Women’s Professional Hockey League Says It Could Add Up to Two Teams in 2025-26 Season – Twin Cities

Expansion of the six-team Professional Women’s Hockey League is planned, and executives are setting no limits on which North American markets they will consider as they try to add up to two franchises for the 2025-26 season.

The only certainty is that now is the right time to build on the support the PWHL has provided in its first year and the growth the league projects ahead of its second season, which opens Nov. 30.

“I don’t think we’re ruling out any market,” senior vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “This is a good opportunity for us to learn and continue research. So everything is on the table now.”

To underscore how open the PWHL’s expansion search will be, senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer told the AP that the league has targeted more than 20 markets that will be sent out RFPs for expansion by next week. And that doesn’t include additional markets that the league might ask for consideration.

“I think we want to be an open book, and I think we want to be open to things that we haven’t thought about or that we haven’t considered,” Scheer said. “Until we have data, facts and conversations, we may be surprised. So let’s go for it.”

The initial schedule calls for requests for proposals to be returned by the end of December to gauge interest before evaluating each market. While the goal is to add two more teams by next year, Hefford and Shear aren’t so sure.

Shear said geography would not be a limitation for the league, whose teams are currently based in Boston; Newark, New Jersey; St. Paul, Minnesota; Toronto; Montreal; and Ottawa, Ontario. The market’s affiliation with the NHL team will also not be affected, although both aspects will be taken into account.

The only factors that will help in the search will be market size, access to facilities, economic partnership opportunities and fan potential, Shear said.

Hefford hasn’t ruled out the possibility of considering Southern California or Seattle, saying, “It’s a good opportunity for us to learn and continue to explore.”

Two potential candidates are Detroit and Pittsburgh, where the PWHL played games at a neutral site last season. There are nine more neutral-site games scheduled for this season, although the league has not yet announced where they will be played.

In the US, Washington DC and Philadelphia will be considered as candidates after both were previously considered, as well as Chicago and Denver.

In Canada, the city of Quebec has already announced its intention to become a candidate. Calgary could be a potential option, as the city was previously home to the Inferno from 2011 to 2019, before the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded.

The time for expansion comes as the league has a full offseason to catch its breath after six months last year to essentially start from scratch and open play on Jan. 1. The PWHL launched in late June 2023 when Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter agreed to fund the league while buying out its North American rival, Premier Hockey.

The PWHL averaged nearly 5,500 fans across 72 regular-season games and set a women’s professional hockey attendance record with 21,105 in attendance for the Toronto-Montreal game at the home of the NHL Canadiens. The league secured sponsorship deals with companies such as Scotiabank, Air Canada, Discover and Hyundai, with every game broadcast in local markets, and a streaming rights deal with YouTube that attracted 113,000 subscribers.

Equally important is how the expansion will address the immediate need to open up roster spots to be filled by the growing number of European players looking to compete in North America and the next generation of U.S. college graduates. In June, 167 players representing 19 countries declared themselves eligible for the seven-round draft, which produced just 42 selections.

“The talent pool is only going to grow,” Hefford said.

The PWHL is centrally controlled, with each team governed by a league. There is long-term stability, with Walter pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into building the league and players serving under an eight-year collective bargaining agreement that runs through July 2031.

This season has an expanded schedule, with each team playing 30 games, up from 24 last year. After this season, the league is considering playing outdoor games as well as games in Europe, Shear said.

Expansion has always been an option, although Scheer stressed the league is taking a patient approach.

“We will make the right decisions based on the growth of hockey, financial decisions and how best to move forward,” she said. “Nobody makes hasty decisions here.”

Hefford hasn’t ruled out future rounds of expansion, but won’t say how many teams would be ideal for a league that’s still in its early stages.

“We know we want to grow,” Hefford said. “But it’s very difficult for me to name the number now.”