The PWHL averaged 9,692 fans in three of their four games returning from the international break. The fourth however, the leagues continued outlier in New York, drew a paltry 1,884 fans in what is a continued concern, and potential cause for imminent relocation.
Returning from the first international break of the PWHL season, the league was almost unanimously riding a wave of highs.
There were 9,250 fans at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum on Tuesday, followed by 9,389 at Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena on Wednesday, and the open of the PWHL Takeover Tour at a sold out Scotiabank Center in Halifax drawing 10,438 spectactors.
For a Tuesday and Wednesday school and work night, it was a spectacular result for the league. But there was a inkling of something else, something missing. Like Catherine O'Hara realizing in Home Alone that she'd forgotten something ahead of Christmas, which turned out not to be the coffee pot or garage door, it was the fact that one of her children had been left behind.
While the PWHL celebrated their newest additions in Vancouver and Seattle drawing large crowds, and visiting a new destination to success in Halifax, one of the league's original six teams was left behind. On Wednesday night, while two teams drew an average of 9,913 fans, the New York Sirens welcomed the league's lowest attendance of the season, and one of the lowest attended games in league history drawing only 1,884 fans to the 16,514 seat Prudential Center.
More Than A One Off
Of the PWHL's 16 least attended games of all time, 14 were home games of the New York Sirens at the Prudential Center, UBS Arena, and Total Mortgage Arena. The other two belong to the Boston Fleet's Tsongas Center. Currently, New York owns the eight least attended games in PWHL history, a mark that represents close to 30% of their home games, ever. Those eight games saw an average of only 1,540.
Even the Sirens' all-time home record, which occurred at the Prudential Center in the league's inaugural season prior to the PWHL moving the team to the venue permanently, the crowd of 5,132 still sits in the bottom half, 127th out of 207 games all-time, in league attendance.
New York also had the smallest home opener crowd this season drawing only 3,517. The league average, excluding New York on opening night was 9,893.
While PWHL executive board member Stan Kasten once told media that the league would always seek to have a presence in New York, the league has yet to find a way to build a sustainable fan base or market the team successfully in the region. The league itself has tested three separate home venues, each holding a near equal share of those poorly attended games. Those three markets were in three different states and cities in Bridgeport, Connecticut; Long Island, New York; and Newark, New Jersey. To date, no venue, or location, has proven it can sustain a team in the area.
It certainly does not help that the Sirens finished last overall in the PWHL standings the first two seasons, but the team features an exciting mix of young stars on the ice, and other non-playoff teams in the league continue to draw faithful crowds.
While league-wide success is growing, and the demand for tickets and PWHL teams themselves has never been higher, the belief that the metropolitan New York area must be part of the league, is being tested, and wearing thin.
Time To Relocate?
The conversation heading into this season is that the league will expand by 2-4 teams ahead of next season. The leading candidates for the PWHL's rapid growth include Denver, Detroit, and Chicago in the United States, and Edmonton, Quebec City, Hamilton, and Halifax in Canada.
The belief is any of those markets could successfully support a PWHL team, and all more successfully at the box office than the New York Sirens. With the league targeting up to four new teams, and as many as seven viable markets ready and waiting for a team, relocating the New York Sirens now, while the league remains in growth mode, could be the best option for the league, players, and sport.
Why is it important? With the league operating under a single entity ownership model, the failure of any one franchise financially is a threat to everyone. Similarly for the players who will undoubtedly seek a bigger share of revenue in the not-to-distant-future, seeing millions upon millions of dollars in revenue left on the table due to one market could prompt a push, not only from the league, but from the PWHLPA as well to look elsewhere.
The league itself hasn't exactly marketed the New York Sirens in the region, seemingly expecting organic growth simply because franchises exist. It's a method that has worked elsewhere in the league, but not in New York.
If the New York Sirens again remain at the bottom of the PWHL attendance chart for a third consecutive season, a fate that's all but guaranteed, relocation may be the only reasonable response for a league where no single market is more important than the growth and sustainability of the sport itself.