With the Professional Women’s Hockey League set to play a regular-season game at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Sunday, now is a good time to evaluate Seattle’s viability as a location for an expansion team. Key factors to consider include the availability of a team, a suitable arena, and a willing ownership group.
Key requirement #1: An available team
In the fall, the PWHL announced plans to expand by adding two new teams for the 2025–26 season. This presents an opportunity for Seattle to be considered as a viable market. However, the league’s current footprint is predominantly regional, with its westernmost team located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Expanding to Seattle would introduce added costs and logistical complexities, including increased travel expenses and scheduling challenges.
Despite these hurdles, a western expansion appears inevitable if the PWHL aims for national representation and sustained growth. A comparable precedent is the American Hockey League’s 2015 relocation of five teams to California, marking the league’s first western presence. This move was strategically aligned with NHL Pacific Division teams for proximity to parent organizations, demonstrating how logistical challenges can be mitigated with proper planning.
For the PWHL, team locations are not tied to NHL affiliations, offering greater flexibility in placing teams where they are most viable. This opens the door for Seattle and other cities in the western U.S. and Canada.
A phased expansion approach could also be considered, gradually extending westward from the current league footprint. Calgary, Alberta, emerges as a strong candidate due to its history of hosting professional women’s hockey, abundance of arenas, and passionate hockey fanbase. Denver is another city generating interest, evidenced by its inclusion in the PWHL’s Takeover Tour. Female hockey participation data further highlights Denver’s potential, with approximately 3,400 registered female players compared to Washington’s 2,100. Vancouver, British Columbia, also merits consideration, offering a location with fewer logistical challenges compared to Seattle.
Seattle’s inclusion in a western expansion would require overcoming logistical hurdles but could set a precedent for future league growth into untapped markets.
Key requirement #2: A suitable arena
Identifying a suitable arena is one of the more complex challenges for establishing a PWHL team in Seattle. The league’s existing venues vary widely in size and usage, with no clear standard. For example, two of the three U.S.-based PWHL teams play in NHL arenas, operating at 20–40 percent of capacity, while the Canadian teams share facilities with AHL or major junior hockey teams, averaging approximately 8,000 fans per game. Based on these trends and the history of professional women’s hockey, an ideal venue would seat between 5,000 and 10,000 fans.
While Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena could host a PWHL team, its 17,151-seat capacity would likely lead to low occupancy rates, potentially dampening the game-day atmosphere and fan experience. Additionally, with the anticipated return of the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics, scheduling conflicts might limit Climate Pledge Arena’s availability for another professional team.
Alternative venues include Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett (capacity: 8,149) and accesso ShoWare Center in Kent (capacity: 7,141). Both align closely with the PWHL’s preferred arena size, but their distance from Seattle’s population core could pose challenges for attracting consistent fan attendance.
On the surface, Seattle has existing venues capable of hosting a team, but none feel like a perfect long-term solution. One potential pathway could involve using one of these secondary arenas for a few seasons while planning for a new, purpose-built facility in Bellevue or North Seattle. However, constructing a new arena is a complex, time-consuming process requiring significant financial and political investment, making it an unlikely short-term solution.
Key requirement #3: A willing ownership group
The most elusive aspect of establishing a PWHL franchise in Seattle may be identifying a committed ownership group. Ownership in professional sports often requires significant due diligence, with prospective investors evaluating financial models, market conditions, and long-term prospects before publicly expressing interest.
It is reasonable to assume that potential owners are already analyzing what it would take to bring a PWHL team to Seattle, factoring in the time, capital, and effort required to build a successful franchise. Like many business ventures, owning a sports franchise demands significant upfront investment with uncertain short-term returns. Success typically comes from patient, methodical owners willing to invest in the team’s development and long-term growth.
One advantage of a PWHL franchise is its relatively lower cost compared to an NHL team, reducing financial barriers and increasing the pool of potential investors. However, any ownership group must consider the complexities of establishing a sustainable business model, including addressing the challenge of securing a long-term arena solution. While the initial years might see the team playing in existing venues, a purpose-built arena could become essential for sustained success.
Current challenges exist
Seattle appears to be a promising market for a PWHL team, especially given the success of other professional women’s sports teams in the city, such as the Seattle Storm (WNBA) and OL Reign (NWSL). These teams have demonstrated the community’s enthusiasm for women’s sports and its ability to rally around professional franchises. The excitement surrounding Sunday’s game between the Montreal Victoire and Boston Fleet further underscores the potential fan interest in women’s hockey in Seattle.
However, significant challenges remain. Seattle’s geographic isolation from the current PWHL footprint presents logistical and financial hurdles, such as increased travel costs and scheduling complexities. Additionally, while the city has viable venues, none currently provide an ideal long-term solution. The absence of a mid-sized, centrally located arena tailored to PWHL needs could complicate efforts to establish a sustainable franchise.
While Seattle is likely to be a strong candidate for a PWHL expansion team in the future, these challenges suggest it might be better suited for a later expansion round. Addressing the logistical and infrastructure issues will be critical to ensuring the success of a potential franchise in this market.
It makes sense to move west slowly.
Why does VAN have fewer logistical challenges than SEA?
Far less competition. Outside of men’s hockey and soccer they have no other professional teams to compete with. You could make a rotating schedule work with the Canucks at Rogers Arena pretty easily without even having to completely swap out the ice, but even without Rogers I would wager you have more viable alternate venues in Vancouver. Also its Canada, even being a few hours away the hockey interest is just stronger there culturally to build a fan base.
generally cheaper to fly inside Canada. I am sure the same can be said about traveling with in the US, so the comment is probably overstated a bit. I do think this league is mostly run by Canadians and tends to prioritize Canadian markets more than US markets so Vancouver would be more likely. But like your questions implies, that doesn’t have anything to do with logistics.
The Reign have not been partnered with OL Groupe for over a year.
All points made are pretty sound. The PWHL is still young, and Seattle would be a pretty high risk location for a new expansion team at this point. Hopefully they continue to make the showcase tour of other cities a regular thing to continue to build interest and support, and we can be having a different conversation in 10 years.
ShoWare would be just fine for a PWHL team provided they can get the Sounder running for every game. It would make travel from downtown practical. Riding the train to hockey games is a fun experience in itself. A new arena to be shared between the PWHL and a University of Washington team would also work, but someone would have to pay for it.
In a perfect world, I would like to see a PWHL/UW arena built on or very close to campus. Hard to predict anything around NCAA right now and the dust needs to settle on a lot of this stuff before I see any of the big schools taking on a new cost intensive sport. That said, a big donor could accelerate the process.
Sorry, but a shared UW/PWHL arena is a pipe dream. A new 7,000+ seat arena would probably cost $150-$200mm to build, and who would fund that? The UW athletic department is running a deficit as the debt repayment schedule for the Husky Stadium remodel begins in 2025. Combine that with NIL and the general chaos (as you mentioned) that now intercollegiate athletics, it’s unlikely the UW (or its donors) has any interest in taking on any additional debt or the operational risk associated with a college hockey team.
I agree with GOTR above. Showare is an excellent venue (full disclosure: I live 10 minutes away). Sounder train – with light rail links from Lynnwood and Eastside – would make this doable, as the ride from King St to Kent Station only takes 15 minutes; for fans driving to Showare there’s plenty of free parking just across the street. There’s also a local family rink (KVIC) 1/2 mile away that could be used for practice if Showare is otherwise occupied (the TBirds occasionally practice there). With respect to not being centrally located, the TBirds have always been well supported; this year they’re averaging ~ 4,300 per game, and I would expect the PWHL to easily exceed that. The new PWHL team could even play a couple marquee/holiday games each year at CPA!
With regards to a centrally located facility – the WAMU Theater site would be ideal. From online reviews it’s considered a lousy concert venue, but could it be raised/rebuilt to accommodate hockey (and make it a decent concert venue)? Problem is Lumen Field/WAMU Theatre are publicly owned/operated and public funding would require voter approval – something that’s highly unlikely to happen. Not sure the CPA model (private funding/management of facility with private/public split of profits) would be economically feasible for a 7,000-10,000 seat arena.
I wonder about the Houghton Park and Ride project in Kirkland?
That project at least has a head start so shifting it from two rinks and facilities to one with more seating might not be too big a chore. Something around 5000 seats that could also host the shows WAMU is getting now and some of the larger PWHL matchups could be hosted in Kent or Everett or at CPA.
Just a thought…
Nice to see this analysis, but one point that should be clarified is that currently the league has a single owner (The Mark Walter Group) and the statements about expansion have specifically said they plan to stay with that model for initial expansion.
I was going to get into that a bit but the league hasn’t been very transparent with their financials or expansion process which made it hard to explain. I figure it will run similar to the MLS model or at least how it was done before where there is a single entity but then it has a local in market entity purchase the rights to be an operator. Have you seen anything to suggest something different or similar?
Having attended the Battle of the Sound last week (Everett vs Seattle WHL game played at Climate Pledge) I would submit that having a smaller crowd at Climate Pledge doesn’t dampen anything. That building is well designed and gets just as loud with 5,000 as with 15,000. It is an outrageously well designed facility.
Finding an owner is not a factor because all the teams are owned by the Mark Walter Group/