The Professional Women's Hockey League is expanding its Takeover Tour neutral-site schedule to 16 games for the third time.
With the eight-team league already planning further expansion in Year 4, several major Canadian and U.S. markets including Chicago, Denver and Detroit will host two stops, the PWHL announced Monday. The league will also play two games in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Edmonton, Alberta, as part of its 120-game schedule that opens Nov. 21.
The league will showcase its talent in 11 cities across the continent, including its first stop in Halifax; Dallas; Washington, DC; Calgary, Alberta; Hamilton, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Chicago is also a newcomer, with two games to be played at Allstate Arena, home of the American Hockey League's Chicago Wolves.
The schedule is expanded from last year's nine-game Takeover Tour. Detroit is hosting a neutral-site game for the third year, while the league returns to Denver, Quebec City and Edmonton for the second year.
“The passion and support of fans, as well as the enthusiasm of cities wanting to partner with our league, fuels our ambitions to expand the tour,” said PWHL Senior Vice President of Business Operations Amy Shear.
Last year's tour proved to be very popular, with 123,601 fans in attendance, including the league setting a U.S. attendance record in Detroit with 14,288. The game in Vancouver drew a sold-out crowd of 19,038, ranking fourth in the league's attendance list.
The world record attendance for women's hockey was set almost a year ago, when 21,105 people were in the stands for the PWHL game between Montreal and Toronto at the Canadiens Arena.
The PWHL uses the Takeover Tour to evaluate potential expansion markets, which led the league to add Seattle and Vancouver this season. Further expansion is on the horizon, with plans already underway to add two to four franchises in the next year.
The league is also considering moving the Ottawa Charge due to a planned reduction in capacity at their home rink. Last week, the city approved a redevelopment plan for TD Place that will reduce capacity from 8,500 to 6,600.
In an original article published in the magazine Ottawa Citizen last weekScheer and senior vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford opposed the plan, noting that the cuts would impact team revenue.
“It's not about optimism or ambition. It's math,” they wrote. “Reducing our future home by thousands of seats will make it harder for families to access, it will make it harder for the team to grow, and it will make it harder for Ottawa to remain the flagship market for women's hockey.”
The majority of Takeover Tour games this year will be played at the home stadiums of NHL teams, with the exception of Chicago, and in markets without NHL franchises in Halifax, Hamilton and Quebec City.
Each PWHL team will play at least three games at a neutral site. Montreal plays Toronto to open the Takeover Tour in Halifax on December 17. The tour will end with Boston playing Vancouver in Edmonton on April 7.
