The inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League officially wrapped up with a win by PWHL Minnesota over PWHL Boston in Lowell on Wednesday. With it, a chapter closed on a historic year that saw women’s sports become a focus and a draw to the fan bases surrounding their new teams, including in Boston.
When it came to the final game of the PWHL’s first season, Boston’s fan base showed up in full force. The PWHL wrapped up their season in front of a sold-out crowd inside the Tsongas Center with some fans paying upwards of $3,000 to get in the building.
“I’m certainly really excited about everything that the PWHL has done this year and especially the showing in Massachusetts. We've seen so much interest,” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey told WEEI before Wednesday’s championship game. “Tonight’s game of course is a sellout, and even the resale tickets were so limited they were going in the thousands. It's just a sign of this exponential growth in the interest of professional women's hockey.”
The crowd of 6,309 set the attendance record for a PWHL Boston home game this season. The showing Wednesday was just one of many signs that women’s hockey has gained traction in the area. It follows another record set this year when the Women’s Beanpot Championship at TD Garden brought in 10,633 fans, making it the largest women's hockey crowd in New England history.
“Fundamentally it’s being driven by people’s interest in the seats. If you don't fill the seats you’re not going to make the money, and clearly the product is outstanding and that’s why people are in the seats,” Healey said.
PWHL Boston’s head coach Courtney Kessel spoke about the support she’s seen this season for her team and the new league as a whole:
“When you think back to September when this was launched and we had the draft and heading out of training camp, who could have ever imagined that we’re filling the Bell Centre, Scotiabank, we’re filling Tsongas, playing in front of 13-plus thousand in Minnesota and Detroit,” Kessel said after the conclusion of Game 5. “I think this league took off and took off full throttle, more than we could ever imagine as coaches and players. I think we should all be so proud.”
As a league, the PWHL broke the record for attendance at a women's hockey game several times throughout the season, ultimately getting its biggest crowd on April 20, when Montreal played Toronto in front of a sold-out crowd of 21,105 at Montreal’s Bell Centre, marking the largest attendance ever recorded for a women's hockey game.
In the inaugural game alone, PWHL Toronto vs. Ottawa reached 2.9 million Canadian viewers across CBC, Sportsnet and TSN on New Year’s Day and was the number one sports or entertainment program of the day across all Canadian networks.
“It’s really exciting to see people waking up to what has always been a great product,” Healey said about the increased viewership of women’s sports.
Changing the sports landscape in Boston
In Boston, an already avid sports town got on board with a new team -- a PWHL team comprised of legendary Olympians like captain Hilary Knight and Megan Keller as well as young rising stars like goalie Aerin Frankel and Swiss forward Alina Muller.
“When you get out on the ice with the group you see the young faces, you see faces from all over, you see signs, candy, bracelets,” Knight said following the season. “You hear it and you realize how much you’re a part of something bigger than ourselves.”
Knight was one of the veteran players in the PWHL who worked behind the scenes with other Olympians like Kendall Coyne Schofield to get the league off and running and help set their vision into action.
Market research has continued to show that women’s sports is an untapped market and that with the proper investments is an increasingly profitable business venture. According to Nielsen (the company that tracks TV ratings), viewership of women’s sports has also steadily been on the rise. Those projections were a key to attracting the financial backing for the new league.
Many players, coaches and league executives who spoke after the PWHL Finals acknowledged how the financial backing of the PWHL helped make the season a success.
"We recognize the historic commitment by Mark and Kimbra Walter to make this dream come true for the PWHL players of today and tomorrow," PWHL board member Billie Jean King said about the league's primary financial backer, Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and his family.
Previous women’s pro hockey teams in Boston -- the Boston Blades and Boston Pride -- never received that level of financial support.
The new influx of money to women’s hockey allows players to earn a living playing hockey that was previously unattainable. Before the formation of the PWHL, contracts in pro women’s hockey were often not even enough to cover the cost of travel and other resources for players. Boston’s coach Kessel, who played professionally in the CWHL from 2011-2017, said at that point in time, playing women’s pro hockey was more about continuing to pursue a passion in hockey rather than it being a sustainable career choice financially.
“I remember even when I played for the Brampton Thunder in the CWHL, we didn't have a locker room, then all of a sudden we did have a locker room one year but we didnt get our laundry done, then we had a full-time equipment manager,” Kessel told the PWHL broadcast on the first day of the season. “Slowly things were starting to be implemented. Still, obviously we were not getting paid and playing for free and I was coaching on the side to try and make a little extra money to just kind of get by and continue my dream of playing for Team Canada. So, it’s great to see how far we’ve come and that these players can just show up to the rink and only worry about hockey and that is their job.”
With the PWHL, the average salary for players is $55,000, which is admittedly not as much as other sports but is a big step up from previous salaries in women’s pro hockey.
Another key difference was the league’s focus on exposure, signing TV deals that allowed almost every game of the PWHL’s inaugural season to be televised on traditional TV during the season as well as having every game streamed online. In Boston, NESN aired every game of PWHL Boston’s inaugural season on NESN, NESN+ or NESN 360.
Though the Nielsen ratings are not yet available for Wednesday’s game that was aired throughout Canada and the US on NESN, TSN, MSG and Bally Sports, the league reported that its online YouTube stream saw its largest audience, which peaked at 53,972 viewers.
Previous iterations of women’s pro teams in Boston like the Boston Blades and Boston Pride were rarely available on traditional TV.
But now, the PWHL Boston franchise has become a team that is easier to watch both remotely and in person than ever before.
Other Boston athletes welcomed a new team and new era of women’s sports in 2024
In 2024, when the PWHL inaugural season got underway, members of the city of Boston welcomed a new original-six franchise into their town. An olive branch was extended from each of New England’s five major professional men’s teams and wished them luck in the name of continued Boston sports greatness.
“The one thing about Boston is that we’re a sports town and I think that teams vibe on each other's successes, and that’s why we’ve been able to string so many titles together across our different professional sports teams,” Healey said about the fraternal sports climate in Boston.
PWHL Boston was invited to a Bruins game on Dec. 30 before the start of their season to help promote support for the new franchise, with Frankel appearing on NESN in the first intermission to speak directly to the Bruins’ fanbase. The team was invited to several other Boston sporting events, including to Fenway Park, where Knight threw out the first pitch for the Red Sox game on April 16. Knight also was involved in a jersey swap with Derrick White when a contingent from PWHL Boston was invited to the Celtics on March 18 in honor of the C’s first all-female broadcast.
With Boston known as ‘Titletown’ and the emphasis on a winning sports culture that spreads across its teams, several players from across Boston’s pro landscape offered messages of encouragement to PWHL Boston, especially during their 2024 playoff run.
That included Bruins captain Brad Marchand and goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who posted this message to the team on Instagram before Game 5: “Hey everyone! Sway and Marchy here, we’re wishing you luck tonight in Game 5 against Minnesota. All of Boston is behind you. It’s going to be an incredible atmosphere and we can't wait to see you take home the trophy tonight,” Swayman said.
“I love it when I see our athletes supporting one another like Derrick White supporting Hilary Knight, that’s super cool, that’s exactly what we want to see,” Healey said, “I think that that kind of vibe really matters and it breeds success, it breeds winning.”
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney also came to the first game of PWHL Boston’s season to support Boston’s GM, Danielle Marmer, who previously worked with him in the Bruins organization. Marmer told NESN in December that she leans of things she’s learned from Bruins management as she now takes on a management role herself.
“I feel like my experience here [with the Bruins] has prepared me,” she said. “To get to work under Don Sweeney, Cam Neely and the leadership group here…and to be able to pull some of the things that I’ve learned here and apply that to PWHL Boston, I’m just super thankful for the opportunity I had here and I know that I wouldn't be in the spot that I'm in without it.”
PWHL Boston forward Jamie Lee Rattray spoke about what being part of the city's sports culture has been like for her and her team.
“We always talk about it all the time, representing this city is something special and to be a part of this sports market -- I’ve said it time and time again -- it's super special,” Rattray said. “You've seen the different teams and the different history behind the sports and now we get to be a part of it and it’s really really cool.”
PWHL Boston players expressed their excitement for what they saw in their first season
Though a PWHL title and Duck Boat parade through Boston will not be happening to put a bow on PWHL Boston’s inaugural season, players were able to reflect after the Game 5 loss on some major positives they saw in their first season as a franchise.
“This year was a historic year,” Knight said. “It was tough. It was something that no player was ever used to. We built it and we’re extremely ecstatic about where it is right now, year one, and where our group is and how we continue to battle and play for one another.”
Knight was also encouraged about what the PWHL’s success could mean for the success of women’s sports more broadly.
“This year it seems like women’s sports is really breaking through, and what better timing to invest now and be a part of this journey,” she said. “We’re excited to be the first in market, but we’re really excited for the NWSL team to come join us among other teams.”
Rattray also spoke to the gratifying experience of playing with so much support this season.
“We were super excited to get to the rink today and just hearing the price of the tickets and stuff like that, I think we can be super proud of that, especially of our market here in Boston,” Rattray said after Game 5. “It means the world to us as players. That's all we want, is to fill the buildings and have a fanbase that really supports us, and they've been great for us all year.”
What’s next for women’s sports in Boston
This year, Massachusetts saw the addition of a professional women’s hockey team, but that was just one exciting venture in pro women’s sports in the state that is on the horizon.
Massachusetts is also adding a National Women’s Soccer League team in 2026 and is set to host the LPGA 2024 FM Global Championship at TPC Boston from Aug. 29-Sept. 1 that will feature a $3.5 million purse.
“I think we’re going to continue to see this grow,” Healey said about the landscape of women’s sports in Boston. “I think the future is really bright. I think we’re going to continue to see growth and interest.”
“It's just a sign of this exponential growth in the interest in professional women’s hockey and it also coincides with increased interest in professional women’s sports,” Healey added. “The WNBA is so hot right now. We’re coming off an historic season in the women’s NCAA. Earlier this year in Massachusetts, we announced we were going to have a professional women’s soccer team once again. To me it’s true what they say on the t-shirt, ‘Everyone watches women’s sports.’ That's the vibe right now and it’s great.”
The movement also means an increase in opportunities for women involved in the sports industry outside of just the players.
“It's about the whole infrastructure around it,” Healey said. “It’s coaches, it’s management, front office possibilities for women, broadcasting possibilities for women in addition to the playing and coaching opportunities.”
(Writer’s note: Speaking for myself for a moment, it’s been awesome to see female broadcasters like myself elevated to so many positions on television and involved in production of the league’s broadcasts.)
Though PWHL Boston finished one win short of winning the PWHL’s first title, there’s a lot of hope for an increasingly bright future for Boston’s franchise and the women that helped build it.