Pro Women’s Hockey League says it could add as many as two teams for 2025-2026 season – Twin Cities

Expansion is on the table for the six-team Professional Women’s Hockey League, and executives are placing no restrictions on which North American markets they are considering in an effort to add as many as two franchises for the 2025-2026 season.

The only certainty is a vision about the right timing to build on the support the PWHL generated in its first yearand the growth the league expects as it enters its second season, which begins on November 30.

“I don’t think we’re foreclosing on 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 explore further. So everything is now on the table.”

Underscoring how open the PWHL’s expansion search will be, senior VP of business operations Amy Scheer told the AP that the league has targeted more than two dozen markets, where requests for proposals for expansion will be issued next week. And that doesn’t include the additional markets the league might approach 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 thought about,” Scheer said. “Until we have the data, the facts and the conversations, we may be surprised. So let’s go for it.”

The original timeline calls for requests for proposals to be returned by the end of December so that interest rates can be set before each market is assessed. While the goal is to add two teams next year, Hefford and Scheer don’t want to rely on that.

Scheer said geography won’t be a limitation for a league that currently has teams in Boston; Newark, NJ; St. Paul, Minnesota; Toronto; Montreal; and Ottawa, Ontario. This also applies to a market’s affiliation with an NHL team, although both aspects will be considered.

The only factors that can help guide the search, Scheer said, are market size, access to facilities, opportunities for economic cooperation and fan potential.

Hefford doesn’t rule out Southern California or Seattle as possibilities, saying, “This is a good opportunity for us to learn and continue to explore.”

Two potential candidates are Detroit and Pittsburgh, where the PWHL played games on a neutral site last season. Nine more neutral-site matches are scheduled for this season, although the league has yet to say where they will be held.

In the US, Washington, DC and Philadelphia would be considered as candidates after both were previously considered, while Chicago and Denver were also options.

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

The timing for expansion comes with the league having a full offseason to catch its breath after having six months last year to essentially start from scratch and open play on January 1. The PWHL started at the end of June 2023when Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter agreed to fund the league while buying out its North American competitor, the Premier Hockey Federation.

The PWHL averaged nearly 5,500 fans over 72 regular season games and set a women’s pro hockey record for attendance, drawing 21,105 for a game between Toronto and Montreal at the NHL’s home arena, the Canadiens. The league signed sponsorship deals with companies such as Scotiabank, Air Canada, Discover and Hyundai, while airing each game in local markets, along with a streaming rights deal with YouTube, which attracted 113,000 subscribers.

Equally important is how expansion would address the immediate need to open roster spots that can be filled by a growing number of European players looking to compete in North America, as well as the next crop of American college graduates. In June, 167 players from 19 countries declared themselves eligible seven-round draft, in which only 42 were selected.

“The talent pool will only continue to grow,” Hefford said.

The PWHL is centrally controlled, with each team managed by the league. There is long-term stability, with Walter investing hundreds of millions of dollars to build the league and with players working under an eight-year collective bargaining agreement that runs until July 2031.

Features of this season an extensive schedule with each team playing 30 matches, compared to 24 last year. After this season, Scheer said the league will consider holding outdoor competitions in addition to competitions in Europe.

Expansion was always considered, although Scheer emphasized that the league is taking a patient approach.

“We will make the right decisions based on the growth for hockey, financial decisions and what is the best way forward,” she said. “No one here makes rash decisions.”

Hefford is not ruling out future rounds of expansion, without saying how many teams would be ideal for a league still in its early stages.

“We know we want to grow,” Hefford said. “But I find it very difficult now to throw away a number.”