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American sports history was written on October 11th when the nation’s first women’s professional hockey league faced off. The league, known as the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), consists of just four clubs, which are the Connecticut Whale, New York Riveters, The Boston Pride and the Buffalo Beauts. There have been other pro and semi-pro leagues before in Canada, but this is the first venture to give it a go in the U.S.

Dani Rylan, the commissioner of the NWHL, said the league is starting off quite small, but it hopes to expand in the future. Rylan added that the players are paid a wage and their equipment is supplied for them. The league is hoping to attract the best women hockey players in the world and could easily achieve that due to the fact they’re compensated for their time and have access to top-brand equipment.

The league got off to a good start as the opening contest between the Whale and the Riveters was sold out and saw the hometown Whale skate to a 4-1 win. Rylan stated that the average pay for the women is approximately $15,000 for the season. However, it’s a huge leap forward over the Canadian Women’s Hockey League since the players north of the border aren’t paid for their services and have to supply their own equipment. There are 72 female players on the four NWHL teams and each club will play an 18-game season.

This means each players is paid close to $1,000 a game and all of the matches have been scheduled for weekends. Therefore, the players can still work at their fulltime jobs during the week. For many of the women, the NWHL gives them the chance to live out their childhood dreams of playing professional ice hockey. The league is hoping to land a television broadcasting deal in the near future. However, NWHL fans can currently watch the league’s games live online with something called the NWHL Cross-Ice Pass. The free streaming service and more information about the league can be found at nwhl.co/cross-ice-pass

All four NWHL franchises are located relatively close to each other, which should make traveling for the teams and fans quite a bit easier. The league’s schedule runs until February 28, 2016. Each team plays nine home games and single-game tickets cost about $20 on average while season tickets go for about $150.