In just its first year of existence, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) has already broken the attendance record for a women’s hockey game.
On Feb. 16, 19,285 eager fans took in the Battle on Bay Street which saw PWHL Toronto blank PWHL Montréal 3-0 in front of the home crowd.
For comparison, the previous record was 18,013 spectators who attended the women’s world championship in Ottawa to watch Canada take on Finland in 2013. This game surpassed that by over 1,000.
Jayna Hefford was the captain of Team Canada for the 2013 record-breaking game and is now the PWHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations.
“Once again, PWHL fans have made history,” said Hefford in a press release. “With a record-setting performance on a national stage, our fans made the Battle on Bay Street an unforgettable, inspirational moment — and we couldn’t be more appreciative.”
One of those fans was STU women’s hockey alum Olivia Reid. She played five years for the Tommies before heading back home to Ontario after her graduation. The historic game was her first PWHL game, since previous games have sold out so fast.
“I have been trying to get out to more [PWHL games], but they literally have no more tickets for sale,” said Reid. “They sold out home games in Toronto in minutes.”
Usually, PWHL Toronto plays out of the Mattamy Athletic Centre, which has a capacity of just 3,850. Even with the higher capacity of Scotiabank Arena, Reid had to buy resell tickets, which sold for $125 as opposed to the usual range of $15-$40 for tickets.
Reid was cheering for her home team of Toronto, although she does have an old teammate, Kristin Della-Rovere who plays for PWHL Ottawa, so she’s keeping tabs on her as well.
“I definitely see it as a league that is going to stay and give the females an option to consider after university,” she said. “It will give the younger girls that extra bit of motivation knowing that there could be a career for women in professional sport.”
Reid attended the game with her mom, which she said was “only fitting” considering her mom is one of the biggest reasons she got into the sport and continued to play for so many years.
“My mom was so emotional, she was crying just for the opening on-ice ceremonies and it made me emotional to see her that way.”
