by | Apr 30, 2025 | 29 comments
The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is adding another team for the 2025-26 season, and Seattle is officially the destination, the league announced in a press release on Wednesday. The Seattle franchise will join Vancouver as one of two teams being added by the PWHL, which was previously made up of six teams. The addition of these two teams marks the league’s first expansion since it launched in fall of 2023 and is an aggressive move toward growing beyond its current mostly regional footprint. Seattle’s team will play its home games at Climate Pledge Arena, home of the Seattle Kraken and will train out of the Kraken Community Iceplex.
There is no doubt the support that the city of Seattle and Climate Pledge Arena showed for two marquee events over the last three years raised Seattle’s profile as a potential expansion city for professional women’s hockey. There was always a belief that Seattle would be a great city for PWHL expansion, but not many expected it to reach the Emerald City this quickly.
The move west is significant for several reasons. Not only does it broaden the geographic footprint of the PWHL, but it also taps into the explosive growth of hockey in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle has seen a rapid rise in youth participation, ticket sales, and grassroots engagement since the Kraken joined the NHL in 2021. Adding a women’s pro team was the next logical step.
“We are looking forward to returning the love, energy and excitement the Seattle sports community shared with us during the PWHL Takeover Tour,” said Amy Scheer, PWHL Executive Vice President of Business Operations. “The opportunity to start a new chapter of women’s hockey in the Pacific Northwest, combined with calling the world-class Climate Pledge Arena home has so much meaning for our league. The Kraken already have been unbelievably supportive, and it’s a joy to have PWHL Seattle join the WNBA’s Storm and the NWSL’s Reign, who are skyscrapers in the city’s towering sports landscape.”
While official details on the expansion draft and player allocation process will be released in the coming weeks, the timeline is now set. Both Seattle and Vancouver will debut this fall when the puck drops on the 2025–26 PWHL season. Fans can expect more announcements over the summer, including schedules, front office hirings, and coaching staff and player signings.
Climate Pledge Arena previously hosted a USA vs. Canada Rivalry Series game in November, 2022, drawing a strong turnout and showcasing the region’s enthusiasm for high-level women’s hockey. The PWHL also played a “Takeover Tour” game at Climate Pledge Arena on Jan. 19 between the Montreal Victoire and the Boston Fleet, which drew over 12,000 fans. In the PWHL’s most recent season, each team played 15 home games and averaged between 6,400 and 7,700 fans per game. There is some nuance to those attendance numbers, though, as the Takeover Tour games consistently drew big crowds.
The cross-border rivalry with Vancouver also promises to be an intriguing spin on expansion. For the league, it’s a strategic play to develop regional rivalries and deepen fan investment—both critical to long-term success. “Women’s teams from Seattle and Vancouver played against each other as early as 1921 and, given the proximity of our two newest cities – Vancouver is barely 140 miles away – I cannot wait for the first game in what I’m sure will be one of our fiercest rivalries.” said Jayna Hefford, PWHL Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations.
The upcoming season will begin in late fall and run through late spring, with each team once again expected to play 15 home games. Next season will also coincide with the 2026 Winter Olympics, traditionally a major showcase for women’s hockey. Olympic years tend to bring a surge of interest from casual sports fans, providing the PWHL with a golden opportunity to further grow its fanbase and visibility at a national and international level.
While the team name, branding, and expansion draft plans remain under wraps, Seattle is officially part of the PWHL’s future, and the city is ready to make some noise.
Climate Pledge? At first blush, that sounds like an absolutely awful idea. The Seattle sports scene is saturated, for one thing. In a city of no more that seven-hundred thousand people there is a representative from every major professional league (soon, Sonics fans), and the most storied WNBA team in the country. Putting yet another franchise into the middle of that free-for-all melee for Seattites’ dwindling paychecks is a recipe for failure. There was a reason why the T-birds moved out of the city beyond just the state of the Coliseum–to tap into that suburban market which had been underserved. And remember what happened to the Seattle Sea Dragons in a city that worships at the alter of football.
Then there are the scheduling issues. The Kraken play forty-one home games per year plus the preseason plus the playoffs during the same months when the new hockey team would play. On top of that, the arena hosts concerts, which are big money events. Not only will a lot of the nights be filled by more profitable events that the venue owners will be disinclined to move, but the remaining nights are going to be expensive for all the demand. Why should the franchise pay those prices when ShoWare or Angel of the Winds could be had for a fraction of the cost and probably be closer to more fans with money to spend?
Boy, do I wish they hadn’t torn down Mercer Arena. Even better, there should be an arena in Bellevue so folks from the East Side would not have to pay the I-90 toll or fight the 405 traffic to get into Seattle. The train that they have planned will help with that, but even then it would be more practical for eastern families to go to a game on their side of the lake. And those folks are rich. An arena in Bellevue would be perfect for the PWHL, but until that happens Angel of the Winds or ShoWare would be a much better home than Climate Pledge is.
There are 4 million people in the metro area… there are plenty of people to attend games. And it’s 15 home games (which is like four a month) vs. 41 for the Kraken. I’m sure the arena schedulers will be able to figure it all out, just like they have in other markets.
Mercer Arena? Yikes. That thing was a dump in the 90s… nothing says “professional hockey” like shoving a new team into Mercer Arena!
What the hell is the “metro area?” This is Seattle we are talking about, not L.A. The whole of King County only has two million people in it, and two-thirds of them live outside the city in the suburbs. And the Coliseum was a dump in the nineties before the renovation.
Sounds like this was written by someone who lives on the Eastside. Sucks for you. I live in Seattle and want to see the PWHL team and I don’t want to battle traffic to a sea of parking lots in the suburbs to do it. Kraken games are too expensive and too late at night to take my kid. We’ll be going to plenty of PWHL games and they will have pricing and start times to support families.
I live within walking distance of the arena. If it’s cheap tickets you want, go to the suburbs. When teams book an arena, they have to book the whole arena. For an arena that seats seventeen-thousand, has all new facilities, and is in the middle of the city that booking is going to cost a whole hell of a lot more than a smaller arena in Kent or Everett will. Add to that the cost of concessions at the arena and parking in Queen Anne. If you are like me and don’t have to pay to park, bully for you. Know that that is going to keep a lot of suburban families out of the arena, and that means fewer tickets will be sold which in turn means that the team will be less financially viable.
Oh, and, looking it up, the average attendance for PWHL games is about seven-thousand, which is three-thousand shy of capacity at Angel of the Winds. Climate Pledge is going to be at less than half capacity for most games, and if those tickets are going to be “family priced” the chance for them to break even is vanishingly slim. And before anyone floats the idea that Seattle is such a great hockey town that it will perform well above average despite its small population, know that the other PWHL cities to whom that seven-thousand average applies are Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Boston, and Minneapolis. Those towns have ice in their veins.
I want the team and the league to succeed. The other teams in the league have been playing at minor league venues, which makes me wonder why the owner would be willing to book a brand-new pro arena for a team that cannot rightly expect to even come close to regularly filling it. He is taking a big gamble on league attendance continuing to grow at a break-neck pace, which is highly unlikely given that AHL attendance is not much higher than PWHL attendance is now. This is the kind of dice roll that only a league with just one owner would ever attempt.
The expansion bid was submitted by OVG. The same OVG that owns and operates CPA. If they didn’t think it could work, or didn’t want it, we can presume they wouldn’t have submitted a bid. Maybe when rubber hits the road, they decide it won’t work like they modeled it and move it to a smaller venue. But…we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
I believe OVG also runs Angel the Winds Arena via an operating agreement with the city of Everett. So there’s an option right there. Capacity for the Silvertips is around 8,200. They really need to do something about parking, however – any game above about 5k attendance spills over into the residential streets pretty badly. Hopefully the new stadium for the AquaSox will either add parking capacity in the area or include a safe walking route between AOTW and the transit center.
I am so sick-and-tired of the narrative that says we must locate teams on the Eastside just to accommodate those living in the land o’ privilege. If people on the Eastside want to attend PWHL Seattle games (at CPA) they can take the light rail just like the tens of thousands that commute to Seattle on a daily basis. And in spite of what people like Kemper Freeman and their ilk will tell you, no one’s going to shit on your penny loafers during your “perilous” light-rail journey into downtown Seattle. Yes – getting to CPA will require an additional transfer to the Monorail (the horrors!), but that’s what’s required for anyone from suburbia attending a Kraken game at CPA. And anyone driving to CPA will be travelling the opposite way of the evening commute, so the whole I-90/520 congestion thing is a canard (good luck with the Mercer mess though).
Yeah, you can hate ’em, but they have the budget to buy more tickets than they already do. Seattleites don’t. And who’s this “we?” I don’t own the PWHL, do you?
You’re being dense. The PWHL is a single owner entity (I assume you knew this) that operates the league and is not in the business of builidng venues. The “We” I was referring to are local residents (taxpayers) who would be asked to finance any “smaller” venue for the PWHL. Both Showare Center and Angel of the Winds Arena were publically are just marginally viable economically but only because they’re publically funded.
I don’t hate Eastsiders, my point is there’s no reason to locate a PWHL venue there to cater to them specifically (the tired narrative). Your point about Eastsiders having greater means to buy support sports franchises is technically/statistically accurate (Bellevue’s median income is ~ $100k annually, Seattle’s is $75k per year statisticalatlas.com), but also highly misleading as it this ignores the obvious fact that Seattle’s population is ~ 5X that of Bellevue.
I think they just solved the Kraken’s dilemma of how to part ways gracefully with Campbell.
RB she has to be a top candidate.
“Lowered the bar”? There’s some codified set of standards? Tell me about the coaching experience of one Martin St. Louis… whose Montreal Canadiens have been fawned over for the excellence of their first round exit.
I’ll save you the trouble of Googling it… prior to being named the Head Coach in Montreal, his experience behind the bench consisted of turning down an offer to coach in the AHL and youth hockey with his sons… not Junior Hockey – actual kids. Nothing behind the bench… period.
Spare me the “qualification” take. RB, I have a ton of respect for your views – especially on this – but the NHL is still – in a lot of ways – a “good old boys” network behind the bench and in the front office. In this case maybe that “good old boy” was a “girl”… but that doesn’t mean she’s not qualified for the job. Just maybe, after a couple of years in the organization they actually value the quality of her coaching rather than the quantity of her experience. Sometimes more is just more.
Haters out in full force today. I’m excited about this. Great for the game, great for the region, great for women’s sports and all combinations thereof!
Yes I’m very surprised that there isn’t any positivity to this announcement. The feeling that I have is that people were very excited to see a special event game but there are not a lot of people who care that much about a full time team. I’d like to see them succeed, would generate a lot more interest in women’s hockey in the area.
Jumping back on this, I feel that the best thing that they could do is make a well known Seattle coach “Jessica” the head coach. Would that be considered a downgrade for her, I’d hope that it wouldn’t and that it would be seen as a positive way to start our first pro women’s team. Something that’s good for her, the Kraken and the new expansion team.
“Something that’s good for her, the Kraken and the new expansion team” is a wild sentence. If you think she’s a good coach who has a positive impact on the development of the young players with the Kraken, keeping her is good for the Kraken. If you think she’s a bad coach, giving her the HC position of a brand new expansion team is would be a terrible decision. The implication seems to be you think she can coach women, but can’t coach men. If that’s how you feel, you might as well just say it instead of dancing around it.
Honestly, I’ve never seen so much hand-wringing over an assistant coach after 1 year before. Bylsma was fired after a disappointing season. Lowry, Campbell, and Woods are all still employed by the Kraken. There seems to be a fixation with just one of those names. How about we wait to hire a new head coach who can evaluate the staff and go from there?
Man I totally agree. I’ve been holding my tongue on it but the Jessica Campbell fixation on here is really bizarre.
Right on Chas G. JC is in the nhl and has worked her butt off to get there and that’s where she belongs. She actually earned it.
She has not “worked her butt off” any more than other coaches in the NHL. She is literally one of the least, if not the very least, qualified coaches in the nhl based on total years of coaching experience. Her total relevant coaching experience: 1 year in Germany (at best the 6th best league in Europe, which is being generous), 2 years in the AHL and 1 year with the Kraken. Most other coaches at the NHL level have experience in the double-digits. She’s only 33, so has plenty of time to get more experience.
The Kraken essentially lowered the bar to hire her – a male candidate with similar qualifications wouldn’t even have been interviewed. Equity should never be lowering the bar – it should be providing support and resources to help the candidate rise up to the bar. That would include more time gaining more years of experience via other leagues.
Bingo.
Chase G, honest question for you…. Do you feel the the coaching quality in the PWHL is of the same quality as the NHL. We are not comparing apples to apples. Jessica was rushed into an NHL position before she was ready because the Kraken were wanting to be the first NHL team to hire a female. I’m sorry but she wasn’t ready, the PWHL is the perfect opportunity to step into a head coaching position at a lower level where she can develop. Please don’t try and pretend the the PWHL isn’t a lower level than the NHL that just ridiculously stupid. Just look at the amount of female hockey players compared to male, the pWHL has a long way to go and don’t try to spin that into a bad thing. It’s great what it’s doing for women’s hockey but this is grass roots.
Also don’t spin this on anyone other than the kraken, they put themselves in this position. How else can you read it when they played so horribly that they fired their coach and the ONLY coach that they publicly said would be returning and be behind the bench next season was Jessica…. I can guarantee you that the reason wasn’t because of her coaching abilities…. We all know what this is about don’t try to pretend otherwise. People start to question when special treatment exists, we are an NHL team that the first priority should be in winning.
“Jessica was rushed into an NHL position before she was ready because the Kraken were wanting to be the first NHL team to hire a female.”
This statement right here, this says it all. This is the sort of premise that is based purely on prejudice. You are an idiot on a message board – just like me – but to make this statement in such a “matter of fact” way – as if you base this on anything of substance… as of you know the first thing about the actual contributions of an NHL assistant coach on any team in the NHL… as if you know why any assistant is hired. What a joke.
I say a lot of stupid shit, but the conversation around a singular Seattle Kraken assistant coach… it’s next level stupid.
Seriously, you’re questioning this? Look at her experience and find me other NHL coaches that are in the same ballpark. The biggest reason she was hired was because of who she was. I have no problem with female NHL coaches but they should earn it and be qualified. They should also not be protected when things go south.
I’m not trying to start a sexist argument I think women have every right to coach in the NHL and play in the league as well if they are the best candidate. This is an obvious example though of protecting Jessica just because of who she is and I feel that is wrong. The team straight out came to the microphone and said the only coach that we are definitely going to be returning next season is the least qualified coach on the coaching staff. I can’t believe people are even questioning this.
Nino – have you actually made an attempt to look at the experience levels of assistant coaches around the league?
A cursory glance at 5 different teams and I found 2 in the same experience ballpark as Campbell. I’ll let you do your own research though.
If you haven’t even made the attempt to question your assumptions here then it’s a clear cut case of confirmation bias on your part.
Also the team said they’re retaining ALL assistant coaches, not just Jessica. The perseveration on the assistant coaches and Campbell in particular is just weird.
Wow, after deep diving this it appear a large number of NHL teams employ an assistant coach on their staff who’s coaching experience is in the 0-4 year range in a variety of coaching rolls and levels. Jessica’s resume is very similar to all of them. And the information was so easy to find too!
Even more impressive, when you look at a lot of the long time assistant coaches in the NHL, many of them got there first shot with a similar amount of coaching experience.
Can’t wait for this comment section to criticize these organizations for lowering their bar to hire these individuals.
Out own Edzo went from playing hockey to being a broadcaster to being the Head Coach of the Penguins in his mid-30s…so color commentator to HC.
Martin St Louis was coaching his kids AAA team before he took the HC role of the Habs.
Assistants have long pulled from former players with minimal direct coaching experience. And many were not super star players during their careers. So her path is not overly unique other than her gender.
Matt Ellis went from coaching 13U AAA to NHL assistant coach in 2 years.
Richard Clune – just over half a season as an assistant coach at the AHL level, prior to that 1 year as a development coach. Now he’s an NHL assistant coach. I bet people are really riled up over that hire!
And yes to be clear I’m super excited about Seattle’s PWHL franchise. Really came to appreciate women’s hockey (more skating, less checking) after attending a couple of Women’s Rivalry series games the past few years, and of course the PWHL game at CPA in January.
CPA should be a great venue. I’ve attended a couple of the Sound Series (or whatever they call it) between Silvertips and Thunderbirds, and even with less-than-full capacity their was plenty of atmosphere and energy in the arena. Seattle Storm average ~ 11,000 per game; hoping that PWHL Seattle can come close to that. Should be great!
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