PWHL to announce Vancouver as first expansion team, could start play in 2025-26: Sources
PWHL to announce Vancouver as first expansion team, could start play in 2025-26: Sources
PWHL to announce Vancouver as first expansion team, could start play in 2025-26: Sources
The Professional Women's Hockey League is expected to announce a new franchise in Vancouver next week, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The Vancouver team will be the PWHL's first expansion franchise. The team is expected to play in 2025-26.
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A news advisory released Thursday morning invited media members to an April 23 news conference, citing 'a historic announcement in British Columbia sports.' The news conference, where the PWHL franchise is set to be announced, will feature representatives from the province of British Columbia, the city of Vancouver and 'key stakeholders.'
The Vancouver Province was first to report news of the PWHL's expansion to Vancouver.
The PWHL's expansion comes less than two years after its launch in January 2024, with original six markets in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, New York and Minnesota. League executives announced in October they were preparing for expansion, due to the success of Year 1, which included record-breaking attendance and impressive television numbers.
The league and its teams are owned by Mark Walter, the billionaire owner of the MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers, and his wife, Kimbra. In November, Dodgers president and PWHL board member Stan Kasten said he loved the league's single-entity ownership model and that the league didn't 'have any plans to change it now.'
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It's unclear where the PWHL's Vancouver team would play, though one likely possibility is the Pacific Coliseum, the former home of the WHL's Vancouver Giants. The Pacific Coliseum has over 15,000 seats.
The PWHL received more than 20 proposals from interested parties and markets seeking to bring a PWHL team to their city. Some were stops on the PWHL Takeover Tour; a nine-game barnstorm around North America. The January stop in Vancouver, with 18,940 fans at Rogers Arena, was the highest among Takeover Tour games and the second-most attended game of the 2024-25 season.
In October, the PWHL said it was exploring the addition of as many as two new franchises. It's unclear where the second team might land, but it stands to reason that it could be geographically close to Vancouver for cost-related reasons. The PWHL's Takeover Tour opened in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena with more than 12,000 fans.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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