Growing PWHL’s post-Olympics boom is just what women’s hockey needed
Laura Stacey, player #7 of Montréal Victoire, celebrates scoring a goal with her teammates in the third period against Seattle Torrent at Place Bell on March 19, 2026 in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Minas Panagiotakis | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
The 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, which culminated in the USA-Canada gold medal match that broke viewing records across the USA, brought women’s hockey into the spotlight like never before. The Women’s Professional Hockey League has spent much of the last three years positioning itself to capitalize on the momentum of creating a sustainable women’s hockey league.
“Every Olympic year there is some increase in interest and excitement for the women’s game,” said Jayna Hefford, vice president of hockey operations for the PWHL, who won five Olympic medals playing for Team Canada. “When I think about where we are right now, it’s kind of exponential.”
Despite the recent success of women’s sports and leagues like the WNBA and NWSL, women’s hockey leagues have struggled to find similar footing; even the Olympic successes of the US and Canadian teams. Since women’s ice hockey was introduced as an Olympic sport in 1998, Canada has won five of eight gold medals, while the United States has won the other three; this includes a 2-1 overtime win at the 2026 Games.
Several previous attempts to establish women’s hockey leagues in North America have failed, often due to financial difficulties. Although the WNBA is partially owned and funded by the NBA, the NHL has historically not provided financial support for a women’s league, and many of these organizations have struggled to pay sustainable wages to players. In 2019, many of the top female players boycotted existing professional leagues for better resources.
However, this landscape changed with the launch of PWHL in 2023. The league is privately financed by billionaire Guggenheim Partners co-founder and CEO Mark Walter, who over the past few years has become one of the largest sports investors with controlling interests in MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and motorsports organization Andretti Global. Walter, who acquired the rights to another women’s hockey league as part of the launch of the PWHL, also appointed tennis legend Billie Jean King and her partner Ilana Kloss as members of the PWHL’s advisory board.
Despite a short timeline (the league was announced in August 2023 and played its first game on January 1, 2024), the PWHL has enjoyed success in its first three seasons. The league, which now consists of eight teams, has built a following across North America, broken numerous attendance records, attracted major sponsors and, perhaps most importantly, created a platform for the world’s top female hockey players as they prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Billie Jean King and Jayna Hefford walk center ice for the ceremonial puck drop before Toronto plays New York during a PWHL hockey game at the Mattamy Athletic Center on January 1, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Mark Blinch | Getty Images
New fans and more income after the Olympics
The league has prepared for the stage that the 2026 Winter Olympics will provide.
“We realized this would put a camera in our league like no other,” said Stan Kasten, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a member of the PWHL advisory board.
When the Olympic rosters were announced, 61 of the approximately 184 players in the league were selected to the national teams, and 39 of these players advanced to the gold medal game.
“Right then we talked about it: it’s going to take extra budget, it’s going to need extra people, let’s build a facility in Milan and get ready to get sponsors, investors and the assembled media world seeing the world’s premier women’s hockey league for the first time,” Kasten said. “We thought of this as a launching pad for the next wave of interest. I have to tell you, like so many things from day one when we started in this league, I couldn’t have predicted it would turn out this well.”
The Olympic momentum carried over to the arenas. The PWHL set a new U.S. arena record with 17,335 fans at its first-ever sold-out crowd at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on Feb. 27, marking the third time this season alone that the league has set a new attendance record. The league’s first weekend of return to play set a new league weekend attendance record with 49,343 fans.
In total, the number of spectators for 71 matches in the 2025-2026 PWHL season was 616,795, with an average attendance of 8,687 and a 20% increase compared to the previous season.
Product sales during February were up 101% compared to pre-Olympics. The PWHL saw video views on YouTube, where it primarily streams games, increase 200% during the Olympics. It also saw traffic to its website increase sixfold during the Olympics period, with 73% of website traffic coming from new users.
“It’s great to see the numbers today, but the real hard work starts now,” said Amy Scheer, PWHL vice president of business operations. “We have these fans, we have these new followers, we have this interest, now what do we do with it?”
Fans greet Abby Boreen, player #22 of the Vancouver Goldeneyes, as she takes to the ice before the team’s first PWHL game against the Seattle Torrent at Pacific Coliseum on November 21, 2025 in Vancouver, Canada.
Rich Lam | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
In March, the PWHL signed a deal with Scripps Sports to broadcast the league’s Walter Cup Finals on Ion; This will be the first time it will be broadcast across the US on a linear network. Ion also broadcast a game on March 28 that was the league’s first nationally televised game. Scheer said the league is in talks with various partners about potential media rights deals for next season but declined to provide additional details.
Filling larger arenas around North America
The rise in popularity is helping the league increasingly fill larger arenas and cities with no PWHL teams. Since its launch, the PWHL has used a “Capture Round” barnstorming strategy to play some games outside of home arenas to test new markets or try to fill larger arenas.
That strategy will be on display Saturday, when the New York Sirens, who normally play at the Prudential Center in Newark, home of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, will play at Madison Square Garden against the Seattle Torrent. The play has already sold out the 18,000-plus-seat arena.
The league also sold out tickets for the match between Boston Fleet and Montreal Victoire at TD Garden in Boston on April 11. This arena seats more than 17,800 people.
Scheer said at previous stops on the league’s Takeover Tours, more than 60% of fans in attendance had never been to an NHL game at those arenas. This shapes the league’s expansion strategy, with plans to add four new teams next season.
“The list of cities that want us is as long as any list you could have,” Kasten said. “The problem we have, especially in American cities, is that the best venue for us is no longer the 5,000 or 6,000 seat arena; they are big venues and they don’t have dates for us. I’ve talked to the NHL teams in these buildings and the owners of these buildings, and finding dates is our biggest problem in cities now.”
All of this suggests that the PWHL looks like a sustainable and ultimately profitable league. Kasten said the league has outperformed spending estimates every season, but “it’s always been on par with the growth in revenue, so it’s worth it.”
“Revenue growth has been consistent and will take another leap next year,” he said. “We’re still in the red, but that’s what we planned and the gap is closing.”
The league signed a CBA with its players through 2031 and hopes to be profitable at that point.
Kasten said there are no current plans to sell the teams to individual owners, but there has been some talk lately about bringing in additional investors, especially as more people approach the league looking for attractive sports opportunities.
Hefford said that as he watches the league grow, “it’s very different from anything that’s existed before, and people understand that.” Hefford has played in previous iterations of the professional women’s hockey league and also served as commissioner, and said the PWHL has the opportunity to offer players and fans something that other leagues don’t.
“For a long time it was always about the national teams, and I think we’re seeing a shift now where there’s loyalty to the PWHL teams and the communities,” he said. “National teams will always be an incredible opportunity, but now there are so many more things that can excite them.”
What’s next for the league and its players?
Laura Stacey says she had to ask herself a tough question when she returned from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing after playing for Canada.
“When you come back, you wonder, ‘What’s next? Where do I go? Am I going to continue for another four years?’ you say. he said. “This is a four-year cycle situation where players feel like they can continue to achieve the Olympic dream.”
Stacey said the Olympics had always been the “peak” for female hockey players, a dream she was able to live out three times, including two gold medals.
“It’s incredible that we can now play in an incredible league all year round, every year, and then every four years, players who are at the top of their game get a chance to represent their country in the Olympics and then come back and still have this professional league behind them,” he said.
Still, there’s work to be done. Stacey, president of the players’ association, said players are working closely with the league to ensure facilities and other aspects of the player experience remain high as the league expands. Players also want to see salaries increase as the league does; League average salaries are roughly $55,000, according to the CBA.
Kasten said the league is pushing for more visibility and coverage. Currently, the league’s scores are not highlighted on ESPN’s app or website.
Scheer said he no longer has to educate potential sponsors about what the PWHL is or why women’s hockey is an attractive opportunity, but the conversation has now shifted to asking would-be promoters to “put your money where your mouth is.”
Hefford said that although the league has launched several initiatives encouraging young girls to play hockey, there is still a lot to do to encourage the next generation of PWHL stars and fans.
But Stacey said it was not lost on him or the players that the PWHL had already made significant progress.
“We had every version [of a league]and so far they haven’t all worked for many different reasons. But none of that was even close to where we are now,” he said. “So for us, it’s like we’re here. We did it. This has now been created. “We should all do what we can to make sure this is bigger, better and stronger when we leave here.”
