London, Ontario has been floated as a possible location for a pro women's team. Is it a good fit?
London, Ontario has been floated as a possible location for a pro women's team. Is it a good fit?
If you've never attended a London Knights game at Budweiser Gardens in London, Ontario, it's as professional of a setting and experience as you'll find in junior hockey.
The OHL's London Knights played in front of an average crowd of 8995 last season, a total which placed the Knights atop the OHL, and would have sat second in the American Hockey League.
The city of roughly 425,000 people has found itself in conversation recently as a potential destination for a new professional women's hockey league franchise location. Can the city support a professional women's team?
The city itself has long produced strong women's hockey players. Last year's Canadian U-18 team, which won gold at the World Championships, featured five members of the London Devilettes U-22 team, and dozens of London products competed in NCAA and USports hockey, not counting many others from surrounding communities.
The boasts a strong women's program at the USports level playing at Western University.
In terms of facilities, Budweiser Gardens has a capacity of 9,036, making it an ideal location, and currently the London Knights are the only hockey tenant, while the NBL Canada's London Lightning, a professional basketball team, also play in the venue.
Across town, there is also the Western Fair Sports Centre, which has an Olympic Sized ice surface that seats 1,500. The PWHPA has openly discussed their goal for arenas with at least 3000 seats, which likely rules out this location, and would make the Budweiser Gardens a prime location.
Geographically, London is roughly a two hour drive from Toronto and Detroit, seven hours to Montreal, and six and a half hours to Chicago. London does have an international airport, although direct flights outside of Toronto and Montreal for potential east coast locations do not exist.
Still, the city is an intriguing option, albeit unconventional in terms of capitalizing off major North American markets. Last year, the PWHPA partnered with several OHL teams to host Ontario stops on the Dream Gap Tour, and London has played host to several NHL Rookie Tournaments, and hosted the Memorial Cup. It's a city with a rich hockey history, including in women's hockey in the region whether it's the Devilettes, or the neighboring Bluewater Hawks in Strathroy, Ontario.
Budweiser Gardens is a ready made facility, as long as the new team could share branding with the Knights, and the city's population continues to rapidly expand, as do neighboring communities. It would be a unique market to select, but not one without merits.