As the upstart league announces its newest expansion city, Boardroom spoke to PWHL executive Amy Scheer about its early success, strategic expansion, and its plans for the future.
Seattle is joining the PWHL next season as an expansion team next year wearing emerald green and cream, the league announced Wednesday, a week after Vancouver was unveiled as its seventh franchise. PWHL Seattle, as it will be known for the time being, will play at Climate Pledge Arena and practice at the Kraken Community Iceplex along with the city’s NHL franchise. Oak View Group, which operates Climate Pledge Arena, led the expansion bid process along with the Kraken.
Seattle and Vancouver represent the league’s first westward moves, joining teams in New York, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Minnesota, and Ottawa and maintaining the 50/50 split between American and Canadian clubs. Seattle was awarded a team in part because of its best-in-class facilities, growing youth hockey community, and a proven passion for women’s sports with the WNBA’s Storm and NWSL’s Reign FC. Since the Kraken made their debut during the 2021-22 season, Seattle has proven itself to be a dynamic hockey city, drawing near sellout crowds on average.
“We felt it was time to expand past being a regional league and to branch out and spread our wings across both countries,” Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s Senior Vice President of Business Operations, told Boardroom. “We have the hockey talent to support expansion. There are so many great players that don’t have a roster spot in our league right now, plus an unbelievable draft coming out.”
Details on an expansion draft for the two new teams and how they’ll be integrated into the June 24 amateur draft will be forthcoming as Seattle and Vancouver prepare for the 30-game regular season in 2025-2026.
PWHL, owned and operated by the Mark Walter Group, has demonstrated last two years due in large part to the league’s efforts to keep things simple. It’s made strong efforts to engage with fans while putting on the best shows at arenas every night, featuring the highest quality women’s hockey on the planet.
“We cannot let perfection get in the way of progress,” Scheer said. “There’s a lot to do in a really short period of time, and I’ve encouraged our staff to make sure that they move fast and get done what they need to get done. We have to move as fast as we can without making big mistakes. It’s okay to make mistakes, but just make sure that if you do, it’s a two-way door where we can walk back from it.”
The results have been impressive. After averaging about 5,500 fans per game in year one, overall attendance is up to more than 7,000 this season. However, the league has proven its potential, drawing extremely strong numbers at neutral site games as part of the league’s Takeover Tour. More than 19,000 fans attended Montreal’s win over Toronto in Vancouver, more than 14,000 attended in Detroit, over 14,000 in Denver, and nearly 13,000 in Seattle.
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The league received criticism at its outset for not giving its original six teams names right away, but Scheer said it allowed the PWHL to gain brand equity while always being part of the conversation as they were known as PWHL New York or PWHL Montreal in year one. While the league has local TV deals with MSG, NESN, and FanDuel Sports Network in the US and TSN, RDS, and Prime Video in Canada, the league broadcasts all its games nationally on its own YouTube channel. The platform features a chat function, which Scheer notes creates interactive opportunities for fans in real-time during games and actively tap into an engaged global hockey network.
While the league is in conversation with various direct-to-consumer providers and media companies, it’s in no hurry to decide on a national media partner and may continue on YouTube or a similar platform.
“We’re looking for someone that values us the way we value ourselves and our product,” Scheer said. “We’ve got the best women’s hockey in the world and we want to be valued as such. We want a media partner that appreciates who we are, what we bring to the table, the level of the sport, and is willing to invest in not just in our games, but in promoting us and helping us build our league and our players out.”
The PWHL’s early success has been influenced by a diverse team that includes local team directors in each city and a suite of 10 key advisors that include the likes of legendary sports executive Stan Kasten and the iconic PWHL board member Billie Jean King. Cumulatively, they have helped Scheer navigate a whirlwind two years as the league’s established itself.
While King makes sure the league is thinking things through and doing its due diligence, Kasten advised Scheer to think outside the box and to not be afraid to shake things up. Innovative, non-traditional rules like a jailbreak rule allowing a player’s penalty to end on a shorthanded goal, a no escape rule preventing teams from changing players once they take a penalty, and a new draft order system have embodied that mantra. To prevent tanking, the league adopted a system where teams eliminated from the playoffs will accrue “draft order points” to determine which team drafts first overall.
When the NHL partnered with Fanatics and Lululemon in October, PWHL VP of Merchandise Kate Boyce knew she had to secure a similar deal to be the first women’s sports league to work with the brand, which it finalized last week in a viral campaign. That collab came a month after the PWHL teamed up with Mattel and Peace Collective for a ready-to-wear line celebrating women’s empowerment and breaking barriers.
As women’s sports leagues like LOVB and Athletes Unlimited Softball are launching and trying to break barriers of their own, Scheer advised startup women’s leagues in general to not be afraid to be different and find ways to stand out.
“You can’t make decisions out of fear, but just get cracking,” Scheer said. “Get down to business. Make sure you’re having fun, but again, don’t let perfection get in the way of progress and find the best ownership in the world you can get.”
While there’s no current timeline on when the PWHL will expand beyond eight teams, Scheer said there are many years of expansion ahead as Walter Group continues to invest in the league. And as the PWHL grows, Scheer and her team will continue to move quickly and continue in its quest to break barriers and bring women’s hockey to the masses.
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