PWHL Confirms League Will Expand By 2-4 Teams Following This Season

In a recent Ottawa city council meeting, PWHL executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer, alongside executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford spoke on behalf of the league and what they consider a detrimental arena plan to the long term success of the PWHL's Ottawa Charge.

The plan to shrink capacity for the Charge at a future new arena as part of the Lansdowne 2.0 plan comes at a time when the PWHL is not looking to shrink any part of their business. In fact, according to Scheer, the league is targeting rapid future growth, including another wave of expansion following this season. 

After expanding from six to eight teams this season with the addition of PWHL Vancouver and PWHL Seattle, the PWHL aims to add more teams in time for the 2026-27 season.

"We added Vancouver and Seattle this year, two teams, we're going to expand at least 2-4 teams next year, we are in growth mode and this league is exploding," said Scheer.

Scheer stated the PWHL is attempting to put each team in a position to be profitable, but that the league remains a long way off from that. The issue of profitability and long term viability in Ottawa continued to resurface. Scheer told Councillor Cathy Curry during questioning that "to take one team and have it try to function with two hands behind its back is not a long term plan that any business owner would sign up for."

Councillor Cathy Curry argued that the PWHL's revenue is heading to an American billionaire, implying that was the sole purpose of the league, while she was under the assumption the PWHL was established to support women's sport.  

"I guess I thought when the PWHL was created it was about women's sport," Curry said in the meeting.

"It is about women in sport," Scheer replied. "If you understood the investment that is being put into this, you would probably fall off your chair." 

Scheer reiterated that half of the league's teams are located in Canadian markets, including PWHL Vancouver, one of two expansion markets for this season, and that the league continues to invest in Canadian markets, including Ottawa.

Last year, the PWHL Takeover Tour made Canadian stops in Quebec City, Edmonton, and Vancouver, and it's believed Quebec City, Edmonton, and other markets, including Hamilton and Halifax, are leading contenders for future expansion of the league.

The PWHL will continue to expand ahead of next season, but the league is also facing difficult decisions in Ottawa which, according league representatives, could result in a worst case scenario where they need to relocate the team out of Ottawa.

For Scheer, it's a novel situation as the new venue is designed for a men's team, but with a capacity that limits the growth of women's sports. The PWHL, according to Hefford and Scheer, wants to stay in Ottawa, but the lack of a "seat at the table" while more than a dozen organization's needs were consulted in the program, and a partnership driven by OSEG that is focuses exclusively on men's sports teams, not the PWHL's Ottawa Charge, are impacting that hope.

“In like the most cruel twist of fate," Scheer said, "We sit here today...where an arena’s being built that’s too small for women, and perfect for the men.”       

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