Ice hockey-PWHL announces Vancouver expansion franchise for 2025-26 season
Mark Walter, Founder and CEO, TWG Global; Founder and CEO, Guggenheim Partners speaks at the Milken Conference 2024 Global Conference Sessions at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 6, 2024. REUTERS/David Swanson/File Photo
(Reuters) - The Professional Women's Hockey League on Wednesday announced Vancouver as its first expansion franchise, with the club set to launch in time for the 2025-26 season as its seventh team.
The team, which will be known as PWHL Vancouver until a permanent name is announced, will feature "pacific blue" as its primary colour and play out of the Pacific Coliseum that was once home to the National Hockey League's Vancouver Canucks.
"Expanding to Vancouver reflects the growing momentum behind the league and the incredible passion of our fanbase since launching in January 2024," said PWHL Executive Vice President of Business Operations Amy Scheer.
Vancouver joins Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto in the PWHL, which is the latest bid to create a sustainable business model around women's ice hockey after previous leagues failed to deliver.
In its inaugural season, the PWHL set the highest attendance record globally for women's hockey when 21,105 people filled a sold-out Montreal arena in April 2024.
Earlier this year Vancouver hosted the second game of the PWHL Takeover Tour, a series of nine neutral-site regular-season games, and the sold-out crowd of 19,038 ranks as the fourth highest attendance for a PWHL game all-time.
The PWHL is a single entity ownership structure supported by Mark and Kimbra Walter, and its Board of Directors includes American tennis great Billie Jean King.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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