The 2025 Hockey India League is wrapping up, with not only yesterday’s women’s final but with the conclusion of the men’s competition this coming weekend.
In looking at the organization, the trappings, and the presentation of the league, I can’t help thinking that the HIL has gotten a lot of its inspiration from India’s other national sport, cricket.
Since 2007, the India Premier League has put on a show for its limited-over version of the game which sees upwards of 10 teams playing a round-robin series of matches leading to playoffs and a grand final.
The thing is, the IPL has gotten so popular and so famous that other cricket leagues have started springing up around the world. The Twenty20 format (which started in the United States in 2004), has sprouted leagues in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Australia, England, Zimbabwe, Nepal, the Caribbean, and, yep, back to the United States (Major League Cricket) where it all began.
In many instances, top players from around the world will sometimes go from one league to another since the teams are transitory rather than, say, a pro baseball team that trains for three months, plays for six more, then has a three-month offseason. Players can gain some pretty hefty salaries from going around the world playing the game they love.
As I was watching the closing ceremony, where U.S. captain Ashley Hoffman and goalie Jennifer Rizzo accepted their hronze medals, I couldn’t help thinking that there could be other short-term leagues where players could hone their skills against the best competition available.
I’ve always believed that there could be more than one model that could work in the United States. Chiefly among them are the Athletes Unlimited model, where four teams would be chosen up from a pool of somewhere around 60 players, then individuals would be scored for their statistical contributions during the match (10 points for a goal, five for an assist, 45 points for being on a team winning a game, for example).
Another model, one which this space has been championing, is the “trade league,” where major sponsors of teams would be using the product that is the name of the team — Team Adidas would wear field hockey-specific products, while Team Gatorade would be hydrating using the omnipresent sports drink. There could be other tie-ins, but the league’s major team sponsors would use field hockey as a test ground for their products.
Could there be a Women’s Hockey America League one of these days? There would be no shortage of facilities to hold the schedule of fixtures, whether Virginia Beach or Chapel Hill on the East Coast, Chula Vista or Moorpark on the West Coast, Houston or St. Louis in the heartland, or Spring City or Conshohocken in hockey-crazed Pennsylvania.
Can it happen? Will it happen?
It all depends on what factors come together to make it happen.