Women's Hockey
Detroit is one of five markets that will host two Takeover Tour games over the course of the season. Scott W. Grau / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Professional Women’s Hockey League will play 16 neutral-site games this season as part of the “PWHL Takeover Tour,” the league announced on Monday.
The tour will go across the United States and Canada with seven new stops in Calgary, Chicago, Dallas, Halifax, Hamilton, Washington, D.C., and Winnipeg, and will return to Denver, Detroit, Edmonton and Quebec City. It’s the third straight season the league will play at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, which set a U.S. professional women’s hockey attendance record of 14,288 last season.
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For the first time, five markets will host two games over the course of the season: Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Edmonton and Halifax.
The games will largely be played in NHL buildings, save for the 18,000-seat (NHL-caliber) Videotron Centre in Quebec City; TD Coliseum, where the former OHL Hamilton Bulldogs played before relocating to Brantford in 2023-24, in Hamilton; and Allstate Arena, home to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, in the suburbs of Chicago.
All eight teams — the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, New York Sirens, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Toronto Sceptres, Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes — will play in at least three of the neutral-site games this season.
“Season Two’s PWHL Takeover Tour was the first of its kind, giving fans across North America the chance to experience the excitement of a regular-season game in their home venues,” said Amy Scheer, PWHL executive vice president of business operations. “The passion and support from fans, and the enthusiasm from cities eager to engage with our league, have fueled our ambition to grow the Tour for Season Three.”
Last season, the PWHL hosted a successful nine-stop tour with a total of 123,601 fans and record-breaking attendance first in Denver, then again in Detroit. According to the league, the neutral-site games welcomed fans from all 50 U.S. states and all 13 Canadian provinces and territories, with an estimated 80 percent of attendees at their first-ever PWHL game.
The league also drew big crowds in Seattle (12,608) and Vancouver (19,038) in January, just three months before announcing expansion to each market for the 2025-26 season.
This season’s increased barnstorming schedule comes amid talk of the PWHL adding more teams in the not-so-distant future. At an Ottawa City Council meeting discussing the city’s new arena development project last month, Scheer told councillors the league is expanding and growing.
“We added Vancouver and Seattle this year. Two teams. We’re going to expand at least two to four teams next year,” she said. “We are in growth mode, and this league is exploding.”
The league has yet to officially announce any expansion plans for 2026-27 at this time.
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Hailey Salvian is a staff writer for The Athletic covering women’s hockey and the NHL. Previously, she covered the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators and served as a general assignment reporter. Follow Hailey on Twitter @hailey_salvian
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