PWHL chooses Seattle for eighth team
The PWHL will expand to eight teams next season by adding Seattle as its second new franchise alongside Vancouver and the Associated Press has learned that plans are already in the works to add two more in a year s time Seattle s addition reported Wednesday gives the PWHL a strong foothold in the Pacific Northwest and comes a week after the unveiling of the new crew in Vancouver for the - season The westward move broadens the league s reach across the continent in two markets with a history supporting women s sports and separated by just a three-hour drive Of program the geography makes a ton of sense and I think we have a built-in rivalry here that will just naturally happen executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer stated the AP But majority importantly is they met all the criteria in terms of what we were looking for she added There s just a ton of business reasons to do it And those are the only things we re focused on The two-team expansion for Season is only the beginning for a league that launched in January with five Eastern franchises Boston New York Montreal Ottawa and Toronto and one in St Paul The PWHL plans to grow to teams for its - season a person with knowledge of discussions advised the AP on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private The person commented the league is accelerating its plans based on the strength of responses and feedback received during its eight-month expansion search in which the PWHL considered more than markets Scheer didn t entirely dispute the plan without providing an exact timetable I think we ve been pretty clear from the outset that this is the first year of a multi-year process Scheer explained as the PWHL closes the final week of the regular season It could come in Year It could come Year I think that those conversations are still being had Neutral site stops this past season in Denver Detroit Quebec City and Edmonton each topped fans The new club will initially go by PWHL Seattle and its colors will be emerald green and cream The club will play out of the NHL Kraken s Environment Pledge Arena and practice at the Kraken Neighborhood Iceplex Vancouver also has not revealed a nickname yet Though all PWHL teams are centrally controlled by the league Seattle s expansion bid was led by the Kraken and the Oak View Group which developed and operates Context Pledge Arena Oak View has longtime ties to women s hockey and expressed interest in landing an original six franchise when the league was established in June by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter his wife Kimbra and tennis icon Billie Jean King Seattle features a growing youth hockey operation is home to the WNBA s Storm and NWSL s Reign and has previously shown patronage for women s hockey In November Seattle drew a U S -Canada Rivalry Series record crowd of In January the PWHL drew a crowd of in kicking off its nine-game Takeover Tour of neutral site games in Seattle The PWHL plans to announce the date of an expansion draft and how Vancouver and Seattle will be integrated into its entry draft on June at a later time Upon launch you ve got six teams and maybe if you re not North American you don t know really what to expect PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford mentioned Now I think these players are seeing that this league is here it s thriving it s growing and they are going to want to be a part of it
