The growth of women’s sports around the country has taken some encouraging steps of late. On Friday afternoon in Columbus, a major investment was announced that will benefit the local community. The impact will go well beyond the ice.
During a luncheon at Ohio State, NHL Senior Executive Vice President Kim Davis announced an investment of almost $500,000 collectively between the NHL, the Columbus Blue Jackets, The Ohio State University and ESPN. The goal is to make hockey more accessible in Columbus. Five events are being hosted celebrating girls in youth hockey.
“This afternoon, we are here for something bigger,” Davis said. “That is the importance of women in sports and the importance of impact on the ice. The National Hockey League and all of our partners, the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Ohio State University’s Life Sports Program, ESPN and Disney together are making a powerful commitment to the next generation of leaders, a commitment that you can see everywhere.”
“That is why we are here today to invest in that belief, to invest in the future and to celebrate the people and the organizations that are making all of this possible. We’re doing this because we believe that contributing to building stronger and more vibrant communities helps every one of us, helps our sport and it helps our communities and it helps our world.”
The Columbus Ice Hockey Club will be at the center of this work. They’ve already helped introduce hockey to many while making sure that every child knows they have a place in hockey. This investment will continue their mission to help change lives in the Columbus area.
“There’s not better example of the power of this work than the Columbus Ice Hockey Club,” Davis said. “This is an organization that has redefined what it means to grow this game ensuring that every child no matter their background has a place in hockey. They have helped to break down barriers, building up communities and changing lives in the process.”
Kim Davis speaking now at Ohio State just announced that the Columbus Ice Hockey Club will be the recipient of the first grant from the NHL Foundation specifically for the growth and investment in girl’s hockey.
Tremendous news. #CBJ
— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) February 28, 2025
After this announcement, a panel led by ESPN reporter Emily Kaplan talked about the importance of investments like this and why investing in women is so powerful. The Hockey Writers spoke to Kaplan as well as analyst Blake Bolden and Columbus Blue Jackets CMO Kathryn Dobbs about the importance of the day.
We asked them the same three questions.
- How encouraged are you by the recent progress in growing women’s sports?
- What is the biggest gap that needs to be addressed?
- How can men become a better ally to women in helping to grow women’s sports?
Recent Progress
“I think today’s event is a testament to that,” Dobbs said. “The fact that we have our city and our sport and our team as the Columbus Blue Jackets front and center for a weekend for this event and during this event, we’re taking time to have this conversation. I think that tells us something about all the progress. I think for us, we’re getting ready to go into our 25th anniversary next year. We are deeply reflecting on the progress as well as identifying what it’s going to take to help move us forward. I think we are proud of the work. I’ll be more proud when it doesn’t have to be an agenda item.”
“Typically when you used to have a panel like this, you would see the same three or four people on it again and again,” Kaplan said. “It’s because we didn’t really have that many women in positions of power. I haven’t covered hockey for very long. But it felt like that when I first covered it. Now the fact that they’re able to bring in so many different voices and think of how many other people we could have included and created an even more dynamic conversation, I think that’s encouraging. I think now so many more women have a voice. Because of that, our sport is in a better place.”
“Now to be in a room of this magnitude with people who are invested with the sport and especially women and girls hockey, it’s really inspirational,” Bolden said. “It just lights a fire up on you. It makes you want to go out there give back to the sport, be better, be a better role model, connect with the individuals that I was on the panel with. I’ve exchanged all of their numbers. This could be great whatever we can come up with and create next. But we’re all here for the game and to see it grow as much as possible.”
Addressing Gaps
“I want to see accessibility gaps shrunk,” Bolden said. “I want to see equality gaps shrunk. I want to be able to have girls and women be able to play the game just as boys and men do. Hockey is for everyone. We just want that marketability to branch out to a wider audience so that they know they are welcome. It doesn’t matter where you come from, your gender, your race, your background.”
“I think it’s also the two most important gaps. We’re talking about the gap for women in the sport itself,” Dobbs said. “When I think about that, I think about the barriers to entry to the game. I think about the accessibility and the opportunity for girls to just be able to play on an all girls team. I would also say representation again is an important part of the gap. The second to that though is to girls and their confidence level and the gaps that we’re seeing in girls playing sports. Having that gap, we are then seeing a negative impact on things like confidence. We have a partnership with Ruling Our Experience. The work they are doing to understand the effects of girls in sports. There’s a drop in confidence for girls by 26% in 5th-8th grade and it doesn’t rebound in high school. In addition, during the ages of 10-14 is the most likely time girls will abandon sports. I think we can all agree it’s the time that we need them the most to benefit from the skills that we see from playing sports.”
“I think confidence is a really important word because I think a lot of times still we as women talk about imposter syndrome,” Kaplan said. “I think that’s because those around us often us as a diversity hire or it’s tokenism where we know behind the scenes we’ve put in the work. I think the biggest gap is getting women to believe that. Once we empower women, I think we’re going to see way more women in positions of power. I think that’s going to make our sport a better place diversity of opinion is as important as anything. Diversity of perspective.”
Role of Men as Allies
“I thought it was so important that so many of the women brought up male mentors that worked with them,” Kaplan said. “I know personally when I started broadcasting, it was brand new to me. Ray Ferraro didn’t hold my hand and didn’t baby me. He just started treating me like an equal in terms of chirping me and making fun of me but also telling me when I did a good job and telling me when I didn’t do a good job. That meant more to me than anything because he just viewed me as a colleague, not his female colleague. I think that’s all that we’re asking for is just to be seen for our abilities, not necessarily our gender or our background or how it might be different than those who have had these positions before us. So I think as men, just to see us for our abilities is really all we’re asking for.”
“Certainly speaking from my own experience, my first year working for the Blue Jackets, I was a single mom. My daughter was six years old at the time. I had three babysitters. The importance for me particularly as the only woman on the executive team at that time was the men around the table understanding. Now they are fathers and they had places to be too. But to take the time. I was not from here. I have no family here. When the school calls, I have to go. I think just an acknowledgment and understanding of some of the things we face, I do think it’s why we’re not seeing as many women in executive positions because we do have to balance and the sports schedule is incredible. Had it not been for three people and not knowing who’s picking up my child when, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. This is where I think the male advocates and taking time to understand those unique challenges (are vital.) One of the most important moments in my career was when our President Mike Priest came to me and said ‘If you ever think you can’t do this job because of your demands as a single mom, I want you to come in and talk to me first.’ That understanding and that acknowledgment was a pivotal moment for me in having an understanding of the unique challenges. I think Emily is right. There’s this reality check we sometimes have. But we are different. We want to be real about that. But if we’re real about it, then we can do anything.”
“Ask us what we need,” Bolden said. “Ask us how you can support. Be curious about our personal experience because it’s different from yours and vice versa. I think if we can work together in that symbiotic fashion and nature, we’ll be able to grow and evolve together.”
We All Have a Role
No matter what our path is, we all have a role to play. Seeing this investment in Columbus signifies the massive opportunity to be able to grow the game. But it goes beyond the playing surface.
We have the chance to help grow leaders in a safe and secure environment. We have the chance to help lift up voices. We have the chance to make a difference in the world.
Friday’s luncheon at Ohio State was a powerful moment seeing several game changers come together to share their experiences while indicating how much opportunity we all have to make a difference.
As we embark on the Stadium Series game Saturday night in Ohio Stadium, there will be over 90,000 fans in attendance. While it might be easy to get lost in the glamour of the environment, think of how many young women will be in attendance. Perhaps an event like this can help inspire them to chase whatever their passion is.
Hockey is truly for everyone. Thanks to this generous donation, the next generation of girls will get their chance to make a difference both on and off the ice. We all have a role to play in making sure they get every opportunity to shine.
