of stakeholders that have to kind of buy into this idea. And so, yeah, I mean, everybody's always editing me, Jeff, but you're just kind of having to push over the line and I don't take no very easily. So I'll ask a

thousand times before I can see it. Well, there's nothing wrong with honest debate where people respect each other's opinions and you give as good as you get and everybody walks away saying you know what don't always agree but there was good viewpoints exchanged there it's so healthy right it's the best yeah people don't want to do that anymore though like people want to shy away from, I just, I love a great debate. Like, let's just go back and forth and then let's go get a beer afterwards. I'm all for that. That art is gone. Like the art of debating respectfully, I think is, and a lot of it, I'll just point the finger at social media as the obvious culprit, but that seems to be gone in a lot of ways.

I want to ask you one more branding question. The NWHL brand, you know, we've heard athletes, you know, that may have been with the league under the previous regime, say things like I'll never play for the NWHL. Did you think regardless of the removal of the term women's, that this league needed to be rebranded to try to open doors for other athletes that may have already participated in the league?

I mean, we're hopeful one day that we'll be united in one league that includes the current members of the PWHPA. I think that would be the best interest of our game, right? But we definitely changed the name because we believe that defining our league based on the skill and that talent of our players is the right call. I just think the PHF has a lot to offer, the sponsorships, the leaderships, the double cap, the infrastructure. I can't speak for them, but if our new name helps bring us together, that's a good thing. It's a great question, Jeff. You know, is it time for a fresh start? You know, your arrival, Tyler, in a lot of ways, I think was the start of that. And now I'm kind of wondering if this is something that kind of needed to happen.

It's in everything that's in the past is the past and we're starting new and this is kind of a fresh way of doing it. And, you know, your pause there probably gave away a bit more than you wanted to. But I think it's a really smart idea. I think it's a smart idea. I just all around. So thanks. Tyler, congratulations to you and the PHF. Wish you all the best in the new season on the horizon.

the PHF. Wish you all the best in the new season on the horizon, and I would expect more interesting press releases and announcements coming from the league all throughout the season. Congratulations on the rebrand. I know it's not an easy thing to do. Congratulations. Best of luck this season.

Thank you both so much for the time and the attention, of course. Thanks very much, Tyler. Until next time. Thanks, Tyler. Alright, cheers. Should I start this with another cliche or how does the story go I've worn a mask every day

you peek behind now I wanna go and the car just got from the house is packed and I wanna go home and the car just got from the house

is packed and I wanna go home everybody's got time everybody seems to have so much time Everybody seems to have so much time But I'm wasting mine, it's what it got I'm the only girl here in this place Who isn't doing fine, I'm the introvert, and that's the rules

Then I'm the expert, you're the introvert, the swap and go And the cards are stacked and the house is packed and I wanna go home We've spoken every day for eight years, what do I do when you're gone? And everybody's got time Everybody seems to have so much time Everybody seems to have so much time that I'm wasting mine It's when I got I'm the only miracle in this place Who isn't doing fine and I'm not fine

and I'm not fine, I'm not fine and I'm not fine, I'm not fine I'm not fine, I'm not fine I'm not fine, I'm not fine I'm not fine, I'm not fine I'm not fine