Tuning in to history, together.
— PWHL (@thepwhlofficial) January 5, 2024
Our inaugural game reached 2.9 million Canadian viewers on New Year’s Day across our three Canadian national broadcast partners: CBC, Sportsnet, and TSN.
📰 https://t.co/4XfdTTA6Ed pic.twitter.com/C8g9c9AEKB
A wonderful turnout for Opening Day of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) experience. We love the balance between 3 Canadian franchises and 3 American ones.
We are curious about the potential success of the Ottawa franchise, not factoring in the ice performance. PWHL board member Stan Kasten said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman first suggested to him that Ottawa could be a strong market.
"I will tell you this wasn't necessarily on our opening list of cities. Gary was the first one who said 'you ought to think about Ottawa,'" Kasten said before Ottawa's inaugural home opener against Montréal at TD Place. "He gave me a lot of good advice. I'm really happy I was smart enough to take his advice."
The Ottawa home opener had a sellout crowd of 8,318, setting a then record for a pro women's hockey game.
LARGEST ATTENDANCE EVER
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) January 3, 2024
8,318 packed into TD Place tonight for the first PWHL in Ottawa.
That’s a world record crowd for professional women’s hockey. pic.twitter.com/o1AVm1mJXm
We will praise Bettman for his suggestion. We do have a caveat since Bettman never does anything for the sake of others. Bettman's greed isn't such a bad thing in this case.
Let's say you work in downtown Ottawa. You reach the end of your workday and want to stay downtown and watch a hockey game. You have to get all the way out to Kanata to watch the NHL Ottawa Senators. They are not that good these days.
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You could stay downtown, grab a nice dinner, and go over to TD Place to watch the Ottawa PWHL franchise. CFL fans likely know that TD Place (the arena), home rink of the OHL Ottawa 67s, is literally underneath TD Place (the stadium), home of the Ottawa RedBlacks.
We generally recommend the 6 and 7 buses from downtown down Bank Street to get to the arena. There are buses for special events, such as 450, 451, 452 and 454, 455, 456.
Traditionally for Ottawa RedBlacks, Ottawa 67s, and other events at TD Place, a ticket to the event gets you free transit on all OC Transpo routes, starting 3 hours before the event and 3 hours after the event. We hope that also applies to the PWHL games at the arena.
We did that for a RedBlacks game and thought that was a wonderful perk in traveling to and from the game.
If you are on the Confederation Line of the O-Train, get off at the Parliament | Parlement station (underneath O'Connor and Queen streets) and catch the 6 or 7 bus to TD Place.
We think Bettman's enthusiasm for having a PWHL team in Ottawa will enhance the idea of a NHL arena in downtown Ottawa at LeBreton Flats. Sometimes sworn enemies can agree on a few things.
The other Canadian franchises don't have that kind of pressure since those cities have strong downtown arenas. Getting to the PWHL sites isn't too difficult in those cities.
The Montréal franchise plays at Verdun Auditorium, near the De L'Église Metro station on the Green Line heading toward the Angrignon station. The De L'Église stop is 6 stops west of the Peel station in downtown Montréal.
The Lucien-L'Allier station on the Orange Line, near the Bell Centre, is 5 stops away, though you have to transfer to the Green Line at the Lionel-Groulx station. You could walk above ground a couple of blocks and get on the Green Line downtown at the Guy-Concordia station for an easier trip.
The Verdun Auditorium has about half the capacity for hockey as Ottawa does at 3,795.
The Toronto franchise plays at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, essentially the old Maple Leaf Gardens, with a 3,850 capacity. You can take the TTC subway to the College Street stop at Yonge and College to 60 Carlton Street (College turns into Carlton east of Yonge Street).
You can walk over from the Queen's Park station at University and College and walk a little further to the arena.
The 506 Carlton streetcar runs from High Park to the Danforth neighbourhood and can take you to the arena. You have good choices.
As for the U.S. teams, the New York and Boston teams aren't in the city with Boston playing in Lowell and New York playing in Bridgeport, CT (though 4 games will be at the new New York Islanders arena).
Minnesota had 13,316 fans at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul for its home opener, setting a new record for a professional women's hockey game. Minnesota broke the mark set by Ottawa in its PWHL opener.
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You might be a NHL fan and love live hockey. You might not have a lot of money and find that the PWHL fits your budget a lot better. You will likely have a better seat closer to the action at a PWHL game.
We envision people visiting Canada in warmer times. A business trip or a great off-season hotel rate might draw you to a major eastern Canada city.
Staying downtown in any of these cities can put you really close to a PWHL game. Something to consider to add to your Canadian travel experience.
Twitter captures: @thepwhlofficial; @Devin_Heroux
logo credit: PWHL
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