It was a long-anticipated season opener, but as promised to its players, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) got underway on New Year’s Day and what better way for the league to kick off the season than on the first day of 2024.
The inaugural game took place at the Mattamy Athletic Centre — the old Maple Leafs Garden — between Toronto and New York with New York winning 4-0 in the first shutout in PWHL history.
While it a good crowd live at the game in Toronto, with 2,537 people in attendance, the numbers pulled from TSN and CBC where the game was broadcast in Canada reminded everyone why the PWHL was so highly anticipated.
PWHL Kicks Off With Strong Showing in Canada
Surely the expectations weren’t publicized, but it’s safe to say that what’s coming out now regarding how many tuned in on New Years Day is the kind of start that the league wanted to see — especially north of the border.
According to Adam Seaborn — a sports media analyst — the inaugural game between New York and Toronto delivered 741,000 viewers in Canada across CBC and TSN. He follows that up by noting that those numbers don’t include Sportsnet One’s (SN1) ratings as of yet, but that it could likely push that number over the 800,000 viewer mark.
The game was full of physicality and quality opportunities for both teams. Ella Shelton opened up the scoring at 10:43 of the first period and will go down in the history books as the first ever goal scorer in league history.
PWHL’s First Week Hasn’t Slowed Down
The final four teams took to the ice in the consecutive days following the league opener on Jan. 1, with Montreal and Minnesota both skating away with wins in their respective games.
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In fact, the league saw another record-breaking night in Ottawa for the game between Ottawa and Montreal for the largest crowd at a professional women’s hockey game with 8,318 fans in attendance. What makes this even more interesting is that Ottawa wasn’t originally considered as one of the league’s original six teams.
That said, the people showed up and the PWHL seems to be off to a great start both with their on-ice product and their following — in the arena and at home. It’s safe to say that week one has been a successful launch overall for the league with a ton of exciting times to come.
