The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was founded in 2023. The original league featured six teams from New York, Boston, Minnesota, Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. The league played the first two seasons with these six teams. At the end of the second season, the PWHL announced that it would expand from six teams to eight, adding Seattle and Vancouver to the list.
The league has experienced great success since the expansion. Throughout this season, attendance at PWHL games has increased by 18 percent.[i] The league is looking to capitalize on the recent success of the PWHL by expanding again at the end of the 2025-2026 season. The discussion regarding expansion isn’t if or when it will happen, but instead, to what degree. The PWHL is currently trying to decide whether at the end of the 2025-2026 season it will expand by two teams or four.
Expansion by any professional sports league is a huge endeavor. It requires consideration of potential locations, costs, licensing, market success, and a host of other factors. As it currently stands, all of the teams in the PWHL are owned by the Walter Group. This structure allows for a more streamlined way to make decisions that affect the league as a whole. Additionally, it eliminates the possibility of conflict between team owners.
While this structure is good for fast decision making and a cohesive message, it could limit the PWHL’s ability to expand, especially by the ambitious number proposed. Expansion of a league in any sport is an expensive endeavor. If the Walter Group continues to remain the sole owner of all teams in the PWHL it is limiting the growth potential and potentially putting itself in a tough financial spot. If the PWHL wishes to remain organized under a single entity, it could move to a system similar to Major League Soccer (MLS). Similar to the PWHL, the teams are owned by a single entity, however in the MLS system, investors can buy a stake in the league instead of in a single team. An important note for this type of model is that it could run into problems with antitrust laws if the league is not careful.
Another consideration regarding the expansion of the PWHL are the number of teams that the league wishes to expand to. The most recent expansion added Seattle and Vancouver to the league. The expansion seems to have been a success, with a rise in viewership of league games. However, the PWHL is looking to expand by as many as four teams by the end of the 2025-2026 season. The rate of expansion creates a host of questions that do not have definitive answers. One of the major questions: is anyone safe from the expansion draft? Last year, teams were majorly reshuffled by the expansion, so should fans expect their favorite players to be at risk of being lost to the draft? How are the cities selected? Will there be another expansion? Will the season continue to be 120 games, or will the expansion of the league call for more games?
Some other considerations for expansion include which cities will get PWHL teams, and whether the expansion by four teams could potentially dilute the market. As for the question of which cities will get expansion teams, a good indicator of front runners could be the markets that had a high turnout for the takeover tour, and whether the city has the infrastructure already in place to host the team.
Regardless of the challenges, the PWHL’s first three seasons have been a resounding success, and the league should continue to capitalize on its good momentum. Expansion is a necessary way to continue to grow the sport, but it should be limited so that it does not outpace the capabilities of the current system.
[i] https://www.thepwhl.com/en/news/2026/january/12/pwhl-weekly-notebook-jan-12-2026#:~:text=PWHL%20ATTENDANCE%20UP%2018%20PERCENT%20THROUGH%2044%20GAMES&text=Through%2044%20games%20of%20the,of%20the%202024%2D25%20season
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