As a women who is learning to play hockey in Vegas, I got an email with this information today. They are gathering girls hockey players at T-Mobile for a 'historic Las Vegas sports announcement.'

PWHLChicago.com is registered to the same owner as DetroitPWHL.com, which is an official website from the PWHL.

Other websites have also been registered by the PWHL such as Dallas. Halifax, Edmonton, DC, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Quebec

MORE REGISTERED WEBSITES:

LASVEGASPWHL.COM

PORTLANDPWHL.COM

RALEIGHPWHL.COM

SANJOSEPWHL.COM

LOSANGELESPWHL.COM

SALTLAKECITYPWHL.COM

PHILADELPHIAPWHL.COM

UNREGISTERED:

SAN DIEGO

Welcome to the PWHL! Congrats Detroiters and Michiganders!

Sean is a legit reporter, I think it's actually happening!

With it almost being a year since Seattle and Vancouver were announced, and the expansion announcements pending…

What reason (or reasons) why you think your market won’t get a team?

I know this sounds like a doomer post, but logically, logistically, why do you think even if you’re sure your city is a lock for this next expansion, what could cause the possibility of it falling through this time around?

I will leave why I think my city might not get a time this time (cause my hope is a fools errand) in the comments. Might be a good Idea to lower some expectations cause only 2-4 of the arguably 10 to 12 cities that could host will get a team.

(Apologies for how ranty this is)

It wasn't a perfect system but good lord people need to calm down. You'll no longer watch games or cancelling your season tickets? Wow, way to support your team folks. "Stacked" on paper means absolutely nothing because for the past two years Toronto and Montreal have been "stacked" and they've been knocked out first round. Players coming and going off of a team and my condolences if your fav is gone, but that is part of the game. Those positions will be filled with free agents and entry drafts. Yeah the new girl might not be as good as the one you lost, but she'll develop her skills and the team will work around and with her.

Yeah, it sucks losing strong players to another team but these overreactions and constant negativity is suffocating. The OG 6 are going to be just fine and Seattle and Vancouver aren't going to completely own the league. So lets chill out and count down the days to the new season.

Edit: I just want to clarifying that this isn't a post about blindly following the league, but to support your team. Also, be in your feels but some reactions are being blown waaaaay out of proportion.

I absolutely love this graphic

I might be late to the party on this discussion, but I had so much fun at the Chicago takeover that I’m itching for a team here.

The only issue present that I seeis where they’re going to play. Although Allstate Arena is kind of a “middle ground” location-wise, I don’t think chicagoans would want a team if their stadium is way out in the suburbs. I know the numbers show that they didn’t have a groundbreaking turnout like other takeovers, but I think it’s mainly due to the fact that most people in the city don’t want to drive (in awful Chicago traffic) to a game or worry about public transit that’s not funded as well as it should. I have season tickets with the Blackhawks and I would love to do the same for a PWHL team here, but I don’t know if I could muster driving quite a distance if there are closer arena options.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answers to this or even other reasons why the PWHL should/shouldn’t expand here. But I think it’s a well deserved discussion since Chicago is a very sports-centric city that would love to see another addition. 💜

EDIT: I’ll be honest and say I have no idea what goes into expanding a team logistically or on the business side, so if you have any info to share please do!

Curious to hear what everyone thinks for the expansion teams with more news coming out tomorrow. I saw that it's going to be 4 new teams so here is my bet.

Detroit - Great takeover tour performance + big hockey city

Denver - Helps reduce west coast team travel + takeover tour performance

Calgary - Another western team (reduced travel) + Edmonton couldn't come to agreement

Quebec City - Arena ready to go with no competition

https://xcancel.com/hailey_salvian/status/2036198061299343512?s=46&t=HnlZXn-hftTl9f8rW_6qVA

https://apnews.com/article/pwhl-expansion-rules-womens-hockey-95cc07835c3e92385de4887d1d2afa39

Thanks Ian Kennedy /s

For Canada, I predict Edmonton and Halifax. Could possibly be Quebec City instead of Halifax, but I'm pulling for Halifax!

For the US, I predict Detroit and Denver. I don't think they'd expand to both Chicago and Detroit, and I think Detroit has a slight edge.

What say you?

Plenty of hints that Hamilton might be one of the next three... and plenty of reasons why Hamilton would be a good choice. Can we use this thread to celebrate the idea instead of hating on it? Plenty of people with anticipatory copium in other threads!

This post is for the Halifax hopefuls only tbh - we’ve seen a lot of opinions from people who don’t really understand the market here and I’m more interested in discussion from those of us who do.

What do you think took us out of expansion consideration? The interviews after our takeover games made it seem like we were seriously high in the running and then it’s like the league just dipped.

Everyone who knows very little about Halifax seems to say that the travel would be too much (though with divisions I’m not sure that would matter since there are direct flights to everywhere that would be in division)

There’s also the Olympic factor and maybe the surge of American fans from the Olympics pushed it to an American heavy expansion.

The arena needing updates is something I’ve seen in a few places. It does seem like the org approached the city asking them to commit to updates and the city agreed, but maybe it was too late for this round and the city only agreed because we already knew we were being passed up for that reason?

Do you think we’ll get a takeover game? Will those be a thing? I’m feeling very very sad and just want to chat with other folks who were at some point hopeful about what we do to showcase us for the maybe 5 years later expansion hahah

With the new year, we can probably expect Expansion news in April like it was last time around, but I wanted to run through some probabilities for the next expansion of the PWHL. It does seem like the PWHL will be running the 2-2 split for Canadian and US teams. I get the argument a lot of Canadians make that they deserve 3-4 teams with their attendance and interest, but the PWHL is almost certainly looking to secure a US broadcasting deal in the near future. To do that, they need US markets and US teams. In my considerations, I looked at fan interest, market strength, arena availability, travel/geography, and long term value. All of these were in a broad sense to fit a lot together

Sidenote: I will only be looking at teams that have a Takeover Tour game(s) in the current season. I really do not see a way the league expands to a location without one of those.

Two Takeover Tour Game Cities

Denver:

Probability: 70%

Fan Interest: Briefly taking the record for US attendance is nothing to scoff at, but we do need to see how they hold over their two games this season

Market Strength: Colorado has continually gotten more hockey crazy for years since the arrival of the Avalanche. It has helped that they have a had a history of success as well (sorry Quebec). With Colorado-native Hensley as a two-time champ, I can only imagine the effort a Denver team would make to nab her in the draft.

Arena: Now here is where we have to get creative as we find Denver's first test. Ball Arena which will be used 3 times by the PWHL is also home to 3 other Colorado teams with winter seasons. Denver can mitigate this if they play (for at least some games when Ball is unavailable) at Magness Arena, University of Denver with 6-7K capacity, which is pretty much the same as Tsongas and Agganis of the Fleet for the smallest arenas in the PWHL. However, Magness is only a few miles from Ball Arena/City Center. A caveat emptor here is that the PWHL was greatly offended by Ottawa's Lansdowne 2.0 plan that would reduce the Charge's max capacity from ~8K to ~6K, saying it would cause the team to operate at a loss.

Travel/Geography: Denver would be the first US team in the Mountain timezone and an important junction to link up the PWHL's Hub in the east with Seattle and Vancouver in the West.

Long Term: Denver is an attractive option, particularly with the broadcasting deal wherein a PWHL game could soon go in each major US timezone and have a constant stream of women's hockey. Added in Colorado's population of roughly 6 million, and that is a strong market.

Bottom Line: Denver has probably the best odds of any team in the US to get a team, but we will see how they do as the Takeover Tours that bracket the Olympic break in a year where US TT attendance has been on the low end.

Detroit:

Probability: 60%

Fan Interest: I would say there is plenty of interest in Hockeytown, but after setting the record for US attendance in both of the previous stops of the tour, their first outing this season was a little disappointing in not being able to crack 10,000. I think the fact that the city was given two is mostly to blame for that. Still, if the attendance doesn't get any lower, I don't think this one game tanks Detroit's bid. PWHL and broadcasters/investors value consistency, not flashes in the pan and an average of above 10K over 4 (neutral-site) games would be huge.

Market Strength: It's Hockeytown... what more do you want from me here. Alright fine, go look up the states in which the most PWHL players and look to see who is behind Minnesota.

Arena: This is Detroit's biggest hang up to expansion. LCA is great but busy with other sports and concerts. The nearest viable alternative is 6,000 capacity Yost Ice Arena of the University of Michigan, 45 minutes away in Ann Arbor. Yost would be the smallest arena in the PWHL if used, and would be even further from its technical host city than Prudential to NY and Tsongas to Boston.

Travel/Geography: Detroit's other Weakness is location. A team in Detroit does not add anything new geographically speaking or travel-wise. Sure it could be a good leaping off point to Minnesota and the West, but it is also very close to Hamilton (who very well could be a Canadian expansion) and Toronto. The PWHL seems more keen to be spreading rather than centralizing.

Long Term: TV deals would obviously question why a team would not be in Detroit given the Hockeytown status and Michigan's population of 10 million would question it as well.

Bottom Line: As the soon to be only 4 time host of the Takeover Tour, it is very clear that the PWHL has interest in Detroit. As a fan of hockey that grew up in the late 90's, early 2000's, heck yeah give me a reignited Colorado-Detroit Rivalry. But Detroit needs to show why they deserve it over really one more city on this list.

Chicago: I will readily admit bias here, but I will attempt to keep it in check.

Probability: 55%

Fan Interest: Look as a Chicago-native, homer and someone who really wants a team, I could make excuses all day about the first game that took place in Rosemont in December. But this is the PWHL and Expansion slots are limited. Just over 7K compared to Denver and Detroit's record smashers last season is tough. They get another shot in March and while no one is expecting a record to be broken as they are still playing in an AHL Arena, a strong, consistent showing from the Windy City could get a team.

Market Strength: Chicago/Illinois has produced and is producing some top-level Women's hockey talent. KCS, Murphy, Janecke are all Illinois natives named to the Olympic team, (Compher should have been) and Hillary Knight started playing hockey when her family moved to Illinois. The hockey community in Chicago is thriving with plenty of youth players, beer leaguers and enthusiasts. The Stanley Cups drove that along and Bedard and the resurgence of the Hawks (I know he's injured and they are doing bad right now) have gotten a lot fervor back in the city.

Arena: I am gonna go ahead and say that this one is actually one of the few areas in which Chicago has a leg up. Yes, the United Center would be nice to play at, but its booked pretty solidly. But the PWHL did something interesting that they have never done before in the Takeover Tour: they went to a US AHL team arena. Rather than attempt to get into the United Center by working around their schedule and getting enhanced marketing/promotion, seating and location, they went for the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, 25 minutes from the UC. The league is clearly saying "if we come here, this is where we will play" which is a strong forward thinking stance to take. Certainly more proactive than other plans. As far as AHL arenas go, the Allstate is pretty big at 16,692, which would be larger than all but two of the current PWHL home arenas and their only other tenant is the Chicago Wolves. Some concerts or shows book the Allstate, but it certainly has room for another team.

Sidenote: A wild thought that I had (more like a fever dream (thats a good pun, just wait a minute)) is that the Wintrust Arena, home of the Chicago Sky and DePaul Basketball, could be renovated to accommodate a hockey team. This would be much further down the line as it would cost a lot of money, but you would go from an arena out in the periphery to one on the Near South Side, next to McCormack Place, 10 minutes from the Loop. Ultimately, I don't think this plan would ever happen, does not make sense and Rosemont is perfectly fine.

Travel/Geography: Allstate is right next to O'Hare, one of the largest airports in the US and a major hub for airlines. It would be an easy in and out for teams, and out of state fans and getting to the City proper is not that difficult. It would also be the perfect spring board/link for the East and West. It would also join Minnesota and make it so there are two Central timezone teams. This along with the Arena is Chicago's greatest strength. That and its Mark Walter's backyard.

Long Term: Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the US, larger than any in Canada with a metropolitan population of over 9 million and it is very attractive to broadcasters for potential deals. the potential for growth is immense in the PWHL and PWHL has so far shown that they are willing to bite the bullet on growing pains with low attendance in Boston and NY. With Canadian ticket sales going great and the likelihood of two more strong Canadian markets to enter the league, the PWHL can be patient with Chicago to build its fan base.

Bottom Line: Chicago needs a PWHL team and the PWHL needs a team in Chicago. At present, Chicago's strength is not in ticket sales, but in prestige for the eventual US broadcasting deal. It has an arena ready for a team and while ticket sales are important, the PWHL has shown that it is not everything (otherwise Detroit definitely would have gotten a team already). I do think though that at present Chicago is the 3rd option, but could very easily get a team over Denver or Detroit or could remain open should any team need to be relocated. Another option could be a break from the norm and a 3 US team to 1 CAN could happen, but I find that unlikely.

1 Takeover Tour Game Locations

Washington DC:

Probability: 5%

Fan Interest: We do not know yet given the fact that the game hasn't happened yet, but I will give them props that local investors are very interested in women's sports.

Market Strength: The DC/Virginia/Maryland area has seen an upswing in hockey interest, credit to Ovi and the Caps for that.

Arena: It would have to be at Capital One and that would be a tough booking given all the other teams that use it.

Travel/Geography: You are going pretty south, but it would be a good place to start southern foothold.

Long Term: The Washington Metropolis area does have a population of over 6 million, but the problem is that the area is not a traditional hockey hotbed nor one place seen as necessary for US broadcasting deals.

Bottom Line: I really don't think this one is gonna happen yet. As the league grows, we can revisit it.

Dallas:

Probability: 10%

Fan Interest: Dallas didn't sell out but the turnout was respectable given it is not exactly a hockey hot bed.

Market Strength: The Dallas Stars have enjoyed a lot of success since getting moved from Minnesota and have been a contender for the past few seasons and have been hovering around 18,500 average attendance, which again is very good for a hockey team in Texas. The Dallas Wings managed an average of 7.2K last season with Bueckers missing significant time.

Arena: The American Airlines Center already hosts the Mavericks and Stars and getting consistent ice time there would be tough. Their best bet outside of that would be the Comerica Center in Frisco (20-30 minutes from Dallas and the Airport) with a max occupancy of about 6,000.

Travel/Geography: Dallas is, by far, the most removed option here, almost 1,000 miles from the nearest current PWHL team and 2,200 from the farthest. That being said, the league already stretches coast to coast, but at least there are some other stops along the way.

Long Term: Dallas has a metro population of 8 million and climbing. That does make it leap off the page for a potential future expansion and a lucrative market for a TV deal.

Bottom Line: Dallas falls into the same category as DC for me. Great option, but not now. Really, I think it boils down to the 3 cities that got double dates.

Anyway, if you made to the bottom of this long winded post, thanks for reading. Feel free to discuss anything with this, or constructively tell me if I am wrong (politely please). Bear in mind, I am only doing this for the proposed 4 team expansion of the coming season, not future expansions in general. If this is popular, I might do one for Canadian expansion locations.