Women’s Hockey Battles Barstool Sports With No Clear Winner in Sight

The NWHL needs a bigger audience, but at what cost? 

Here’s something you might not know exists: professional women’s hockey. 

The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) returned to the ice on Jan. 23 for a 14-day, bubbled season, with all the games slated for broadcast on NBC Sports. This marked the first time in the sport’s history that games aired on a major cable network.

If you’re shocked by this fact, you’re not alone. Most people don’t even know about the NWHL because it's a fairly new league and has long been neglected by the sports world. 

But, so long as you have a pulse and internet access, you certainly have heard of Barstool Sports, a media company known for its demeaning and destructive content. The creators and fan base, nicknamed “Stoolies,” have been serving hateful words and crude jokes towards women’s sports for years now. Last week, the NWHL became its latest victim. 

Let’s back up a bit, shall we? 

The NWHL was founded in 2015. Back then, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) was the only professional women’s hockey league in operation, and it boasted the best players in the game. Unfortunately, it folded in 2019 due to financial struggles. 

The NWHL—whose level of play is considered to be a notch below the CWHL—thought it would be a nice landing pad for the Canadian players. But the vision to create a cross-border league never crystallized. 

Instead, the remaining 200 players from the CWHL created the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), a group of the sport’s most elite, who train and play in tournaments together under no official league title. The Canadians chose not to join the NWHL for a variety of reasons, the most important being the scant pay. 

This might come as no surprise, but women in professional hockey hardly make any money. In fact, most of the women who play also work full-time jobs during the day to make ends meet. The lack of sponsorship and TV coverage certainly doesn’t help. 

The NWHL pays its players an average salary of $15,000 per year, but the league doesn’t disclose its budget or revenue to players, staff or the media, and none of its investors are known to the public. This lack of transparency caused major distrust among Canadian players. As a result, the entirety of women’s hockey is suffering because the best in the game aren’t even a part of a league in the nation with the world’s most profitable sports market. 

You may be thinking, wow what a total mess. And you’re right. Women’s hockey has a turbulent past saturated with gnarly politics and inconsistent decisions. But I assure you, that’s not even the worst of it. 

Enter, stage left, Barstool Sports. This company consistently breaks headlines for its racist and misogynistic storylines. If you Google its name, dozens of examples detail their toxic history. Stoolies argue that its content is funny and original—that any emerging company should be oh so lucky to have this media empire kickstart their fanbase. 

I, for one, believe that Barstool Sports breeds a culture of online hate, and relies on hypermasculine clickbait to keep itself afloat.

Since the NWHL’s shortened season began two weeks ago, Barstool’s fan base has used nearly every derogatory name in the book to attack them on Twitter. Considering its mission is to uplift female hockey players and grow the game, the league wanted no part of Barstool’s classless media attention. 

League officials released a statement last week confirming its disaffiliation with Barstool. The next day, the CEO of Barstool Erika Nardini posted a video to her Twitter account with “an important message to the haters.” She included screenshots of tweets and messages from NWHL players, employees, journalists and fans who aired their grievances about the poisonous media platform. 

The clip ignited controversy across social media. Saroya Tinker, one of the only Black players in the league, pushed back. 

She wrote, “WE, as a league do not want support from ANY openly racist platform. If you, as the CEO, cannot recognize that your platform promotes white supremacy & only further divides the athletic community, perhaps we need to have a conversation. Pls keep your money.”

The President of Barstool David Portnoy rebuked Tinker with a video of his own, saying “You should be in jail for that.” 

Barstool’s army flocked from every dark corner of the Internet to harass anyone involved with the NWHL. Many journalists who cover the league had to turn their profiles private just to avoid the bullying online. 

One fan replied to Nardini’s video, writing, “I’ve had more vitriol, hate, misogyny and transphobia in my [direct messages] and replies in the past few days due to Barstool ppl than I ever have before on this app. You need to take a long, hard look at the culture you’ve helped to create.”

At this point, you might be thinking this is more than a mess…it’s an absolute gong show. Right now, no one is winning in women’s hockey. This drama is especially heartbreaking in a time when the game’s exposure should be celebrated, not belittled by the bigots at Barstool. 

But the overarching problem here is twofold. 

This is the first time the world is seeing professional women’s hockey in the national spotlight. Because the NWHL and PWHPA won’t join together, people are not seeing hockey played at the highest possible level. First impressions count, and this one tainted the sport. 

If we want real progress, the leagues need to combine so that the world can see women’s hockey at its best. It’s also clear that the game needs more eyeballs in order to grow its fan base and market value. Barstool Sports has the following to do just that. But who they are and what they represent are not what the NWHL needs. This is not a ‘come one, come all’ situation. We must develop a standard for the kind of audience we want for women’s sports—one that is inclusive, empowering and respectful.

Unfortunately, more people know the league for its feud on Twitter rather than its season on the ice. Hopefully the Stoolies and the rest of Barstool Sports can let the NWHL blossom into a league where all its athletes—past, present and future—feel welcome. Until then, the culture of women’s hockey should continue to support all women to no end.