Given women’s hockey was seemingly on the rise, the news that the Canadian Women’s Hockey League was folding came out of nowhere Sunday.

And with the league’s demise, 12 years of hard work and devotion from players and their supporters who simply wanted a league of their own will be gone.

The CWHL, which always felt more of a cause than a league, will cease to exist May 1.

“We had a really great season, we were able to grow the game, increase the visibility of our players, the awareness around the game, we had a great Clarkson Cup championship,” interim commissioner Jayna Hefford told the Star on Sunday. “But we’ve come to realize that under this economic model, it’s not sustainable for us for the future.

“We feel like, in order to advance the game in the way it deserves, this model isn’t the right one.”

The decision is a puzzling one. The league’s board of directors decided its not-for-profit model, which had worked for 12 years, won’t work any longer. But it does clear the way for a one-league landscape and it opens the door for more involvement from the NHL which did not want to choose sides in the rivalry between the six-team CWHL, with teams in Canada, the United States and China, and the five-team, U.S-based National Women’s Hockey League.

“It’s obviously a sad occasion for women’s hockey,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the Star. “We salute all of the people — and particularly all of the players — that were involved in this venture from the start. The CWHL provided leadership and unique opportunities to girls wishing to play hockey at an elite level. Their vision will endure. Professional opportunities are important for young women playing hockey. Those opportunities continue to exist.”

The NHL has been backing the women’s game, even creating some buzz when it included women at its all-star weekend in San Jose.

A Toronto group, which has asked for anonymity, has already set in motion the legal paperwork to start a women’s league. It is waiting to see what happens with the NWHL, which gave no indication Sunday if it plans expand to Canada.

“All of us at the NWHL were very saddened to learn this morning that the CWHL is discontinuing operations,” the U.S. league said in a statement. “We had an excellent meeting with the CWHL in January where we presented significant proposals to them about forming one league, and we agreed to meet again in April. We are sorry to know those talks will not continue.”

Operating as a not-for-profit organization under the title “the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Amateur Women’s Hockey,” the CWHL generated $3.449 million in revenue and $3.24 million in expenses, including $1.6 million in salaries for players, coaches and staff, and nearly $800,000 in travel, according to its 2018 financial statements, obtained by the Star.

At least $1.7 million of that revenue came from backers of the two Chinese teams that operated in 2017-18. The rest of the money came mostly from sponsors and donors linked to the various members of its board and the board members themselves.

The CWHL underwent a sea change over the last 12 months. Commissioner Brenda Andress, who had been there from the beginning, was replaced by Hefford, an Olympic gold medallist and Hockey Hall of Famer. The entire board of directors was overhauled, with at least one former board member — venture capitalist Graeme Roustan — questioning the leadership of board chair Laurel Walzak.

Roustan, one of the biggest donors and backers of the league until a falling out last year, was incensed at the decision to shutter its doors.

“The pure arrogance of chair Laurel Walzak and her hand-picked directors of the CWHL to unilaterally decide that they are not up to the task to continue what thousands of people have created before them and simply surrender to perform their duties as directors and members of the non-profit CWHL is shocking to me,” Roustan told the Star. “How dare they kill a professional women's hockey league after its 12th season when I believe it was on solid ground after its 11th season.”

Only one team, Shenzen, operated in China this season and that group’s backers were scheduled to meet this week. There had been rumblings the Shenzen group was going to pull out completely and start its own Chinese-based league as part of preparations for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. That would have been a financial blow to the CWHL.

“I’ve not heard that,” Walzak told the Star.

Asked why a model that had worked for 12 years was not going to work for a 13th, Walzak said it was more about the future than the past.

“We’ve been looking forward to the future, we’ve done everything we could to secure additional funding for this year and moving forward,” said Walzak. “We’ve exhausted our options. We’ve spoken to many different constituents, whether that’s sponsors or advertisers, in terms of driving that revenue. Really it was only up until last week when it became clear that additional funding is not available for the future.”

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To be successful, Walzak said, “we need it all. Not just corporate sponsorship. We need higher attendance at our games, which is ticket sales, and to sell more merchandise. We need more advertising revenue on our broadcasts. We need more broadcasts to drive viewership. We need more money from corporate Canada, not just (relying on) our relationship with China, which is a big source of our current funding.”

On Twitter, the players involved in the league lamented its demise.

“This morning we were informed the #CWHL is folding,” said Marie-Philip Poulin, a forward with Les Canadiennes de Montreal and the league’s MVP. “As players, we will do our best to find a solution so this isn’t our last season of hockey but it’s hard to remain optimistic. #NoLeague”

Sami Jo Small, the GM of the Toronto Furies and a league founder, promised there would be hockey. “I have no idea what this means for the future, but this is heartbreaking,” Small tweeted. “We will work hard to ensure there is still women’s hockey in Toronto.”