PWHL expansion boosts ticket sales and overall league success

Photo courtesy of U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada/Wikimedia Commons

With record fan interest and over 5,000 season ticket deposits in both cities, the PWHL’s westward expansion into Seattle and Vancouver signals a new era of growth and momentum for women’s professional hockey.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) has only been in existence since 2023, but its impact has been seen throughout North America and the rest of the world. Following the end of the 2024-25 season, the PWHL announced that it would be adding two new teams to the league in Vancouver and Seattle.The addition of these two teams marks the beginning of a sure-to-be-successful expansion for the PWHL. 

This westward expansion of Vancouver and Seattle pairs up two markets that are within a three-hour drive of each other and continues Seattle’s history of supporting women in sports. Most notably being Jessica Campbell, the first full-time female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). Seattle is now home to three female professional sports leagues including, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), and now the PWHL.

At the official announcement of the expansion of the league to Seattle, Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s executive vice president of business operations called Seattle “the capital of women’s sports.” She also recognized the various female owners and executives of the Seattle Storm, Seattle Reign FC, and the Seattle Kraken.

With the preseason starting in just a few weeks, pre-sale tickets have shown the abundant success of the expansion. Seattle and Vancouver have each received more than 5,000 season ticket deposits as of May, which means that these two teams will be ranked among the league leaders in fan attendance and engagement.

Based on last year’s turnout at the PWHL Takeover Tour, Seattle and Vancouver were among the most successful, with Vancouver drawing a tour-high of 19,038 fans on the league’s stop. Other locations on the tour included Edmonton, Quebec City, Detroit, Denver, Buffalo, Raleigh, and St. Louis.

Los Angeles Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten, who sits on the four-member governing board of the PWHL, said, “In every city this year–every city–we have sold more season tickets than we had last year. It’s just one indicator of how the interest in the league is growing. The two expansion teams we added this year are just the two leaders of what is going to become a movement. We are going to be adding more teams much sooner than other people thought because the demand is there, the players are there.”

It is clear that the PWHL has big plans on the horizon and the capacity to execute them. With strong fan support during the past two seasons, growing media attention, and commitment to creating equal opportunities for women’s sports, the league is setting a new standard.

The PWHL has also achieved major recognition as a league, winning Breakthrough of the Year at the Sports Business Journal’s 2024 Awards ceremony, as well as receiving the number one ranking in the inaugural 2024 Canadian Business-Harris Poll 50 as the most trusted and reputable organization in the country.

Kasten spoke about the league’s immediate and impressive success, saying, “It surprised the hell out of me, especially because we had to do it so fast. This story, it was impossible. The people who told me it was impossible were all correct.”

With record ticket deposits and strong early support, the PWHL is proving that women’s hockey has a well-deserved place in professional sports markets. Seattle and Vancouver are just the start of what promises to be a significant period of growth in the league.