Actually, the plan was clear: summer training in Germany, in August to North America, from autumn the first season in the professional league PHF. After six years at college in Providence in the northeastern United States, Sandra Abstreiter wanted to take the next step in her ice hockey career.
Everything was ready until the German national goalkeeper received an e-mail at the end of June that changed everything: the PHF was sold, all teams were dissolved, the contracts are void. “At the beginning I thought: Wow, I have no idea what’s going to happen now,” says Abkampfer of the FAZ. The players will receive compensation of a few thousand dollars, but that won’t help them in the long term.
Neue Topliga mit Mindestgehalt
Even a few days apart, the 24-year-old faces “great uncertainty”, but she has now decided to see the whole thing as an opportunity. Because of course she knows that what happened was what ice hockey players from all over the world had fought for: a league with all the top players. They didn’t agree with the PHF at all. Too little money, too bad infrastructure. So stars like Hilary Knight and Marie-Philip Poulin founded a union in 2019. And when the Olympics or the World Cup aren’t on the agenda, they travel through North America with show games.
For four years, the best boycotted the only professional league. “I couldn’t be prouder of our group, we’ve stuck together the whole time,” said Canada’s star striker Sarah Nurse when the plans for the new top division became known.
It is scheduled to start in January, “financially supported” by rich investors, the PHF said in a statement. “The new league will have the resources it needs to represent the best in women’s hockey,” said billionaire Mark Walter, who also co-owns the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team and Chelsea FC. So now women’s ice hockey, because that’s a growth market. But not one that carries two leagues. So Walter and his colleagues bought the existing PHF and are now converting it.
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First step: A collective agreement with the union that women’s ice hockey has never seen before. According to media reports, there is a minimum salary of $35,000 (almost EUR 32,000), various players should earn $80,000 (almost EUR 73,000) and more per year, and there are also standards for hotels and travel, for medical care, regulations for pregnant women, daily allowances and meals. “These seem like small things, but for our athletes, they’re not things that existed in a reliable way,” union boss Jayna Hefford told The Athletic. “We have set a new standard for women’s hockey.”
The thing is, the old PHF players were left out of the negotiations. So they set up their own committee and shook hands with the union and the new league leadership: “Today, all women hockey players are more united than ever as we enter this new era.” In other words, they want to play. What will remain a wish for many. Not only are the striking stars pouring into the league, there’s also one team fewer. And since there aren’t many alternatives, the success of one leads to the end of the other: “A few have been forced to stop,” says Sandra Abstreiter, who “definitely wants to keep playing” herself. only where?
Best in the new top league. According to the specialist magazine The Hockey News, it could work, which recently listed Abkampfer as one of the 18 best goalkeepers in the world. Because she left her Bavarian homeland after graduating from high school and developed enormously at college. In April it was their saves that brought the German team into the World Cup quarter-finals. After that she got the PHF contract. And although that is now obsolete, she wants to keep trying in America and apply for a place on the six new teams. Until then, she keeps fit at home. It’s easy this week, there’s a course with the national team in Füssen. She is still looking for the next few weeks. “I still have to find a team where I can train.” So that the dream of my first professional season can live on.
