The PWHL's forays into NHL-sized arenas continue, as they have announced "PWHL Takeover Weekend", which will see three games played in two days, all at NHL rinks. All six teams will be in action:
- March 16, 2024 @ 3:30 PM Eastern – New York @ Minnesota – Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota (this game was previously scheduled as Xcel Energy Center is PWHL Minnesota's permanent home rink)
- March 16, 2024 @ 6:00 PM Eastern – Ottawa @ Boston – Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan (this is a home game for Boston)
- March 17, 2024 @ 12:30 PM Eastern – Toronto @ Montreal – PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (this is a home game for Montreal)
We’re bringing this matchup to Motor City! 😎
— PWHL (@thepwhlofficial) February 6, 2024
Ottawa and Boston are headed to Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, MI on Saturday, March 16 as a part of PWHL Takeover Weekend.
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🎟… pic.twitter.com/f9nbvl8t2Q
See you in March, @thepwhlofficial!
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 6, 2024
Full details: https://t.co/xvpJoAoWeY pic.twitter.com/QV5Q2CXr7P
Per the PWHL, tickets for the two newly-announced game locations will go on sale in the coming days:
Tickets for Toronto-Montréal at PPG Paints Arena will go on sale to the public on February 9 at 2:00 p.m. ET and will be available via Ticketmaster. Tickets for Ottawa-Boston at Little Caesars Arena go on sale on February 13 at 4:00 p.m. ET via Ticketmaster. Fans can sign up online for the PWHL e-newsletter for priority access. Tickets for New York-Minnesota are on sale now.
The PWHL also has a Toronto home game scheduled for February 16 at Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto, with Montreal visiting. The game sold out shortly after tickets were made available to the general public, and is poised to set a new record for attendance at a single women's hockey game at any level, with an arena capacity of 18,800 fans. The current record for a single women's hockey game was set on April 5, 2013 in Ottawa at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre), when an IIHF Women's Worlds group stage matchup between Canada and Finland drew 18,013 fans on a Friday night. (Special thanks to our very own Nicole Haase, who maintains a spreadsheet of women's hockey attendance!)
The previous record for professional women's hockey was set at Xcel Energy Center at the Minnesota home opener on January 6, with 13,316 fans in attendance. The full capacity of Xcel Energy center is 20,554 for hockey. Little Caesars Arena can accommodate 19,515 and PPG Paints Arena holds 18,187.
Xcel Energy Center is also hosting a Rivalry Series game on February 11. Many tickets are still available.
Detroit once set an attendance record for an international women's hockey game played in the United States back in 2002, when a Rivalry Series game drew 10,158 fans to Joe Louis Arena. That record was broken in 2020 in Anaheim, when 13,320 fans attended a Rivalry Series matchup at the Honda Center.
Both the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins are partnering with the PWHL to host these events. The Penguins have supported and hosted women's hockey events for years, including the 2017 NWHL All-Star Game, and Pittsburgh was one of the locations considered for an inaugural PWHL team. Detroit was considered as an expansion location for the NWHL/PHF. Both cities seem to have an appetite for pro women's hockey, and these high-profile PWHL games will demonstrate the level of local interest around the sport.
