PWHL Attendance Continues To Rise...But Not Everywhere

Last Sunday, the PWHL recorded its millionth fan since its inaugural season. One million fans in attendance in 155 games (including the playoffs) is quite the feat, especially when 10 years worth of attendance in the CWHL totalled a little over 72,000 fans. And I totally get why the league has been promoting that milestone. 

Along the way, the PWHL has also already surpassed the number of fans it drew last year, in fewer games. It makes sense. New York left Connecticut for good, while Toronto and Montreal moved to larger arenas. 

That being said, when you look at the actual state of attendance in the PWHL, for each individual market, things might not be as pretty as they look.  

Let’s start in the United States, where things have been tougher on that regard. 

In Minnesota, the state of hockey in the U.S., the Frost has recorded a drop of 12% in attendance in regular season so far, based on the average attendance this season, excluding the “home games” from the Takeover Tour, compared to last year. In 2024, the team drew more than 10,000 fans twice. This season? Not once. 

In New York, or should we say in New Jersey, where the team has moved after a first season splitting home game between Connecticut, Long Island and Newark, things have not improved that much. 

In fact, despite the move, there’s only a slight increase of 4% in attendance. In absolute number, there are only 88 more fans on average per game this season compared to the last. 

At the Prudential Center alone, the drop is 36% compared to last season. That said, it might not be a fair assessment since last season there were only two games played there. But it does say a lot about what a team can draw regularly in a certain venue compared to what they can do once or twice a year. 

And if we compared the attendance at the Prudential Center this year to what the Sirens drew last season at the UBS arena, we get another slight increase of 4%. New York is the only team that drew fewer than 2,000 fans this season, and they did it five times so far. Last season, it happened only four times. 

It is the harder market, but at the same time, the PWHL is the only major professional league, including the WBNA and NWSL, where a NY/NJ based team is the worst in terms of attendance. 

Those numbers are also raising a few questions. Can the league find a way to make money out of that market? Are there ways to improve those numbers? And ultimately, can a serious professional league live without a team in the New York area? A lot of questions, very few answers. 

The good news in the U.S. comes from Boston. Even if fans complained about the location of the Tsongas Centre, set in Lowell, MA, the reality is that the team shows a healthy increase of 10% in attendance at Tsongas Centre alone. 

Now, because of the recent success the Fleet had at Agganis Arena, the total growth is up to 15%. 

In total, it’s a drop of 3.4% compared to last season for the three U.S. teams in their home market. Minnesota's 12% drop accounts for the bulk of this change.

In Canada, where the league has been much more popular, not every market has been a hit this year. 

In Ottawa for example, the Charge has seen a drop of 7% in attendance so far. 

And it gets worse if we get the game played at the Canadian Tire Centre out of the equation. If we only compare games at TD Place, it’s a 13% decrease on the average attendance. 

In Toronto and Montreal, the larger arenas have not drawn the same crowds as last year. If at Scotiabank Arena, the Sceptres have only seen a 0.9% decrease, this year’s game at the Bell Center in Montreal saw a drop of 18%. At Bell Place, where the Victoire plays its regular games, we are talking about an 8% year-to-year decrease, but that was to be expected. Pretty much like the Prudential Center, there were only four games at Bell Place last season compared to 10 so far this year. 

Aside from that, Toronto and Montreal have seen enormous growth, thanks to moving in bigger venues. In Toronto, where the team went from playing every game but one in a 2,500-seat arena to drawing more than 8,000 fans on average at the Coca-Cola Coliseum, the average attendance number is up by 227%. To be honest, it’s almost unfair to compare those. The real evaluation will be next season, when we can compare apples with apples. 

In Montreal, there is a 48% increase, not including the Bell Center games. Including those, we are talking about a 30% increase. 

In total, all included, the Canadian teams saw a 38% increase from last year in their home market. 

Toronto and Montreal are the main reasons why crowds have been so much higher this season compared to last year.  

The other reason is the Takeover Tour. One has to admit that it has been a success. Between the games in Vancouver, Edmonton, Quebec City, and another U.S. record in Detroit, the average attendance has been 14,412 fans. 

Since those games replaced eight home games, if you compared the Takeover Tour average to what the teams have been drawing this season in their home market, it’s a 124% increase. 

This is huge.

More than 8,500 fans in Buffalo is three times what the team draws in Newark. Minnesota playing in Denver and Raleigh doubled the team’s average in Saint Paul, and the same goes for Montreal playing in Quebec City compared to Laval. 

The problem with the Takeover Tour is not what they can draw for a single game, but what the expectations are after that. For example, if Detroit gets a franchise, will the team be able to keep an average of 13,000 or 14,000 fans every single game? 

The Prudential Center and Bell Place cases are giving us some kind of an answer here. 

And last but not least, last year’s average, without the games played in Detroit and Pittsburgh, was 5,281 fans. This year, without the Takeover Tour, the average is at 6,448 fans, a 22% increase. 

But if we also get Toronto and Montreal out of the way, we would be talking about a 4% decrease.  

So yes, so far, the league improved its total number of fans in attendance from last year. But when we break down the numbers, the PWHL has to thank Montreal, Toronto, and the Takeover Tour for that.