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The Professional Women’s Hockey League’s entry into the Pacific Northwest is now complete as the league is formally expanding to Seattle.
Coming just a week after the announcement of a similar expansion to Vancouver, the Seattle team will be the PWHL’s eighth franchise and start play with the 2025–2026 season. A team name and logo is are still being developed, but will operate as PWHL Seattle until then. Team colors will be emerald green and cream.
While the proximity to Vancouver provides an obvious logistical advantage, league officials said the Seattle expansion bid stood out in its own regard. A stop there in the PHWL’s “Takeover Tour” earlier this year drew 12,608. The franchise, meanwhile, will play in Climate Pledge Arena, the former KeyArena that reopened in late 2021 as a fundamentally transformed building that still stands as one of the world’s most advanced arenas. Training will happen at Kraken Community Iceplex, another next-generation facility owned and operated by the NHL’s Kraken.
Oak View Group, the developer and operator of Climate Pledge Arena, led the Seattle expansion bid. Like the other seven PWHL franchises, the Seattle team will operate under the league’s single-entity structure.
“Seattle was very high in terms of all the criteria we look at,” Amy Scheer, PWHL SVP of business operations, tells Front Office Sports. “Being able to play at Climate Pledge Arena, one of the top buildings in North America, the team being able to practice out of the Kraken Iceplex, a beautiful facility, it’s a wonderful set-up for our players. … The women’s sports scene in Seattle is a very real thing. To be a part of that scene that the [WNBA] Storm and the [NWSL] Reign have built here, we just feel very privileged and proud to call it our newest home.”
Scheer also credited several other key criteria present in Seattle, including local fan engagement, corporate support of sports, and youth hockey participation.
Though previously leaked by a section of the PHWL’s online store, the Seattle franchise also looks to tap into an accelerating groundswell for women’s sports that involves not only the PWHL but other leagues such as the WNBA and NWSL.
“As someone who’s worked in women’s sports for quite a long time, it’s amazing to see, and emotional on so many levels,” Scheer says. “But the most important thing for us is to get a team of people in place to run the business in each [expansion] market and set them up for success. So we feel confident these two teams will launch with great attendance and fan engagement.”
