The Montreal Victoire’s 3–1 win over the New York Sirens at Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit, Michigan, on March 28 marked the end of the United States leg of the PWHL Takeover Tour for the 2025–2026 season.

With this in mind and the league looking to expand by up to four teams in the offseason, attention is on the question. Which of the five Takeover Tour cities in the United States could be awarded the next expansion team(s)?

Looking at the logistics for each city, lots of different things come into play. This includes business negotiations that the general public isn’t made aware of.

What we do know, however, is attendance numbers for Takeover Tour games in each city and long-term arena availability in the market. It’s also worth considering whether or not other women’s sports teams already exist in the area, and the degree to which they have been supported in the longer term. In no particular order, here’s a breakdown of these factors by city.

Washington DC

Attendance

Washington DC surprised many who are unfamiliar with its hockey culture with its attendance numbers for its lone game in the history of the Takeover Tour. The announced crowd at Capital One Arena was 17,228 attendees. This set the U.S. record for highest attendance at a women’s hockey game at the time. (This record was later broken by a crowd of 17,335 for a Seattle Torrent home game at Climate Pledge Arena.)

Other Women’s Sports Infrastructure

The hype for women’s hockey is clearly there in Washington, and this makes sense considering the other women’s sports teams that exist in the area. The Washington Mystics of the WNBA and the Washington Spirit of the NWSL are well-supported teams, with the latter averaging 15,000 attendees a game.

Arena Availability

The issue for potential PWHL expansion into Washington DC is the question of where a prospective team would play. Capital One Arena, which hosted the Takeover Tour event in the city, is already home to the Washington Capitals of the NHL and the NBA’s Washington Wizards. This could make scheduling a PWHL season there difficult. The Washington Mystics were previously moved out of the arena, presumably due to similar scheduling conflicts.

The Mystics’ current home, CareFirst Arena, does not have the infrastructure to support hockey events. Even if it did, its capacity of 4,200 is insufficient to support the clear demand for the PWHL in the area. The league’s refusal to have the Ottawa Charge play at the proposed Landsdowne 2.0, which would shrink TD place to a 5,000 seat capacity, also suggests that this wouldn’t be a viable option regardless of attendance figures in DC.

Apart from these options, there are no venues that could realistically support a PWHL team.

Chicago

Attendance

Chicago’s two takeover games this season took place at Allstate Arena in nearby Rosemont. This is around a half-hour drive from Chicago proper.

In December, the Takeover Tour drew a crowd of 7,238. For the March game, this number rose to 10,006.

Other Women’s Sports Infrastructure

Chicago is already home to the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and the NWSL’s Chicago Stars FC. This is on top of less well-known teams, the Chicago Tempest of the Women’s Elite Rugby league and the Chicago Winds of the Women’s National Football Conference.

With a variety of teams in the area, the women’s sports community is built to support the PWHL. The city is also home to Babe’s Sports Bar.

Arena Availability

While the United Center in Chicago proper is not likely to host a PWHL team because it is already home to the Chicago Bulls (NBA) and Chicago Blackhawks (NHL), Allstate Arena is a decent option for a permanent PWHL team. It takes a bit of a drive to get there from the city, but at full capacity it can hold over 18,000 spectators. It is currently only home to the Chicago Wolves of the AHL.

Dallas

Attendance

The Texas debut of the Takeover Tour marked the southernmost point at which the PWHL has played a game. The Dallas game at American Airlines Center drew a crowd around 8,500. This is a smaller figure than we are used to seeing from the Takeover Tour, but it is worth noting that this game took place only three days after Christmas. This likely collided with holiday plans and potential travel, which could have realistically prevented a larger crowd from showing up.

Other Women’s Sports Infrastructure

The city of Dallas is home to the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, a team that is experiencing a major surge in popularity thanks to the arrival of WNBA rookie of the year Paige Bueckers.

Other women’s sports teams in the area include the Dallas Pulse of Major League Volleyball and Dallas Trinity FC, which plays in the United Soccer League.

Also worth noting is the recent emergence of new women’s sports bars throughout the state of Texas. While not in Dallas themselves, the 1972 Pub, located in Austin, and SidePeace Women’s Sports Bar, located in Houston, suggest strong community support for women’s sports at large in the state of Texas.

Arena Availability

Dallas is another city with no obvious location for a potential PWHL team. American Airlines Center already houses the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and the NHL’s Dallas Stars, raising the question of if the venue would be able to hold a third team.

This is another example of a location where the city’s WNBA arena is in a separate, smaller venue than its NBA counterpart. With a capacity of 7000, College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, could very well fit the PWHL size-wise (Tsongas Center, home of the Boston Fleet, holds around 6,400 spectators when sold-out), but is another instance of a venue not equipped with ice.

Detroit

Attendance

Detroit has enjoyed neutral site games of the PWHL since before they were branded as the Takeover Tour, breaking the U.S. record for highest attendance at a women’s hockey game multiple times in the past few years.

Focusing on this year’s numbers, Detroit had two different Takeover Tour games. In January, the event drew a crowd of 9,624. More recently, as the final American stop on the Takeover Tour, the announced crowd was 15,938, the largest of Detroit’s four games on the Takeover Tour.

There is a particular appetite for a PWHL team in Michigan because, despite the number of players in the league hailing from the area, there are no Division I NCAA women’s ice hockey programs in the state.

Other Women’s Sports Infrastructure

Detroit is the former home of the Detroit Shock of the WNBA, which won three championships before folding in 2009. The WNBA will be returning to Detroit in 2029.

The city is also home to Detroit City FC of the United Soccer League.

Bar IX, the area’s first women’s sports bar, is currently crowdfunding in the hopes of opening soon.

Arena Availability

Arena availability has always been an issue for Detroit. There is clearly enough demand for a PWHL team to play at Little Caesar’s Arena, but the venue is already occupied by the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings and the NBA’s Detroit Pistons. Also, when the WNBA returns to the city, it will be playing in this venue.

In the longer-term, having four teams in the same venue may not be feasible.

The USA Hockey Arena in nearby Plymouth Township, Michigan only has a capacity of a little over 3,000, too small for a PWHL team.

Michigan’s lone AHL team is located in Grand Rapids, and while the 12,000-seat capacity of its Van Andel Arena would suit PWHL turnout, it is a two-and-a-half hour drive from Detroit.

Denver

Attendance

Denver is another city that played host to the Takeover Tour for multiple years in a row. Here are the numbers for this season. In January, Ball Arena hosted a crowd of 11,612. In March, this number jumped to 15,512.

Other Women’s Sports Infrastructure

Women’s sports are having an explosion in Denver.

After being awarded an NWSL team in the league’s most recent round of expansion, Denver Summit FC’s home opener in late March drew a crowd of over 60,000. This shattered the previous attendance record for an NWSL home opener by over 20,000.

Summit FC is the only professional women’s team located in Denver (the Denver Onyx of Women’s Elite Rugby are semi-professional), but the sheer quantity of people in attendance for the home opener suggests a real appetite for women’s sports in the market.

Despite the fact that there were no women’s sports teams in Denver until this year, the city is home to the 99ers Sports Bar.

Arena Availability

Ball Arena is currently home to the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche. It’s also the home venue of the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League. This has the potential to make scheduling a PWHL season difficult.

Another option could be Blue Arena, the 7,000 seat home of the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. The Eagles are already in the process of moving to a larger capacity venue in the state. For now, Blue Arena is approximately a 45-minute drive from Denver.

So Where Could the League Expand?

Assuming that the PWHL expands by four teams in the offseason and that this expansion will be two American and Canadian teams each, based off of this information, Chicago and Denver seem like the most likely candidates to be the newest American expansion teams in the PWHL.

Here’s why:

Chicago

The Midwest has been itching for another PWHL team since the league’s inception. While Rosemont is a bit distant from Chicago itself, Allstate Arena has similar capacity to an NHL rink while being easier to schedule; it has only one other tenant, the Chicago Wolves. (The Wolves also have a reduced schedule compared to an NHL team, making this even easier.)

It’s also a clear-cut option for a venue that Detroit just doesn’t seem to have at its disposal.

Denver

Denver has a more crowded arena situation, but the league would benefit greatly from the kind of fan base that could come out of Denver. The city has shown its desire for women’s sports teams already, and the PWHL being among the first to satiate that desire would be a huge net-positive move for the league.

Also, the league has a vested interest in the area geographically. Being able to support a team between Minnesota in the Midwest and Seattle and Vancouver on the West Coast has the potential to make travel easier. It can also increase the overall relevance of the league throughout the United States.