Demand for PWHL tickets has been “at a premium in four of the six markets"Getty Images
Finding an area where the PWHL had “more success than on the ice itself” through its first three months is “no small feat” -- but if there is one area where its inaugural season has even surpassed its on-ice success, it has been the “success it has had luring fans,” according to Mike Ganter of the MONTREAL GAZETTE. Ganter wrote “from the get-go,” the league has been a “success story at the gate as much as it has been on the ice.” Demand for PWHL tickets has been “at a premium in four of the six markets.” All three Canadian cities -- Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal -- as well as PHWL Minnesota have “set, or in one case, will set records.” It has been a “tougher sell” in N.Y. and Boston, where the teams play in markets outside the actual two cities they are named for, but that too is “being closely examined with change likely.” Montreal will play host to Toronto on April 20 with a sellout crowd of 21,105 on hand at the Bell Centre. The attendance marks are just “one indication of how popular this league has become.” While final viewership numbers “aren’t expected until the end of the season,” the league opener at Mattamy on Jan. 1 between PWHL Toronto and PHWL New York “drew almost three million viewers.” When the league was not “shattering attendance marks or dispelling myths that women’s professional sports wouldn’t catch on,” the league was “busy getting a foothold in potential expansion markets like Detroit and Pittsburgh.” While the league has “no interest in expanding any time soon,” that “didn’t stop them from hosting games in non-PWHL cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh in what the league coined Takeover Weekend.” The Detroit game drew 13,736 to Little Caesar’s Arena, while the game in Pittsburgh the following day drew 8,850 at PPG Paints Arena (MONTREAL GAZETTE, 4/9).
