PWHL: "We learn from every ticket we sell, we learn from every ticket we don't sell"

The PWHL exceeded all expectations for attendance and ticket sales, but there is still room to learn and grow, and they plan to do even better in year two.

The PWHL exceeded all expectations in year one for ticket sales.

On the second night of the season, Ottawa broke an all-time record for professional women's hockey welcoming 8,318 fans to TD Place Arena. 

That mark was surpassed again and again in the opening season. Only four nights later a new record was set in Minnesota welcoming 13,316 fans to the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota. It was a world mark that stood until Toronto's 19,285 fans who sold out Scotiabank Arena on February 16. Minnesota's mark as an American record was broken March 16 at a neutral site game in Detroit that saw 13,736 fans at Little Caesars Arena. In the final weeks of the season, Montreal's Bell Centre topped them all with 21,105 fans packing the venue.

At the other end of the spectrum however, PWHL New York saw the only game to not hit 1000 fans when they brought in a paltry 728 people for a March 6 game at Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

"We learn from every ticket we sell, we learn from every ticket we don't sell," said PWHL advisory board member Stan Kasten.

"Whatever the lessons are in any given market that on certain nights we didn't do what we wanted, we're going to sit down and try to understand what we need to do better to make it a better event or make coming to a game more appealing," Kasten said.

Across the regular season, the PWHL averaged 5,448 fans in their 72 games.

"There's not one magic bullet...you have to think about everything," said Kasten. "You have to think about the venue, you have to think about the fans and the date and the prices and access, all of that stuff. I thought we did great for having like four months to make it work, but now with a little more time we're going to be able to do even better."