While the world waits for the return of men’s professional sports, the women’s side of the equation has been somewhat lost in the conversation. In North America specifically, it’s been an important 12 months for women’s pro sports — but the question now is: What will happen to all of that momentum? Jayna Hefford and Kia Nurse join Donnovan and Richard to discuss. In hockey, it’s complicated. Women’s visibility has been grown by their participation in NHL All-Star festivities, but in May 2019, the Canadian-based CWHL unexpectedly shut down, while the U.S.-based NWHL continued. Then a rift in the sport appeared when hundreds of players — including most of the biggest names in the game — formed the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association and boycotted the 2019–20 NWHL season in an effort to pressure for the formation of a single professional league. The NWHL carried on, worked with its players’ association on revenue sharing and more, and even announced plans to expand to Canada for the upcoming season.  Hefford is a Hockey-Hall-of-Fame player, a former CWHL commissioner and the current PWHPA Operations Consultant. In many ways, she’s been the public face of the movement to pay professional players a living wage. She discusses how COVID-19 has impacted international and professional women’s hockey, what the general state of the economy might mean for the sport’s future and how the PWHPA has been supporting its members during the pandemic. In basketball, the labour news was better. A new WNBA collective bargaining agreement raised minimum salaries and revenue sharing opportunities, added parental benefits, better travel minimums and more. But the season was supposed to begin in just a couple of weeks and is now in jeopardy.  The New York Liberty’s Nurse is one of the bright young lights in the game. She talks about messaging from the league and WNBAPA during the pandemic, what she knows about returning to play, challenges faced by players with contracts in Europe and Asia, how her own personal sponsorships have been impacted by the pause and more. COVID-19 Resources: (1) Triple Pundit: The Burdens of the Coronavirus Pandemic Are Largely Falling on Women (2) Forbes: What Do Countries With The Best Coronavirus Responses Have In Common? Women Leaders (3) ESPN: Heroes SC Feature (Dr. Leslie Bottrell and Kyle Lowry) This episode is scripted, produced and sound designed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Donnovan Bennett and Richard Deitsch. Archival support by Adrian Cheddie, Jon Levett provided audio editing assistance, and production help from Dan Lorimer and Jeff Azzopardi.  Audio Credits: 106.7 The Fan, CBS WUSA 9, CNBC, FOX Sports, KTLA 5 and The Rich Eisen Show, The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.