Canadian Women's Hockey League Adds Team in China

The Canadian Women's Hockey League will become the first professional North American hockey entity to expand to China as organizations race to infiltrate the rapidly growing sports market.

The CWHL, regarded as one of the top women's professional hockey outfits in the world, announced on Monday that a team based in Shenzhen, China, will be the league's sixth team.

The Kunlun Red Star will join the Toronto Furies, Boston Blades, Brampton Thunder, Calgary Inferno, and Montreal Canadiennes, with the league seeing an increase from 24 to 30 regular-season games for the 2017-18 season.

"China is a powerhouse and the CWHL wants to be part of the powerhouse," CWHL commissioner Brenda Andress said from the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday, according to the CBC.

"This is a historic moment in time for women's hockey to grow on a global stage, creating a template for many winter sports to follow heading into the 2022 Olympics to be held in China. This is not just about hockey it is about the opportunity for the growth of women in all sports and creating career opportunities."

The addition of KRS, which also has a Chinese club in the KHL, was eight months in the making and presented obvious scheduling and logistical issues, but all those seemed to be resolved as of Monday's groundbreaking announcement. Each of the five North American-based teams will travel to China once to play a three-game series against the Red Star, while Kunlun will head to Canada and the United States to visit the other CWHL clubs in a similar three-game set. Its roster will feature a core made up of players from the Chinese national team, as well as international recruits. Each North American-based club is comprised of many top Canadian and American national team players.

Watch more from VICE Sports on the Godfather of Team India Ball Hockey

The league does not pay its players, which is another issue in itself, and raises the question of the merits of additional travel costs that an expansion Chinese team will bring. When asked, Red Star Chairman Xiaoyu Zhao confirmed it is paying to play in the CWHL, but wouldn't specify how much.

"Certainly, we follow market practice," Zhao responded when asked about an expansion fee. "We would like to see the CWHL expand and grow also with the support and effort of my club. In return, we benefit from being a member of this league."

The massive Asian market, specifically the burgeoning hockey scene in China, is one that the NHL is trying desperately to infiltrate, too. The game is growing heavily in the country, with over 400 rinks scheduled to be built by 2020, and a ten-fold increase in registered hockey players since 2008.

The NHL will host exhibition games in Beijing and Shanghai next fall between the LA Kings and Vancouver Canucks, while the Stanley Cup playoffs have been a hit across the pond, too—with a regular Chinese audience of around 22 million people tuning in to the NHL's postseason this year, according to the Toronto Star.

With the CWHL's groundbreaking move to expand across the Pacific, and the NHL's continued and growing interest in a market that boasts over 1.3 billion people, it's clear that the Chinese hockey revolution is now in full swing.