secured a National Women\u2019s Soccer League franchise<\/a>, but efforts to bring a WNBA team have so far fallen short.<\/p>\nRob Cohen, part of the ownership group behind Denver\u2019s new NWSL team and an ownership group for a 2023 Denver WNBA pitch, said the city has many of the necessary ingredients, but one key issue remains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest issue that we have on a WNBA or even a professional women\u2019s hockey team is venues, the infrastructure side,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
Cohen said scheduling constraints at Ball Arena make it difficult to accommodate another professional team.<\/p>\n
\u201cBall Arena is fantastic, but Ball Arena is full for most dates from the Avalanche and the Nuggets and the Mammoth, and then you throw in the concert schedule,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we were talking about the WNBA, it was very challenging to find dates and times for that.”<\/p>\n
As part of the city\u2019s pitch, potential temporary venues included the University of Denver\u2019s Magness Arena and the Denver Coliseum. But Cohen said those options fell short of league expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they loved either of those sites,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t dislike them. I just think they didn\u2019t have everything that they were looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohen believes Denver ultimately was not that close to landing a team in the WNBA expansion process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we did the early work that we needed to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t really think we ever got close.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said other cities had more developed proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there were just markets that had been at it longer than us that were farther along in the bid process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Still, Cohen believes Denver could support both a WNBA and PWHL team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe that Denver is a market that can support it,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe Denver deserves it, and should have it,\u201d<\/p>\n
The PWHL said strong attendance in Denver is one of several factors it considers when evaluating potential expansion markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the PWHL evaluates potential markets, we look at a range of factors including the strength of the local hockey community, demonstrated fan interest, venue availability and quality, corporate partnership opportunities, accessibility to other PWHL markets, and the overall ability to support a sustainable professional team,\u201d the league said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The league pointed to Sunday\u2019s turnout as evidence of Denver\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were thrilled to see 15,512 fans at Ball Arena,\u201d the league said. \u201cThe energy in the building was palpable and another strong example of the growing interest in women\u2019s hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
City leaders say a long-term solution to the venue issue could be on the horizon. Johnston pointed to a a framework agreement for redevelopment of the National Western Complex, which includes plans to replace the aging coliseum with a new arena. However, no funding has been allocated toward it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing a community process now to get feedback on what they would want, how they would want it, where they would want it, but there is a commitment and a long-term path to do that,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cAnd so, we\u2019d love to see as a part of that if there are other franchises that would love to join us in a wonderful new arena.”<\/p>\n
For now, Denver remains in the early stages of conversations with both leagues.<\/p>\n
“What I’ve discovered in these processes is, you know, it’s sort of like bidding for the Super Bowl or the Olympics or the NCAA Final Four,” Johnston told 9NEWS. “You have to be in it for multiple cycles of conversation to get the chance to build the relationship. We just want to be in the conversation whenever those conversations start.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rob Cohen, part of Denver\u2019s NWSL ownership group and a Denver WNBA pitch in 2023, said the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-541267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}