Infrastructure. It’s the number one item the PWHL is looking for when examining the potential PWHL expansion markets. The league wants good facilities for their fans, and their players, for game days, practices, and training.
“One, where will we play the games? Is the arena and the building up to the level of professionalism that we would like for our athletes?” said the PWHL’s executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer. “Number two is practice facility. So what is the option for practice facility? And again, is it up to the level in terms of locker room, amenities, all the things that our athletes deserve as professionals.”
The PWHL adapted on the fly in terms of facilities for players in year one. In New York alone, the team played in Bridgeport, Connecticut; Long Island, New York; and Newark, New Jersey. Ahead of year two they moved their operations from Bridgeport to Newark. The league also evaluated the need for change in Montreal and Toronto, moving both teams to larger game day venues.
Beyond logistics, Scheer listed several factors that will impact the PWHL’s decisions on expansion and what market, or markets, to put a new team or teams in.
Scheer named travel logistics and cost of travel as another factor, media size in the market, the economic opportunity including ticket sales and partnership potential, and also a look at what the existing hockey community and culture is in a given market.
What’s not part of the expansion criteria is how well each of the existing markets is doing. The PWHL’s three Canadian teams are thriving at the box office, while each of the league’s three American clubs have seen their ups and downs with Minnesota drawing best among the three.
The league has, in part, utilized the PWHL Takeover Tour to test several markets. It’s likely the league will place a new franchise in one, or two of the PWHL’s nine Takeover markets when they do expand. And while it means the other seven will not receive a team today, future expansion beyond eight teams remains a goal.
“They may be left out today, it doesn’t mean they’re left out tomorrow or the next day,” said Scheer. “While we can’t go from six teams to 12 in a year, you certainly want to keep these markets warm and the relationships warm as well. We’ve had the opportunity on this Takeover Tour to meet so many great people and play in so many great venues, there’s no really, at least in my opinion, there’s no really wrong decision on where we go, but just because you’re left out today doesn’t mean you’re left out tomorrow.”
Those are words PWHL fans will be excited to hear, as it signals that although this is the first round of expansion plans, it won’t be the last.