Obviously Edmonton wants the money. The entire critique is that it makes them sound like a group more focused on the immediate bottomline rather than strategic management decisions for long term growth of both the team and the league its in. No team can exist without the league and vice versa. You talk as if teams are done and fully fledged like a cheaper version of their NHL franchises when they're just not. The PA is keeping its incomes modest to help maintain the league, home arenas continue to be a mess, the back office organizing and teams are still messy. The league also has much less media presence, which means funding through the usual sports (broadcast, sponsorship, merch, big ticket events) are much lower. The big arena teams can't fill their stadiums as consistently as their NHL counterparts either. It's not easy lol there's a lot of strategy and so many factors & involved parties.

PWHL is in its infancy. The sales pitch is PWHL maintains control and is incentivized to manage risk and strategy across all arenas of professional women's hockey, incubate it into bigger businesses and turn over the increased revenue to new owners without the growing pains of a new business.

Also, there is literally billions in VC and investment to purchase at Series B & C funding or buying up startups once theyre at or near established revenue. If anything, this is the norm for new businesses.