page_title: Major women's sport leagues in North America
section_title: Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL)
hierarchical_section_title: Major women's sport leagues in North America / Women's ice hockey leagues / Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Hockey féminin
context_page_description: Major women's sport leagues in North America represent the top level competitions of team sports for women athletes. Currently, top women's leagues include Women's National Basketball Association and the National Women's Soccer League, Liga MX Femenil, National Pro Fastpitch, Canadian Women's Hockey League, National Women's Hockey League, Women's Flat Track Derby Association, and the National Ringette League.
  Some individual sports featuring women are also popular in North America, including tennis and golf. The LPGA Tour and WTA Tour were both founded in the United States and host events around the world.
context_section_description: The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CHWL) was a women's hockey league in Canada for top female hockey players. The CWHL helped women's professional hockey rebound from the demise of the original National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) in 2007. In the 2017–18 season, the CWHL grew to seven teams: two in the Greater Toronto Area, Les Canadiennes de Montreal, the Calgary Inferno, the Worcester Blades, and the Chinese Kunlun Red Star WIH and Vanke Rays. The Chinese teams served to jump-start that nation's development in women's hockey, as the country is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
  The CWHL allowed elite level players to play after college and continue to work toward Olympic and national team success. Prior to the 2017–18 season, the players were not paid and only received incentives. Apart from ice rink time, hotels, transportation (mostly by bus), and some items covered by the league, players paid for all other expenses related to playing at this level (equipment, training, insurance, health services, etc.), and all staff (coaches, general managers, communications workers) served as volunteers. As a result, most players and personnel had jobs outside of hockey. 
  In 2010, the Toronto Star reported that the cost of running the league was about $1.7 million. For the 2010–11 season, income was $800,000. Any league profits were then redistributed among the teams as the league was registered as non-profit amateur organization, resulting in insufficient funds to pay players. In 2017, the league began paying the players a stipend up to $10,000 per season, reportedly coming from the increased revenue through the China expansion, while maintaining its amateur registration. The stipends added about $600,000 to the annual expenses.
  League attendance is very low in the regular season, but increases during the playoffs. On March 27, 2011, the Championship Final game drew 2,300 fans at Barrie Molson Centre in Barrie, Ontario. Several CWHL matches are broadcast online and TSN broadcasts the Clarkson Cup championship match.
  On March 31, 2019, the CWHL announced the league would discontinue operations effective May 1, 2019. The league's expansion and added cost of travel and player stipends had caused operation costs to grow to $4.2 million in the 2017–18 season.
caption: Game between the Toronto Furies and Montreal Stars.
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