The Worcester Blades fold
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It looks like women's pro hockey is no longer a thing in Worcester.
Earlier this news, some tough news broke that the Canadian Women's Hockey League would be folding after this season. While that seems like it wouldn't impact the good old United States of America, think again. The league featured a Massachusetts team--the Worcester Blades--so they're likely folding at this point.
The Blades moved to Worcester for the 2018-2019 season after spending the majority of their tenure closer to the Boston area. However, the National Women's Hockey League, the other pro women's hockey league in North America, has the Boston Pride, who play at Warrior Ice Arena in Boston, so one could say there may have been some turf wars going on in the women's pro hockey market in the area.
Founded in 2006, the CWHL started off as an amateur league and only got the funding to start paying players two seasons ago. However, it still attracted plenty of star college players and what not, especially when they started offering some cash money.
The thing when it comes to all of these leagues is it is so difficult for pro sports leagues to survive. Sure, there are the big ones like MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA, but most of them don't have the big TV deals and therefore don't make it. MLS works because it's the highest skill level in North America.
The CFL and Arena Football League work because they're offering a unique product with different rules than the NFL.
But for the most part, leagues just don't work out; look at what happened to the AAF earlier this month, despite having a bunch of NFL caliber players in their league.
So yeah, it's unfortunate that New England is down a pro sports team. Hopefully more come to the area in the near future.