The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was officially formed less than a year ago and it is already boosting the ratings of women’s sports! The inaugural season televised or streamed 72 games in North America. The attendance and viewership have shattered records.
Hall of Famer and PWHL senior VP of hockey operations, Jayna Hefford, told The Associated Press,“we all wanted things to happen faster, and it felt really difficult and challenging at times. When you look back on it now, you have to wonder if everything happened like it should have been and at the right time to allow us to see the success that we’ve seen to date.”
Although it is still early stages in development, the PWHL is off to booming statistics. A total of 392,259 fans attended games during the regular season at venues that included various NHL rinks. It highlighted the women’s hockey record of 21,105, which was at Canadians’ Bell Centre for a Montreal-Toronto showdown last month.
Despite just having 6 teams, this league is sweeping the nation with its fierce competition .
The starting 6:
These are the 6 inaugural teams that is propelling the PWHL to prominence:
PWHL MINNESOTA
PWHL TORONTO
PWHL BOSTON
PWHL NEW YORK
PWHL MONTREAL
PWHL OTTAWA
X’s and O’s on your calendar!
As the playoffs for the PWHL start this week, an innovative format that allowed league-leading Toronto to pick its first-round opponent, in which they chose to play the fourth-seeded Minnesota, Owners, coaches,management and viewers all know there is still plenty of work to be done.
