Predicting PWHL Neutral Site Game Locations

At the espnW Summit on Tuesday, the PWHL’s Vice President of Business, Amy Scheer announced that the league will host nine neutral site games in the United States and Canada during the upcoming season. The first neutral site game location was officially revealed on Wednesday, when the Montréal Victoire announced that they will be hosting the Ottawa Charge in a neutral site game at the Videotron Centre in Québec City.

That leaves eight more neutral site games to be announced, and 13 games on the PWHL’s official calendar with locations TBD.

The league has a wealth of options for where they could place the remaining neutral site games. Last season, four NHL arenas in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Montréal, and Toronto hosted neutral site games, in addition to the three which hosted standard home games for PWHL teams. The University of Minnesota also hosted a neutral site game at the 10,000-seat 3M Arena at Mariucci. And, as we see with the announcement of the game in Québec City, there are other venues which could be excellent hosts for a professional game.

So where might the other eight neutral site games be played?

Friday, December 6: Ottawa Charge host Montréal Victoire

The league’s only two Francophone teams (for now?) deserve a big stage. Last season, Montréal hosted Toronto at the Bell Centre in the game that set the world record for attendance at a professional women’s hockey game. Meanwhile, Ottawa had the highest average attendance in the league. While no doubt these teams would be a great draw for a neutral site game outside their markets, it would be awesome if they could complete the 20,000-fan trifecta at Ottawa's Canadian Tire Center, which has no conflicting events announced that evening.