1 week ago
For nan first clip successful nan short history of nan Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), nan Walter Cup is leaving nan United States. The Montreal Victoire hit nan Ottawa Charge successful an all-Canadian last that wrapped up Wednesday nighttime successful 4 games. While Canada tin declare nan champion, it’s nan US that continues to triumph successful nan maturation of women’s hockey.
The time earlier Montreal won nan Walter Cup, nan PWHL announced nan convention is expanding to San Jose for adjacent season. It was nan 4th specified description announcement successful nan 3 weeks. With Detroit, Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario, receiving nan different 3 description franchises, nan young convention will caput into nan 2026/27 play pinch an imbalance successful franchises betwixt Canada and nan US for nan first time.
The PWHL will participate its 4th run pinch 7 US franchises and 5 Canadian. It’s a business decision, but it’s besides a reflection of nan monumental maturation nan athletics is experiencing successful nan US.
The PWHL is riding grounds attendance successful venues crossed nan US and is hoping to get astatine a league-wide nationalist US broadcasting deal. ION, nan nationalist sports web of Scripps Sports, aired a PWHL crippled nationally connected linear tv for nan first clip successful nan US successful March. After that game, nan web added nan PWHL playoffs to its docket. Prior to nan deal, nan PWHL was only disposable successful nan US connected location networks, and free connected YouTube. Even connected YouTube however, nan convention saw a 77% season-over-season summation successful viewership.
At nan container office, nan PWHL sold retired Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, Boston’s TD Garden and New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The MSG attendance of 18,006 now sits arsenic nan US master women’s lucky attendance record. League-wide, attendance flourished, but nan bulk of nan maturation occurred done past year’s description teams successful Seattle and Vancouver, arsenic good arsenic successful nan league’s original 3 American markets.
The Seattle Torrent led nan convention successful attendance drafting an mean of 12,875 fans per game, but location was maturation crossed nan board. The Minnesota Frost saw their mean attendance climb from 6,524 successful 2024/25 to 8,143 this season; nan Boston Fleet grew from 4,587 to 5,991; and nan New York Sirens astir doubled their mean attendance from a paltry 2,764 past season, to a respectable 5,095 successful nan 2025/26 campaign.
Coupled pinch nan truth that nan PWHL accrued its convention and squad business portfolio by 35% season-over-season to 81 firm partners, saw in-arena merchandise income double and online merchandise income summation much than 50%, business is booming for nan PWHL.
Parallel to nan league’s on- and off-ice occurrence is nan occurrence of women’s crystal lucky successful America. In nan past twelvemonth connected nan world stage, Team USA won women’s lucky golden astatine nan U-18 world championships, IIHF world championships, Para Ice Hockey world championships and nan Milano Cortina Olympics.
Following the US team’s Olympic golden medal, USA Hockey announced it had deed a caller milestone, pinch 100,000 women and girls registered to play crystal lucky for nan first time. That maturation has accelerated exponentially successful places nan PWHL will now telephone home. In Nevada, since nan Vegas Golden Knights joined nan NHL successful 2017, girls’ lucky registrations person risen by 600%. That number will surely climb moreover much quickly aft PWHL description to Las Vegas.
The convention will besides laic roots successful California for nan first clip successful San Jose, wherever nan caller PWHL squad will stock nan SAP Center pinch nan San Jose Sharks. The San Jose Jr Sharks insignificant lucky programme now has galore women’s lucky alumnae competing successful nan NCAA and professionally. There are moreover respective Bay Area products who will look to subordinate nan PWHL this play done free agency aliases nan draft, including San Jose autochthonal Rachel Llanes, who spent nan past 3 seasons arsenic nan spot and conditioning coach for nan AHL’s San Jose Barracudas, nan apical workplace squad of nan NHL’s Sharks.
The league’s move to California makes consciousness fixed nan state’s ties to nan PWHL itself. The PWHL operates nether a single-entity ownership model, pinch all, now 12, franchises owned by nan Mark Walter Group. Walter is besides nan proprietor of MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, nan NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and nan WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.
PWHL Advisory Board members Billie Jean King, Ilona Kloss, Stan Kasten and Royce Cohen besides each tally done California. Kasten is nan part-owner and president of nan Dodgers, and part-owner of nan Sparks. King is an investor successful nan NWSL’s Angel City, and she was calved and raised successful Long Beach, California. And Cohen is nan elder vice-president of business strategy for nan Dodgers.
While nan Walter Cup, named for nan league’s laminitis and his wife, is headed northbound of nan border, business, by each metric, is booming for nan PWHL successful nan United States.
