The Professional Women’s Hockey League will expand to Seattle, with the team set to debut in time for the 2025-26 season, the league announced Wednesday.
The team, which will go by PWHL Seattle until an official name is unveiled, will play at Climate Pledge Arena, home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, and train at the Kraken Community Iceplex.
Seattle is the PWHL’s second expansion team after the announcement of Vancouver last week, and the league’s eighth franchise, with the original six markets in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, New York and Minnesota. The team will join the league’s single-entity ownership structure under The Walter Group.
“We are so thrilled to be unveiling a team here today,” executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford told The Athletic. “Being here for the Takeover Tour game, there was an amazing energy in the building. Climate Pledge Arena is a best-in-class facility. The Kraken have been amazing partners. … And we know this is a community that loves women’s sports.”
According to the league’s press release, the Seattle team’s primary color will be emerald green, with cream as its secondary color. Details regarding a PWHL expansion draft, and how Seattle (and Vancouver) will be integrated into the 2025 PWHL Draft, will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Kraken, the NHL’s most recent expansion franchise, will play a supporting role in the city’s newest hockey club, assisting with marketing, ticket sales and partnerships.
“They certainly have a full-time job at running their own team, but they’ve made a commitment to work with us to some degree to help us launch and get going,” said executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer. “Being able to team up with and work with the Kraken, which is one of the premier franchises from a business perspective in the NHL, is pretty cool for us.”
The Kraken have played that role well in the past, most recently with the PWHL’s neutral site game in Seattle on Jan. 5, which drew more than 12,000 fans. And when it played host to the Canada-USA Rivalry Series in December 2022. The organization put months of work into the planning and promotion of the game, which set a record for the biggest crowd ever at a national women’s hockey game in the United States.
Players enjoyed the experience in Seattle so much that, back in April 2023 before the launch of the PWHL, they picked it as one of the top six destinations for a pro team in The Athletic’s first-ever women’s hockey player poll.
“On behalf of the Seattle Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena, I am proud to welcome the Professional Women’s Hockey League to Seattle,” said Kraken co-owner Samantha Holloway in a press release. “Seattle is an incredible sports city and we’ve seen firsthand the passion for the women’s game — at both the US v Canada Rivalry game and the PWHL Takeover Tour. We’re also proud to grow the game of hockey at Kraken Community Iceplex and together we’ll continue to inspire the next generation of hockey players and fans alike.”
The PWHL’s first wave of expansion comes less than two years after its launch in January 2024. League executives announced in October that they were preparing for expansion, due to the success of Year 1, which included record-breaking attendance figures and better-than-projected revenues. The PWHL received more than 20 proposals from interested parties and markets seeking to bring a PWHL team to their city.
There was a long list of criteria that the league examined when deciding on where to expand, including market size, infrastructure and economic opportunity. With access to Climate Pledge — the $1.1 billion arena — and the practice rink, Seattle easily checked the critical infrastructure box.
According to the release, Oak View Group, which operates both buildings, led Seattle’s bid for a PWHL franchise, alongside the Kraken organization.
“We’re putting our players into a situation where they’re able to practice, train and play at some of the top facilities in North America,” said Scheer.
Seattle has a very engaged corporate community, Scheer said, as well as an engaged hockey fan base, as evidenced by the Kraken’s strong attendance figures and the PWHL’s own showing earlier this season. Seattle has also historically been a strong women’s sports city, with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and NWSL’s Seattle Reign.
“They’ve always led the way in supporting their women’s teams, and now we get to be part of that ecosystem here,” Scheer said. “Between all of those things, (Seattle) just made perfect sense.”
It certainly makes sense geographically, with Vancouver also joining the league next season. Having two teams in the Pacific Northwest makes the most sense from a travel perspective — versus just one team so far from the team’s current geographical footprint. Not to mention the immediate rivalry that could be ignited between the two teams.
According to Scheer, the league looked at several combinations of U.S. and Canadian cities during the decision-making process. Ultimately, she said, “We felt this was the best pair for us to kick off Year 3 and then Year 1 of expansion.”
Expanding beyond the Northeast (and Minnesota) was a major element of the league’s expansion strategy, too.
“It’s important to get out of the regionality of the league and spread our wings,” said Scheer. “Now we have teams in three different time zones, which is helpful in terms of scheduling games, and potentially getting a media partner in the U.S.”
“The West Coast and Pacific Northwest have proven to be great supporters of women’s sports,” added Hefford. “That’s just another really great thing about expanding out this way.”
(Photos courtesy of the PWHL)
