After a record setting stop in Washington for the PWHL Takeover Tour earlier this year, the PWHL continue to tout the market for potential expansion.
Back in January, the PWHL Takeover Tour drew an American women's hockey attendance record at the league's first ever PWHL game.
The record crowd of 17,288 at Capital One Arena was impressive, smashing all previous PWHL marks in the United States.
It's a moment that has helped propel Washington from an outsider in the PWHL expansion discussions, to a potential front runner.
In a recent interview with Front Office Sports, PWHL executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer called Monumental Sports, who own the NHL's Washington Capitals, NBA's Washington Wizards, and WNBA's Washington Mystics a "drem" partner to work with.
“All markets are not equal in how we work with them,” Scheer told Front Office Sports. “For Washington, Monumental Sports were about as great a partner as you could ever wish and dream for. They were delighted from ownership down to have us there. It showed and was reflected in the way they worked with us.”
Other markets, such as Chicago, which was given two stops on the PWHL Takeover Tour this year, struggled, with Chicago drawing at the other end of the spectrum, the all-time lowest Takeover Tour mark with only 7,238 fans. It's a number the league would have certainly been thrilled with in year one, but the bar has been raised by markets like Vancouver, Seattle, Montreal Toronto, Detroit, Denver, Quebec City, and Washington, where attendance marks have been strong for in market teams, neutral venue games, and Takeover Tour stops.
The Washington Capitals' ALL CAPS ALL HER program has put an emphasis on women and girls in hockey for years, and it paid off.
Who Are The Current PWHL Expansion Front Runners?
Everyone was hyper focused on the five markets that were given two games on the PWHL Takeover Tour this season including Chicago, Detroit, and Denver in the United States, and Edmonton and Halifax in Canada, as well as Quebec City where the league returned to for a second straight season.
Since then however, a pair of markets propelled themselves into the conversation with above average attendance. Those markets were Hamilton and Washington.
While the PWHL has been best received in Canada, the league has found solid footing and continues to grow in the United States, and one of the biggest untapped revenue sources for the PWHL is American national television rights. If the league can secure a national broadcasting deal in the United States, it would be a game changer to the value of the league and its franchises, and also in the ability to pay all players a professional wage.
The PWHL has clearly stated they're targeting a 2-4 team expansion ahead of the 2026-27 season, with the preference being to add four teams now, and then allow the player pool to settle moving forward.