A League Without California Was Never In The Cards For The PWHL

A league without California was never in the cards for the PWHL. In fact, a North American major professional league in any sport without a California footprint seems unfeasible.

Every major league not only has one California team, but it's shocking if they have less than two. The list includes the WNBA (2), NWSL (2), MLV (2), NVA (4), NHL (3), MLB (5), NFL (3), MLS (4), and NBA (4). One exception is the National Lacrosse League, which has only one California team.

While hockey fans might look at the long list of available markets to grow from what now sits at a nine-team league, including the recently announced team in Detroit, there was always going to be a target on California as a market. After launching as a predominantly eastern league perhaps the PWHL has reached their need to be permanently entrenched on the west coast faster than anyone predicted.

Certainly you can trace women's hockey history in Halifax, Quebec City, Edmonton, and Calgary to the earliest reaches of the sport. But San Francisco and Oakland weren't far behind. Beginning in 1916 with the opening of San Francisco's Techau Tavern Ice Palace, women stepped onto the ice to play hockey in the Bay Area. Roughly 110 years ago on May 26, 1916, the first recorded game of women's ice hockey in the Bay Area was played.

“An ice-hockey match between two teams composed of of women proved a sensation,” the San Francisco Bulletin wrote. “All the players exhibited marked facility in handling the difficult plays of the game, and shot the puck around the rink with the skill of veterans.”

A week later, 1,200 fans took in the Minerva Hockey Club of Oakland and San Francisco’s Diana Club playing with Oakland winning 4-1 in “a game that never lost its tense interest for a moment.” Lena Uksila scored a hat trick in the game. The Michigan transplant was one of America's first trailblazing players, also helping to bring the sport to Australia.

In 1917 and again in 1918, the West Coast trend continued in the Bay Area with teams called the Princess Pats and Wanderers facing off in a series, with local papers calling the games "every bit as thrilling as the contests between Seattle and Les Canadiens" who played for the Stanley Cup that year.

Mark Walter is the owner of MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers as the controlling partner of Guggenheim Baseball Management. The Mark Walter Group also owns the PWHL. Other members of Guggenheim Baseball Management and Dodgers' ownership? That list includes PWHL Advisory Board members Stan Kasten, Billie Jean King, and Ilona Kloss. Not only is Kasten part-owner of the Dodgers, he's also the president of the team, who are the reigning World Series champions. 

Alongside the Dodgers and the PWHL, Mark Walter also owns the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, and is a part-owner of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, whose ownership group also including Kasten and King.

Billie Jean King's BJK Enterprises also owns a portion of the NWSL's Angel City FC. King doesn't just hold a stake in an LA team, she was born and raised in Long Beach, California. Her younger brother, Randy Moffitt spent 10 years on the mound in the Bay Area as a MLB pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. Billie Jean King is a California icon whose influence in the state stretches far beyond the court, field, or ice. 

The other member of the PWHL's Advisory Board is Royce Cohen, a who is the senior vice president of business strategy for the Los Angeles Dodgers. All roads for the PWHL's leadership lead directly through The Golden State.

Beyond the history and business connections to the state, there is just no way to ignore the magnanimous market that is California. With the PWHL expanding to Seattle and Vancouver last season, more West Coast presence was necessary and expected. If Seattle and Vancouver were the foundation, California will be the joist that carries the load in terms of attracting new broadcasting and media opportunities and sponsors. In other words, California is essential to the league if they want to boost their business revenue. It it doesn't come in San Jose or San Diego in this round, it will come in some form in the next. 

California boasted a 2025 population of more than 39,355,000, by far the most populated state in the United States. And while San Jose isn't California's largest city, it is the 12th largest in the USA. Above San Jose in population are Los Angeles and San Diego (which was also rumored to be in the running for a PWHL team). But the state itself is huge for the PWHL. Depending on what side of the argument you fall with New York being considered the largest market in the PWHL due to the fact they're located in New Jersey, but any of the three aforementioned California cities would be the PWHL's largest American market outside of New York. 

The Bay Area is home to more than 7.5 million people.

Beyond what makes California a viable market for any sport, is how crucial California is for the PWHL. This year the PWHL continued to smash attendance records and merchandise records, and for the first time the league had multiple games nationally broadcast. They also sold out venues like Madison Square Garden (New York), TD Garden (Boston), and Climate Pledge Arena (Seattle) this season, the league's first stop at those facilities. 

The PWHL is a hot commodity right now. 

But there is room for significant growth. The biggest for the PWHL is the prospect of a major national broadcasting deal in the United States, which would be a significant milestone in the stability for the league. California also brings a multitude of sponsorship opportunities, and continues to add the leagues reach to the west.

If something goes wrong and the PWHL doesn't add a California team in this round of expansion, the league will not be complete until there's professional women's hockey in The Golden State.