First, the bad news.
The all-time attendance record for a women’s hockey game — set April 21, 2024 when 21,105 fans attended a Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) game between Toronto and Montreal — is unlikely to be broken this upcoming season.
“The 21,000 in Bell Center [in Montreal] will not be broken until we do an outdoor game,” said Amy Scheer, senior vice president of business operations for the PWHL. “Because that is the largest venue in North America.”
For the PWHL — which had one of the most successful opening season launches in recent memory, including winning “Breakthrough of the Year” by Sports Business Journal — the bad news is also kind of good news. They can’t set more attendance records for indoor hockey because bigger venues do not exist.
While the league, which is backed by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and Billie Jean King, won’t be doing outdoor games this season, it will be hosting nine neutral-site regular season games across the United States and Canada. Dubbed the Takeover Tour, the games will be held in three cities in Canada that do not currently host teams, and six in the United States, including Raleigh, Buffalo and Detroit. The cities will help expose more fans to PWHL hockey, and provide the league with critical information for…
