PWHL Expansion: "There Is A Line Of Cities Eager To Have Us There"
· Yahoo Sports
In front of the biggest crowd the United States has ever seen for professional women's hockey, at "The World's Most Famous Arena" in Madison Square Garden, the PWHL sent a clear message.
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That message was that the PWHL, and their on-ice product are a hot commodity right now.
"Even though it will cost us more money, we're ready to expand," PWHL Advisory Board member Stan Kasten told media prior to the game. "There is a line of cities eager to have us there whether it's for a couple Takeover Tour games or for a full time team."
"We're going to have news about that in the next few weeks."
Many of the markets who hosted games on this season's PWHL Takeover Tour are considered viable markets for the league whether it's north of the border in Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Halifax, or Hamilton; or south of the border in Denver, Detroit, Chicago, or Washington.
The PWHL has maintained they will be expanding by 2-4 teams ahead of the 2026-27 season after adding two teams prior to this season in the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent. While the league is in rapid growth mode, Kasten stated that they still consider themselves a start up until certain benchmarks are met. The two biggest aspects of the league's next steps in growth according to Kasten were in the level of sponsorship dollars the league can secure, as well as landing a major national broadcasting deal in the United States to create media revenue.
As Kasten reiterated, the league believes those milestones will be met in short order.
The PWHL for the first time had a game nationally broadcast in the United States on Scripps' ION for Detroit's stop of the PWHL Takeover Tour. ION will again carry games in the Walter Cup playoffs.
Sunday's attendance record of 18,006 fans at Madison Square Garden was the fourth time this season alone that the PWHL has broken their own American attendance record with Seattle doing it twice, Washington once, followed by New York to see the hometown Sirens win 2-1 in a shootout. Boston would have surpassed all previous marks next weekend when the market hosts a game for the first time at a sold out TD Garden.
With this round of expansion, the PWHL is set to grow to become a 10 or 12 team league for 2026-27, and will also continue to operate the PWHL Takeover Tour bringing the PWHL to more markets across North America.