The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is making its mark as the premier league for professional women’s hockey, and also as a fan favourite.
The six-team league that launched in 2023, now on a break for the IIHF world tournament in Czechia, has been breaking attendance records almost everywhere they play.
The first season of the PWHL saw an average of 5,448 fans in attendance per game, with an average stadium capacity of 11,522 seats or 47 per cent filled. But the Bell Centre, with 21,105 fans, and the Scotiabank Arena, with 19,285 fans, were sold out in 2024 by fans demanding women's hockey.
This year's Takeover Tour sold out some of the NHL’s most prominent arenas, including more than 19,000 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, more than 18,000 in Quebec City, more than 17,500 in Edmonton, and more than 14,000 in Detroit. A total of 123,601 fans attended the nine Takeover Tour stops.
That tour most likely showed an interest in expansion in the minds of those who run the Original Six league with the Toronto Sceptres, Montréal Victoire, Boston Fleet, Ottawa Charge, Minnesota Frost, and New York Sirens.
Ottawa Charge forward, Gabbie Hughes, said in an interview with Shes4Sports founder Ainka Jess that the rise of the PWHL is something she’s grateful to be a part of.
“It’s been insane, coming in last year for the first season, we were in awe of the attention we got,” Hughes said. “To have it come back in season two and continue to just grow and reach more people to watch women’s hockey and support women in sport, it’s been a dream come true.”
This second season has so far seen at least a 25 per cent rise in attendance for PWHL games, averaging 7,328 fans per game.
A good increase, but not something professional women’s sports is yet to see.
The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and its growth since its beginning in 1997 have followed a similar path.
The inaugural season averaged 9,661 fans per game, rising to 10,869 in year two.
From then, there was a steady decline in average attendance, until the 2022 season, which was the first proper season following COVID-19.
The league averaged 5,646 fans that season, which rose to 6,615 in 2023, and a massive jump to the 2024 season, averaging 9,807 fans per game. This season, the league is expanding to include the Golden State Valkyries, and next season, the Toronto Tempo debuts.
Although not yet reaching the same average fans per game as the WNBA, the PWHL has almost mirrored attendance records.
The first record-breaking attendance of a WNBA game ever was on Sept. 16, 2007, when 22,076 fans were inside the Palace of Auburn Hills near Detroit. The arena was demolished in 2020.
No WNBA game came close to that attendance until almost exactly 17 years later, on Sept. 19, 2024, when Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., saw 20,711 fans attend the Washington Mystics vs. Indiana Fever game.
Dr. Louis Lafrado, a virologist and owner and publisher of Pro Hockey News, said media work is a huge part of the PWHL's seismic growth.
“They have done a fabulous job of reaching out and getting media representatives involved, which had not been the case in the previous iteration of the Women’s League," he said.
