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The women's professional hockey league is expanding to Las Vegas, with an official announcement expected on Wednesday. This move aims to promote the sport for both genders in Southern Nevada.
Boston Fleet's Riley Brengman battles Toronto's Natalie Spooner for the puck during a game at Agganis Arena at Boston University on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. The league will announce Wednesday it is expanding to Las Vegas.
(Jason Snow-Imagn Images)
LAS VEGAS â When the NHL announced in 2016 it was expanding to Las Vegas, one of the mandates for the new organization, at the time unnamed, was to grow the sport in Southern Nevada, both at the youth and adult level.
It also meant growing the game for both genders.
With participation in girls hockey in Nevada having grown 600 percent over the nine years the Golden Knights have been operational from less than 100 to more than 600Â and with the added sheets of ice throughout the valley, it only made sense that the Professional Women's Hockey League would eventually put down roots here.
Wednesday is that day.
The PWHL will announce that it will expand to Las Vegas for the 2026-27 season. Las Vegas will join Detroit, which was announced last week as the leagueâs ninth franchise. This past season, Seattle and Vancouver competed as first-year teams, joining Toronto, Montreal, Minnesota, New York, Boston and Ottawa, the PWHLâs âOriginal Six.â
Whatâs interesting about the move is the PWHL did not test-drive the Las Vegas market with one of its popular and successful âTakeoversâ where the league goes into a town that doesnât have a team and plays a one-night stand. And it has resulted in huge crowds to watch womenâs hockey.
The Knightsâ sports subsidiary â Black Knight Sports & Entertainment â will own the team so expect the PWHL team to have some sort of connection to the Golden Knights theme. Maybe theyâll be called the âGolden Damselsâ to reflect the medieval theme that permeates through the hockey properties Bill Foley oversees.
But will it work?
Our sports market continues to grow. We already have the NHL, the NFL and the WNBA operational. Major League Baseball is coming in 2028. It looks like the NBA will be doing likewise. And thereâs been wide conjecture that Las Vegas will be the new home to Major League Soccerâs Vancouver Whitecaps though word out of British Columbia is that a plan is being floated to keep the Whitecaps in Vancouver.
We also have minor league baseball with the Triple-A Aviators in Summerlin and the AHL Silver Knights in Henderson and the Indoor Football Knight Hawks along with the Desert Dogs of the National Lacrosse League who also play out of Leeâs Family Forum plus the Lights FC, a USL soccer team that plays downtown at Cashman Field.
So is there room for a womenâs pro hockey team? Or are we already stretched too thin when it comes to our sports discretionary dollar?
I have no doubt it will work here provided a couple of things transpire. One, the team has to be successful and compete for championships. Womenâs basketball didnât become popular here until the Aces started winning WNBA titles. It is now a hot ticket and the community has embraced the team despite the fact it relocated from San Antonio and originated in Salt Lake City.
Two, it must be affordable for families to attend. You canât charge $70, $80, $90 to attend a PWHL game. The league is somewhat affordable in its current markets, with the get-in price around $27 on the average and the top seats going for anywhere for $100 to $125 depending on the market.
Itâs important for families to take their kids, particularly their daughters, to grow the PWHLâs fan base. You take your 9-year-old daughter to a PWHL game, the next thing you know, sheâs on the ice scoring a goal, like in the credit card commercial.
If you price families out of attending, itâs not going to make it here. Thereâs too many options available. One reason the Aces draw so well is the affordability they make in pricing their tickets. You can get in for as little as $13.
Finding a place for the PWHL to play is no problem. Leeâs Family Forum works though it could be too small if demand exceeds its capacity of 5,567. For the bigger games, or, potentially all games, T-Mobile Arena, which seats 17,500, can be used. The Aces employ a similar use plan, with 12,000-seat Michelob Ultra Arena as their primary home and T-Mobile used for select games that require bigger capacity.
The Knights also have their television deal with Scripps Sports, giving the PWHL team an outlet to show their games on local television. So the needed exposure will be there.
But the best reason for why the PWHL will work here? Like the Golden Knights, this team will be âVegas Born.â Theyâll be ours from the outset. The team will grow together with the hockey and sports community. The women who form the inaugural season roster will find a community that is welcoming and supportive of them and the giveback by the players will be amazing. It will be the ideal symbiotic relationship between a sports team and the city it plays in.
Youâll also be impressed with the skill of these women. They can play.
John Penhollow, the Golden Knightsâ president of business operations, told me back in December that bringing the PWHL to Las Vegas was one of his goals in looking to grow the sport here. Quietly behind the scenes, he has managed to go from being off the radar to getting a PWHL expansion franchise. You want to thank someone for bringing womenâs hockey here? Thank John.
Of course, much work remains to be done between now and when the puck drops on Opening Night. But if the Golden Knights have taught us anything, it is no obstacle is too big, no challenge is too great and the goal is always to win championships.
âAlways advance. Never retreatâ is Bill Foleyâs mantra, a line taken from General George S. Patton, a fellow West Pointer. Expect the same philosophy for womenâs pro hockey in Vegas.
The expansion signifies a commitment to growing women's hockey and promoting the sport for both genders in Southern Nevada.
The official announcement regarding the expansion to Las Vegas is expected on Wednesday.
The expansion aims to encourage youth participation in hockey, fostering growth at both youth and adult levels in the region.
The specific teams involved in the expansion have not been disclosed yet, but the league is set to grow its presence in Las Vegas.
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