Overview
- The first PWHL game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday drew a sellout crowd of 18,006, and the New York Sirens beat the Seattle Torrent 2-1 in a shootout.
- Officials called the night a landmark for the league, with advisory board member Stan Kasten saying expansion news is coming within weeks after signaling interest from multiple cities.
- Kasten said the league still runs planned nightly losses but is tracking ahead of forecasts and is pushing for bigger U.S. media and sponsorship deals after a one-off national telecast on ION, with most games on regional networks and free YouTube streams.
- League data show a roughly 25% year-over-year rise in average attendance, a highest-ever weekly total of 80,703, merchandise sales more than doubling during the Olympics, and a pace to surpass one million ticketed fans this month.
- The record crowd followed the PWHL’s Takeover Tour strategy of staging games in major NHL arenas to test markets, which leadership says is guiding venue choices and targets for adding two to four teams for 2026–27.