Detroit shoots to boost its bid for PWHL expansion team, drawing record crowd for pro women's hockey

DETROIT (AP) — Young women, among those in a record-breaking crowd, held up signs with messages for the Professional Women's Hockey League.

“PWHL DETROIT NEEDS A TEAM,” was printed on one side of the signs.

The six-team PWHL may expand next season — in its third year — and is touring cities potentially on the list to get in the game.

Detroit tried to improve its chances of landing a team, drawing 14,288 fans Sunday night to break the attendance record for a professional women's hockey game in the United States as New York beat Minnesota 4-1 at Little Caesars Arena.

The game was part of the PWHL's Takeover Tour of potential expansion venues and its latest stop was a hit, a year after 13,736 fans watched women play professional hockey on the same sheet of ice at the home of the Detroit Red Wings.

As impressive as the turnout has been in Detroit for a pair of PWHL games, it has competition.

Denver drew 14,018 fans, many breaking out in chants of “We want a team!” to set the previous U.S. record for a professional women's hockey game two months ago in another neutral-site game.

Besides Denver, others in the running include Seattle, Vancouver and Quebec, with the PWHL expected to announce a decision by early April.

“Everything’s a competition,” Frost forward Kendall Coyne Schofield said. “It’s awesome to see, but I think it also speaks to the demand and how this has been a long time coming.

“With the proper support, resources, investment and platform, anything is possible.”

The world attendance record for women’s hockey was set nearly a year ago when 21,105 people were in the stands for a PWHL game between Montreal and Toronto in the Canadiens’ arena.

During the first period of the Frost-Sirens game in Detroit, the PWHL announced more than 1 million fans have attended games since the league made its debut last season. Players from both teams gave fans in the stands pucks that commemorated the milestone.

“Sometimes, I don’t believe it’s real,” PWHL executive vice president Amy Scheer said. “When we started last year, we didn’t really know what to expect. To be here 16, 17 months later and to break the U.S record (for a pro women's hockey game), to see the Canadian arenas sell out, it’s surreal.

“The hockey, every game is unbelievable. I think on the business side, we’re putting on a great show for the fans. The fans appreciate it and it’s really humbling.”

Scheer has been careful to not provide any hint regarding which of the 20-plus markets the league expressed interest in as leading the pack. She maintained that market size, potential support and opportunities to reach partnerships with local businesses are being weighed equally.

Geography also isn't considered an issue for a league with three teams each in the U.S. (New York, Boston and Minnesota) and Canada (Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto), and concentrated in the northeast with the exception of Minnesota.

It may be advantageous for the league to add two U.S. teams to help attract a U.S. TV rights deal beyond the regional deals it has now, including a YouTube streaming agreement.

The league’s six teams are centrally run, and that will remain the case for the foreseeable future. Several private parties have approached the PWHL about owning teams outright, but have been turned down.

St. Louis is hosting the ninth and final stop of the Takeover Tour on March 29 when the Ottawa Charge face the Boston Fleet.

The regular season ends May 3 and the puck drops on the PWHL's second postseason the following week.

Expansion was placed on the table last fall, with the league careful to announce it was considering expanding by as many as two teams, and Scheer continuing to say it may be limited to one or none.

"We’ve done our homework and research and hopefully we’ll find out what that answer is over the next several weeks,” she said. “In a perfect world, I’d love to know something in the next couple of weeks. When the board decides, they’ll let us know.”

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AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow contributed to this report.

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AP Women’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey