Highlights of the inaugural PWHL season so far
The GIST: It’s been eight days since the puck dropped for the first-ever PWHL game, and in that span, the league has broken the attendance record for pro women’s hockey — twice — and seen viewership numbers in the millions. Here are some of the biggest highlights of the women’s hockey takeover.
🏒 A State of Hockey stunner
Over 13.3K fans poured into the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Saturday to rally the Minnesota PWHL team to a home-opener victory. But the fans did more than that — they shattered the attendance record for a pro women’s hockey game that was set just five days earlier at Ottawa’s home opener. In our PWHL era.
- It’s worth noting the arena size differences among PWHL teams. The Xcel Center, also home to the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, boasts 18K seats, whereas Ottawa’s Arena at TD Place maxes out at 8.5K. Plus, Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Center is way too small for the city’s PWHL interest — its 2.6K capacity is already claimed for the whole season.
📺 A hit new show, eh?
The PWHL’s season opener between Toronto and NYC packed the house, but its Canadian TV viewership proved to be the real showstopper. The match drew 2.9M viewers across Canadian networks, including TSN, Sportsnet, and CBC, beating out the NHL Winter Classic and both College Football Playoff semifinal games for highest-viewed sports program of the day across all three networks.
📱 Everything, everywhere, all at once
In addition to the PWHL’s media deals with Canadian national broadcasters and American regional sports networks (RSNs), it streams all games for free on YouTube, which is quickly demonstrating the league’s widespread appeal. The season opener has been viewed over 132K times, Montreal against Ottawa 131K times, and Minnesota vs. Boston has been watched a whopping 138K times.
- This is a critical metric considering the PWHL’s fanbase. While hockey fans across Canada can tune in, American viewers are restricted by the PWHL’s localized RSN deals. The YouTube viewership indicates potential interest outside of the PWHL’s markets and represent important numbers for future media rights negotiations.
🇨🇦 Top shelf partners
The U.S. isn’t just missing out on PWHL TV action — there’s a serious dearth of American partners. Canadian Tire is the first founding sponsor and Air Canada is the inaugural premier partner, but no elite U.S. brands have stepped up. When the PWHL eventually rolls out team branding, American sponsors should follow Air Canada’s example by nabbing prime jersey real estate. Coming in hot.
