Sarah Nurse stands atop a black box, two or three feet above the ice in the empty CAA Centre in Brampton, wearing her newly-revealed blue jersey with 鈥淭oronto鈥 stitched across the front.
She鈥檚 shooting a promotional video as one of Toronto鈥檚 star players in the new Professional Women鈥檚 Hockey League, but her team has no name, no logo, no official home arena and no TV deal.
Before Tuesday, her team had no jersey.
It鈥檚 part of the mad dash to the starting line for the PWHL, which plans to drop the puck on its first season in January. With several important announcements yet to materialize 鈥 the league admitted Tuesday that team names and logos may not be ready for opening day 鈥 Nurse and the PWHL are urging fans to be patient.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not like we鈥檝e had a two- or three-year runway for this. This whole entity has been turned around 鈥 in the last six months,鈥 Nurse said. 鈥淲hen people talk about jerseys and team names and logos and things like that, and locations, all that stuff is still happening as we speak. It鈥檚 gonna be absolutely amazing, but obviously it takes time.鈥
The PWHL鈥檚 staff, which has ballooned from zero people to more than 120 in four months, has slowly churned out announcements. Training camp venues were announced Monday and jerseys for the six teams .
The PWHL will play games every day of the week, senior vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford said 鈥 but not every week 鈥 and no public schedule has been announced. Most, if not all, games will be broadcast on linear TV, league advisory board member Stan Kasten said, but the league has no broadcasting deal yet.
鈥淪ome of these announcements are more important for us than they are for you,鈥 Kasten said at a press conference Tuesday. 鈥淲e need to start business.鈥
Kasten said when the league first announced its goal of starting in January, he was told by industry friends the timeline wasn鈥檛 feasible. But he and others insisted on the six-month turnaround as a commitment to the players.
鈥淭hat obviously cost us having everything being perfect on day one,鈥 Kasten said. 鈥淲e did have to make some concessions.鈥
The PWHL鈥檚 海角社区官网franchise will play at Mattamy Athletic Centre, formerly Maple Leaf Gardens, the Star previously reported, while Kasten said that some teams will play at least some of their games in NHL venues.
海角社区官网will practise through the season in Etobicoke at the Ford Performance Centre, which the team will share with the Maple Leafs. The PWHL is building new locker room facilities there, another of the many roadblocks to producing a functional league in seven weeks.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 snap my fingers and have that be done tomorrow, right? It鈥檚 gonna take a few months,鈥 Nurse said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e probably not going to be into that space until our season starts.鈥
Nurse has waited years for a stable professional women鈥檚 hockey league to arrive. Raised in Hamilton, she started her professional career with the 海角社区官网Furies of the CWHL, which folded in 2019. She recalls seeing Furies general manager Sami Jo Small doing everything from handing out tickets, rolling out the carpet for anthem singers and play-by-play commentary from the timekeeper鈥檚 box.
But she is confident the infrastructure of the PWHL will allow for the league to run professionally, with enough staff to do things right.
鈥淲e鈥檝e always had the players,鈥 Nurse said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e never had the staff and the resources around us to really allow us to be the best possible version of ourselves.鈥
Training camps start on Wednesday with a medical day, and Nurse is waiting anxiously for the regular season in January, and all the announcements that will come before then.
鈥淲e鈥檝e built this thing and now we鈥檙e sending it off to college and out to the real world,鈥 she said. 鈥淧atience is something we鈥檝e all had for many years now, and it鈥檚 just a little bit longer and everything is gonna fall into place.鈥
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