Where Men's Hockey Has Failed To Put A Second NHL Team Near Toronto, Women's Hockey Could Succeed

While Hamilton isn't technically part of the Greater Toronto Area, it borders the region, and has long been a target for NHL expansion.  Part of the larger Golden Horseshoe region, Hamilton and surrounding area not only makes a natural connection between Toronto and the rest of Southwestern Ontario, but it opens more doors to fans in Niagara Falls and Buffalo as well.

While men's hockey has failed to find a permanent home in the city for a major professional team, the door is now wide open for women's hockey to give the city an unobstructed opportunity.

Hamilton had an NHL team, the Hamilton Tigers, from 1920 to 1925, whose players later became members of the New York Americans. Since then, the city has seemingly been in perpetual talks to win an NHL expansion team. 

That interest skyrocketed in 1985 when Copps Coliseum, now the recently renovated and re-opened TD Coliseum was completed. In the 1980s, the City of Hamilton actually had an NHL steering committee looking to bring a team to the arena. By the 1990s and 2000s, whenever an NHL team threatened to move, or expansion was brought up, Hamilton was a contender...but never a winner. That included multiple unsuccessful bids by former Blackberry mogul Jim Balsillie. 

In 2022, Hamilton did host an NHL regular season game drawing 26,119 to an outdoor game between the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs at Tim Hortons Field, home to the CFL's Hamilton TigerCats football team.

One of the contributing factors to the NHL not being able to put a new franchise in Hamilton was not the venue, nor the viability of a team. Instead, the most restrictive force was the power of two other teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres, who have not wanted a potential new franchise to infringe on what they believed was their geographic region.

Some have stated there are more than 2.5 million people closer to TD Coliseum that either Scotiabank Arena in Toronto or KeyBank in Buffalo. That's a large market by any measurement. When you add in the massive Southwestern Ontario market who could easily access games in Hamilton in less than a two hour drive, and it's easy to see geography may be on Hamilton's side after all. 

There are after all, many markets in North America housing two or more teams in a single geographic region in professional sport. In the NHL, that includes a trio of teams in the metropolitan New York area in the Islanders, Rangers, and Devils. But what is perhaps the biggest hockey market in the world, Toronto, remains monopolized by a single team on the men's side. 

Single Entity Ownership Favours Hamilton

No single team can veto an NHL relocation or expansion, but they can certainly influence a vote. When it comes to the PWHL, there is no vote. The league has only one owner, and no organization or franchise is more important than the other. The league can choose where they want to place a team, and the only consideration is if they believe it's the best possible market.

The fact Hamilton put down the PWHL Takeover Tour logo at center ice for a single game in a recently $300 million renovated venue without a hockey tenant, and then drew 16,012 fans to their game, bodes very well for interest from the league.

Will The Oak View Group Connection Help?

The Oak View Group happen to operate another venue the PWHL now calls home, Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena. When Oak View Group took on the project in Hamilton to put $300 in renovations into the venue, then president and CEO of Oak View Group, Tim Leiweke stated "There is a history in this marketplace with hockey, and it deserves a franchise with the Hamilton name on its chest.''

Leiweke, whose brother Tod is a part owner, as well as the president and CEO of the NHL's Seattle Kraken, explicitly said the Hamilton renovations were not about the NHL, but that another league could thrive there. Could that league be the PWHL?