PWHL breaks women’s hockey all-time attendance record with ‘Battle on Bay Street’ in Toronto: ‘It’s surreal’

TORONTO – A Professional Women’s Hockey League game between Toronto and Montreal has broken the all-time attendance record for a women’s hockey game.

The league had previously broken attendance records for a women’s professional hockey game – first in Ottawa (8,318) on Jan. 2, and then four days later in Minnesota (13,316); a game in Montreal on Jan. 27 broke the record for the most fans (8,646) at a pro game in Canada. But Friday night’s draw of 19,285 fans at Scotiabank Arena is the largest crowd to watch women’s hockey ever, including at the Olympics, world championships and in the NCAA.

The previous women’s hockey attendance record was 18,013 fans at a preliminary round game between Canada and Finland at the 2013 Women’s World Championship in Ottawa.

“I like to think that I’ve been in some pressure situations or some exciting situations, but even as a middle-aged man walking on the bench, I was emotional,” said Toronto head coach Troy Ryan, who has coached Team Canada to two world championships and Olympic gold. “So you can imagine how some of the players who have fought so long to get these opportunities felt.”

“It was so special to see the amount of signs in the stands, to see little girls, little boys and families,” said Montreal captain Marie-Philip Poulin after the game. “What’s happening in women’s hockey right now, it’s surreal.”

Toronto won the game 3-0 – the team’s fifth win in its last six games – with goals by Jesse Compher, Hannah Miller and Victoria Bach. Compher and Bach scored their first PWHL goals; Miller scored on her 28th birthday.

“That was probably the coolest birthday ever,” Miller said about scoring in front of 19,000 people.

Friday’s game wasn’t originally scheduled to be played at Scotiabank Arena, home of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs and NBA’s Toronto Raptors, but after all 12 of PWHL Toronto’s home games at Mattamy Athletic Centre sold out, the league wanted to find a way to get more fans to a game in the city.

“That just right away got our minds thinking, ‘OK, we’ve got to find opportunities to allow people to be a part of this,’” Jayna Hefford, the PWHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations, told The Athletic.

Amy Scheer, the senior vice president of business operations for the PWHL, had spoken with MLSE interim president and CEO Cynthia Devine and expressed the league’s interest in playing at Scotiabank Arena. Between the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, NBA’s Toronto Raptors and other events, there aren’t a ton of opportunities to get into the building. But the two sides kept in touch, Scheer said, and around four weeks ago they found a date.

“They were very excited about the potential to bring the game to a much larger audience through the use of the Scotiabank Arena and we were excited to enable them to do that as well,” Devine told The Athletic. “We were so happy that we could find a date that worked in both our calendars. They’ve kicked it off, there’s a lot of momentum, a lot of excitement around it and we were able to go out and announce a game for a lot of fans that, quite frankly, I think are having trouble getting into the stadium to see them. I think the timing is perfect.”

Devine said partnering with the PWHL for the “Battle on Bay Street” was a natural evolution of the company’s long-standing support for women’s professional hockey teams in the city of Toronto. The Maple Leafs had a partnership with the Canadian Women’s Hockey League’s Toronto franchise and were among the contributors that helped the league settle its debts when it folded in March 2019.

But she also has a personal connection to the sport. Devine’s daughter, Stephanie Sucharda, played hockey at Princeton University and spent one season in the shuttered Premier Hockey Federation for the Toronto Six.

“Young women now have role models to look up to and know that if they want to combine a career with pro hockey they now have a place to do it,” she said. “And that just makes me so proud to see this strong consolidated league finally come to fruition.”

Friday’s game is the latest proof of concept that there is an audience for women’s professional hockey. Tickets sold out within minutes of the start of general on-sale. According to Hefford, there weren’t many tickets left by the time the presale – which opened first for season-ticket holders, fans who had tickets for the previously scheduled game at Mattamy, those on the season-ticket waitlist, and anyone who signed up for early access – was finished.

“To think that it didn’t just sell out, it sold out in minutes,” said Montreal defender Erin Ambrose. “I couldn’t tell you how many people were like, ‘Hey, can you get me tickets?’

“It’s a regular season game, it’s February and people want to watch.”

Since its launch less than two months ago, the long-awaited six-team league featuring the world’s best players has largely been a success. The league’s first game, on Jan. 1, reached 2.9 million views on Canadian television networks — with an additional 130,000 views on the YouTube stream. Merchandise, while flawed in its initial release, sold out quickly. NHL teams are already interested in PWHL expansion, or at the very least, in hosting games in their market. Next month, the PWHL will play games in Detroit and Pittsburgh’s NHL venues.
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“I don’t think any of us expected the sellout the way it happened,” Hefford said. “I think it was just a really good sign that the demand is real. Yes, it’s only 2,600 seats at Mattamy, but the demand outside of that is real, and there’s still people that couldn’t get a ticket (for Friday).”

Scheer would love to say her business team had some kind of brilliant marketing plan, but it was simply the demand for tickets that led to such a quick sellout, she said.

“It’s just sort of the perfect storm of perfect market, perfect match-up, a beautiful building, and Mattamy is sold out, so this is really the one time you’re going to be able to see them play during the season,” she said.

“It almost seems surreal. And I think there’s just so much joy that people have taken to our league and our teams, and you just feel an enormous sense of pride and disbelief all at the same time.”

The sellout acts as a bit of confirmation on something that plenty of people thought heading into the season: that PWHL Toronto could consistently play in a larger venue than the 2,600-seat Mattamy Athletic Centre the team currently calls home.

The league is happy with Mattamy as a home base for Toronto – Hefford said the games have a great atmosphere, and they love the downtown location – but inevitably the PWHL is going to need to look at the next step. According to Hefford, the PWHL has no interest in moving a Toronto team outside of the downtown core. The only realistic arena upgrades, then, would be Scotiabank Arena or Coca-Cola Coliseum, the home rink of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies that seats 7,779.

Scotiabank would be tricky, given the busy schedule with Leafs, Raptors, concerts and other events, and the venue size. Coca-Cola could be the right size, but would come with a unique set of circumstances. The complex is a heritage building in the city of Toronto, which means renovations – like adding an extra locker room – could prove difficult, but not impossible. Not to mention the annual Royal Winter Fair and Boat Show that sends the AHL Toronto Marlies on lengthy road trips every season.

“Everything’s on the table in terms of what we’re looking at for season two,” Hefford said.

For the league, the only thing better than selling over 19,000 tickets in Toronto might be selling 21,000 in Montreal. Hefford was coy when asked if a game at the Bell Centre was possible.

“They’ve been really great at supporting us and the team in Montreal,” she said. “And so there’s certainly a level of interest in doing more with them and partnering on bigger projects.”

Montreal coach Kori Cheverie was more upfront about it.

“I would like to break their record,” she said with a smile. “That would be nice.”

(Photo of PWHL Toronto’s Sarah Nurse greeting fans at Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 16, 2024: Mark Blinch / Getty Images)