Why one sports district is going big on women’s sports

Exhibition Place is a 192-acre mixed-used district that hosts thousands of events and millions of visitors yearly. It’s walkable from downtown, nestled along Toronto’s waterfront. There’s an open-air concert venue, a 160K-square-foot conference center, and a luxury hotel, not to mention the 30K-seater BMO Stadium and the 8.1K-seater Coca-Cola Coliseum.

• CEO Don Boyle said the bulk of his job is about “managing expectations between stakeholders” and providing coordination between the wide variety of events in the district, which often happen concurrently.

• If there’s a marathon starting at 6 a.m., it’s Boyle who considers the hotel’s sleeping guests. He’s the one who finds a place for everything and everyone..

“It's really about pulling people together,” he added. “Understanding that it's going to be a very animated space with lots of different uses, and that working together and good communication can make that happen.”

• But Boyle isn’t just concerned with keeping stakeholders happy: He’s also doing this for Torontonians. He wants to ensure “there's a place for them on the grounds as well.” There’s music, picnics, and yoga in the park, and they’re currently installing pickleball courts.

Canadians love their sports, and these days, locals (especially in Toronto) have more teams to root for than ever. Toronto has added three professional women’s sports teams in the PWHL, the WNBA, and Canada’s new domestic women’s soccer league the NSL, and all of them play at Exhibition Place.

It all started with the PWHL, which picked Toronto to host one of six franchises for its inaugural season that launched in 2024. But the team didn’t play at Coca-Cola Coliseum then — it played at the 2.6K-seater Mattamy Athletic Center, which quickly sold out every game.

• Demand surpassed availability, so the PWHL moved some games to the 8.1K-seater Coca-Cola Coliseum and saw tremendous success. By the next season, Exhibition Place was the Toronto Sceptres’ permanent home.

Boyle noted how the Coliseum didn’t just offer more seats, but also accessibility as it’s on a rail commuter line. He also mentioned it boasts suites like a 20K-seater NHL arena. All of that, including success with Toronto’s NHL farm team there, made it “a natural fit to bring in the PWHL.”

• Boyle said the reaction from Sceptres fans has been “so positive” that it’s also encouraged Exhibition Place to push forward the longtime idea to create more casual spaces for audiences before and after events.

• “We're working on plans to be more friendly for those types of things, which will just expand the use and the attractions down on the site,” Boyle said.

Next came the NSL’s AFC Toronto in 2023, then the WNBA’s Tempo this year, cementing the complex’s status as a women’s sports epicenter. While other cities have multiple women’s sports teams, “no one has them playing within 100 yards of each other,” Boyle said.

• Because these women’s teams have really made these fields and arenas their home, Exhibition Place has been able to lean into that branding with their logos on the ice and court, for example. He wants fans and players alike to feel that these places are truly home to PWHL, NSL, and WNBA teams.

Boyle is working hard to draw women’s sports fans and keep them. But why? It comes back to the relationship between the fans and the teams. “The players really interact with the fans,” he said of PWHL athletes. “They know that they're in a special place.”

• Boyle was also struck by how fans knew PWHL and WNBA athletes before teams played — and how they managed to find merch beforehand as well. “They sought it out,” he said, noting that “creating merchandise for women, particularly, is where we see this as being a real opportunity.”

“Everybody's passionate about it. They let you know,” Boyle said of women sports fans. “Men will go to a game and they'll watch it, and they'll be cheering when there are particular moments in the game. Women will cheer throughout a game — they're into it. It's a pleasure to see it. That's what makes the arena so electric.”

That fervent passion extends beyond the game. That’s why Edmonton wants to host women’s events, and it’s why major Canadian brands like Bell and Scotiabank have deeply committed to the PWHL and WNBA in particular.

• Boyle said banks are especially interested in being affiliated with women’s sports teams at Exhibition Place because brands are beginning to more fully recognize how women often direct household purchasing decisions.

Exhibition Place may be home to Toronto’s women’s sports teams, but it’s also focused on becoming a home for women fans because it sees their value. And so do the big-name brands committed to the space.