When the PWHPA announced their plans for the 2021-22 season, two of the hubs were unnamed: Montréal and Boston (formerly New Hampshire).
This week, the organization announced the sponsors and names for them. Montréal will be sponsored by Harvey’s, a Canadian restaurant chain. Boston will be sponsored by Bauer, the equipment company with headquarters in New Hampshire.
According to the press release, Montréal will have new Harvey branded jerseys, though nothing was mentioned for Boston.
Last season, Montréal was sponsored by Bauer, and Boston – at the time New Hampshire – was named after Women’s Sports Foundation. The other three hubs – Minnesota, Calgary, and Toronto – all retained their sponsors and names from last season.
The sponsor swap is a bit of an interesting move. In my opinion, it can lead to confusion over which team is which, year over year. Dedicated fans might know that Bauer is now Boston who is formerly New Hampshire. But new fans just tuning in or trying to learn about the teams and the organization will only find conflicting information on who Team Bauer is, especially given that in more traditional sports models, teams don’t swap names after seasons. For example, Team Bauer won the Dream Gap Tour Cup last season but it wasn’t this Team Bauer.
Creating confusion in branding and team names isn’t a good strategy when trying to grow a brand or organization, an issue that’s more of a women’s professional hockey issue than a PWHPA-specific one. But the swap is just another in a line of movies that muddies the history books of women’s hockey.
Truro Dream Gap Tour stop scheduled announced
A few weeks ago, the PWHPA announced their first Dream Gap Tour stop as Truro in Nova Scotia on Nov. 12 and 13.
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This week the exact times as well as a ticket package were announced.
On Saturday, Calgary will play Boston at 3 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Eastern) followed by Montreal and Toronto at 7 p.m. local time.
The consolation game will be played at 3 p.m. local time the next day and the championship will be at 7 p.m. local time.
Streaming details have not been announced yet.