PWHL POPULARITY SKY ROCKETS AS SECOND SEASON LOOMS

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The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is set to return for its sophomore season, and the excitement is tangible. The new season commences on Saturday, November 30, promising more exhilarating action from this elite North American league.

Sea­son tick­et sales have surged by over 50% across all six teams com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year, accord­ing to Amy Scheer, the senior vice pres­i­dent of busi­ness oper­a­tions for the PWHL. “When we opened tick­et sales, there was an imme­di­ate rush as fans snapped up their sea­son tick­ets and tick­et plans,” Scheer told Reuters. “Our fan base is enthu­si­as­tic about attend­ing more games, which is a promis­ing start.”

The PWHL made his­to­ry by set­ting a record for the most-watched wom­en’s pro­fes­sion­al ice hock­ey game just days into its inau­gur­al sea­son. Min­neso­ta secured the first cham­pi­onship in front of a packed audi­ence in May at Tsongas Cen­ter in Low­ell, Mass­a­chu­setts.

The league’s six teams are pri­mar­i­ly locat­ed in the East­ern Time Zone, with Min­neso­ta being the only out­lier. This sea­son, a nine-game “neu­tral site” tour will take teams to venues nation­wide, from Seat­tle and Van­cou­ver to Buf­fa­lo and Raleigh.

Seat­tle, which will host a game between the Mon­tre­al Vic­toire and the Boston Fleet at Cli­mate Pledge Are­na, home of the NHL’s Krak­en, has expressed inter­est in per­ma­nent­ly host­ing a team. “We are explor­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of expan­sion,” Scheer said. “We’re in dis­cus­sions with over 20 mar­kets where we believe we could be suc­cess­ful, as well as with indi­vid­u­als who have expressed inter­est in hav­ing a team. We’re cur­rent­ly in the explo­ration phase.”

Scheer attrib­ut­es part of the league’s suc­cess to its acces­si­bil­i­ty, as games will be avail­able on YouTube, while tick­et prices are set to be afford­able for fans. “We made it easy for fans to engage with us and par­tic­i­pate,” she said.

The PWHL sea­son kicks off on Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 30, with the Toron­to Scep­tres host­ing the Boston Fleet and the Mon­tre­al Vic­toire play­ing at home against the Ottawa Charge.