The nascent Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) US women’s ice hockey competition has announced the locations of its first two expansion franchises, with Vancouver (Canada) and Seattle (US) both set to join the current six-team league in the 2025-26 campaign.
Currently known as PWHL Vancouver and PWHL Seattle, the branding identity of both sides will be revealed closer to the beginning of the 2025-26 campaign, the league’s second-ever season, which will begin in the latter half of 2025.
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PWHL Vancouver will play at the city’s 16,281-capacity Pacific Coliseum, which has been the host of several different professional ice hockey sides since its inauguration in 1968, most recently hosting the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League, and most prominently was the home of the National Hockey League’s (NHL’s) Vancouver Canucks between 1970 and 1995.
The Vancouver team’s bid was led by Pacific National Exhibition, the regional events operator that owns the PNE Agrodome, which the PWHL Vancouver side will train at and be the primary sports team tenant of.
Vancouver’s Rogers Arena played host to a sold-out PWHL fixture in 2024-25 as part of the series’s regional Takeover Tour, which the PWHL said reinforced Vancouver as a “natural fit for expansion”.
Meanwhile, PWHL Seattle will stage games at the 17,200-capacity Climate Pledge Arena, the current home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken since the team’s foundation in 2021.
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By GlobalDataPWHL Seattle’s bid was led by Oak View Group, the sports and real estate investment fund that owns the Climate Pledge Arena and the Kraken franchise.
Seattle also held a fixture at the Climate Pledge Arena during the PWHL takeover Tour, drawing 12,608 fans to the venue, with PWHL stating: “Partnering with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken further solidifies a strong foundation for success in this vibrant sports market.”
Both teams will be owned and operated by The Walter Group, which owns PWHL and all of its teams.
The addition of two teams that exist in close proximity could also be a boon for the growing league in creating what could be a strong local rivalry that could, in turn, galvanize fan engagement.
Seattle and Vancouver are also PWHL’s first two west coast locations, expanding the league markedly beyond its current market area, which stretches from the US East Coast and the Great Lakes region as far west as Minnesota.
