Is Chicago a CONTENDER for a Future PWHL Expansion Team?

I went to the PWHL game on Wednesday and had a great time and couldn't help it wonder.

Could a PWHL team work in Chicago?

I think it definitely could.

The league continues to grow, which is, which is a great thing.

I love the, the takeover events.

It's basically like, you know, a traveling showcase of, of the best teams,

best players of the league and they go out of mark.

They've been in Chicago a number of times with the last few years.

They've been doing this and you went to the one just this last week.

I went to the one that they had in December with my wife and daughter.

Like, it's, it's an awesome event.

It's an awesome initiative to not only expose more people to the women's professional game

that aren't able to be in the markets that they're in,

but also kind of testing markets of where they might want to expand to as expansion becomes reality.

So the question I think the PWHL franchise would want answered is,

where are we going to play if they're going to come to Chicago?

Because USG arena that was just able to start as part of Black Hawk Ice Center holds 2,000 people.

That's not enough.

Your average PWHL game is about 8,500 people.

Okay, so that's out of the question.

I actually looked up things to district 4 Lowell on Reddit has a perfect spreadsheet of every

game, all the attendance, everything going on in the PWHL and from top to bottom,

game by game, the lowest 10 to game was 1800, and that's a huge outlier.

So USG arena is not going to work.

Would people be willing to travel the half of the states at the now arena?

It holds 9,400 people that I think that area would welcome a PWHL team,

but do you call it Chicago?

Probably, but I think a lot of people from the city aren't going to be super willing to go out there.

I mean, the Chicago steel are relocating to the USG arena,

but they've been far out from city proper for a long time.

Well, that's another option.

Fox Valley ice arena in Geneva, the current home of the seal holds 3,500, not enough.

They had 10,600 or no, 10,000 six people at the takeover on Wednesday.

I think it was around 7,000 and 7,000 in change for the one in December.

Yeah, so that's not going to work.

So is all say to arena the answer.

And this is my question, right?

Like because I feel like these takeovers would have done better if they weren't at all state arena.

I think that there is a section of people in Chicago land that are like,

I don't go to things there.

I think there's also that feeling about the music venue in Tinley Park,

which is 20 minutes from my house.

Unless I got a free ticket, I'm not going because the experience isn't good.

I think all state is similar.

Could they make space for them in United Center?

I don't know, but you're probably going to have a half film empty building most nights.

Which is fine.

But there's just doesn't seem to be an ideal venue.

And I do think, and we said this from the beginning when they announced

the expansions of Black Hawk's ice center.

You knew the PWHL was happening.

Why not build that West arena big enough to hold that crowd?

I feel like that's a bit of a drop-all you've got all that space.

West of the arena is still available.

You got space from there all the way to Damon,

where you could have built out and built up.

Yeah, I think with that expansion, they probably were trying to

maybe keep it to the community feel and keep it to not being a massive,

not massive, but a larger scale arena within the proximity of the building.

But yeah, I mean, I think Chicago is definitely a market where hockey can thrive.

I think you have a ton of Chicago and Illinois connections to the professional league.

You know, you got Kendall Coisco Field, who's a legend in the game,

is from the Chicago land area.

And, you know, I think there's so many ways that you can market, you know,

the team and the players and, you know, from the youth level on up,

how you can get girls and women involved in the organization that could come here.

And I think the arena situation, it can always be fluid.

I mean, we've seen teams bounce from one arena to the other and all that stuff.

So I think if you have a good team that can be marketed,

a good experience that can be marketed, and then eventually,

if you have a team that is successful, people will go out and go and watch them.

If you have a winning team, like there will be people that will go the extra mile to go see them,

wherever the venue is.

Yeah, and if you do decide that Hoffman Estates is the right fit,

like you're saying, if after five or six years,

like, okay, this thing is really working.

It's really thriving.

Then you can consider finding a way to make it work in Chicago.

I'm looking at the United Center calendar for March.

There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

10 open dates on the calendar.

Now, this is a unique month because they've got the big 10 tournament,

which takes up one, two, three, four, five, six full days.

Yeah, they have work.

Nothing else can happen there.

So this is a bit of a, I would probably a busier than typical month at the United

Center, but you could make it work at the UC2.

I think if you want initial success,

that would be the way to do it.

And look, a lot of these teams play in NHL Arena.

It's the New York Sirens Play and Prudential Center,

where the Devils play.

The Torrent Play at Climate Pledge Arena,

home of the Kraken, the Minnesota Frost Play

and the Wild Arena at Grand Casino Arena.

And those all have big capacities.

So for instance, capacity in Minnesota for the wild,

the 17954 average attendance for the Frost is 7,761.

You look at the Sirens.

They are the lowest average attendance.

16,514 is capacity.

3,769 is their average attendance.

But everybody else is in the 7,912 average capacity.

Average audience for the Torrent.

12,105 is awesome.

Like that is a good draw in Vancouver Gold Nights,

who came into the PWHL this year.

That's a great name.

11,370 is their average.

So it's there.

And I think another thing people have to keep in mind too

is with all sports that maybe have not been given the resources

to grow.

Once they're given that, I think it's very specifically

to women's sports here as well.

Once the resources are given,

and there's time allotted for this to happen

and to expand, it works.

Women saw fall that was in Rosemont, Illinois,

it's the Chicago Bandits, six or seven years ago.

We attended their last game as the Chicago Bandits

and then the AUSL was born.

And the AUSL was basically, there were, I think,

60 to 80 girls women, four teams.

And then every week they would redraft the team.

And then there was like a champion of the league as a player.

Last year, they actually named teams.

So now you're permanently on a team.

This year, those teams have gotten specific cities.

So over the last five or six years of AUSL's growth

has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.

The league's gotten more and more corporate sponsors.

The players are coming to play there now.

You're taking leagues that did exist before

and you're merging them now and making the one league stronger.

If you build it, they will come.

I just made that up.

No one's ever said that before in the history of anything.

So you're welcome.

Put it on the teacher if you want.

But I really feel like if a PWHL franchise in Chicago land

is given the resources to thrive

and given the time to do so,

it will excel here.

The crowd there was into it.

They were dedicated.

They were happy to be there.

The only grumbles I heard all night

were this place kind of sucks

about the All-Staterina.

The food lines were ridiculous.

The parking lot was hard to get out of.

It's not an easy place to get to

because it's right next to all hair.

Right? I think there's just a general dissatisfaction

with All-Staterina.

But I even believe if that's what it came down to

for the Chicago PWHL team,

if it ever happens,

if it is Rosemont, I still think it will work.

Yeah, I mean, you look at the average attendance

for the Chicago Wolves.

The season is reportedly over 9,000.

Like that's a pretty good draw.

And that's for an AHL team.

Like I definitely feel like,

again, if you have a team that is out there,

that is marketed,

you give it a chance like you're saying,

like the people will be there.

The fan support will be there.

Yeah, I mean, I think if you

if you have that structure there,

and the PWHL is not going to expand

just willing, nilly,

like they don't they don't have the same leeway

that other sports leagues might wear.

If it's an expansion team and it doesn't work,

I will just move it somewhere else.

Like no, they're expanding for a purpose or expanding

and they need to get into markets

that they know are going to be successful and draw.

And I think Chicago is definitely one.

There's definitely a hunger for a team to be here

when I was at the event.

In December, there were a lot of people

that you know, you overhear conversations about like,

you know, well, we drove all the way from

you know, Indiana to come and see this

because this is our only opportunity

to see something like this.

Or there were a lot of people that came in from Wisconsin

and from Minnesota.

And even, you know, the Minnesota frost were plain.

But there were people that were coming from Minnesota

that, you know, I had a conversation.

I was just like, you know, when how often would you travel

if a team was here?

And they'd be like, you know, if it made sense,

we'd come see road games all, you know, all the time.

Sure.

So like there's even, you know,

connecting as the black hawks do,

like they have a lot of people that make the trips

to come and see games.

Like I feel like you would have that with the Chicago team

because there is a desire to have

that professional women's team be here.

And it just makes sense.

So the Chicago is such a

hockey history hub.

Yeah.

Triple H.

That, um, you know, having a women's team here just,

it just makes sense.

It makes all the sense in a world.

And look, if you want hockey to come to Chicago,

when these takeover events do come,

whether you're satisfied with the venue or not,

do your best to go.

Because these are the sort of things that the PWHL

is going to factor in when they're deciding their next place.

Like they played in DC and they sold out the Capitol's arena.

18,000 people went to see the PWHL in DC.

So it's not just like, well, Chicago is a big city.

So they're getting a team.

You'll look at what the sirens are doing.

Attendance-wise, it's not great.

When people don't want to travel the New York,

I don't know how I've never been there.

I don't know what the travel situation is,

but whatever it might be,

it's not just going to be automatically gifted to the,

to the biggest cities.

It's going to be gifted to the cities where it will work.

So if you want it to happen and they've announced a takeover

for next season, make sure you get out to see it,

make sure you support the PWHL.

The product is great.

The entertainment was great.

It was a great night out there.

And I'm sure any hockey fan watching this show

would love to attend a PWHL game

and see some of these great hockey players.