New York, Montreal to play in first-ever nationally televised PWHL game in U.S.

A Professional Women’s Hockey League game will soon be on national television in the United States for the first time, the league announced on Thursday.

The PWHL’s March 28 “Takeover Tour” game between the New York Sirens and the Montreal Victoire will now air on ION, the E.W. Scripps Company’s sports and entertainment network, at 1 p.m. ET. The neutral-site game will be held at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit for the second time this season as the PWHL eyes expansion beyond its eight current franchises.

Through ION — which is available via pay TV, connected TV, free ad-supported streaming platforms and free over-the-air — the game will be accessible to more than 126 million U.S. households, according to the PWHL’s press release, “representing a landmark moment in the league’s development and a significant opportunity for new fans to discover the league.”

“To have Scripps and ION come in and put our game out to 120-plus million people is huge,” said PWHL executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer. “The more people we reach — that’s only going to help our league grow and succeed.”

Ion is also a weekly home for nationally televised WNBA and NWSL games, with Friday night WNBA doubleheaders drawing solid ratings over the last few seasons. According to Scripps, 11 WNBA games on ION have averaged more than one million viewers.

“To have our game on the home of the NWSL and the WNBA is huge,” said Scheer. “It puts us in that category with those two other preeminent women’s leagues. That’s where we are and where we need to be.”

In Canada, national broadcast rights for all 120 PWHL games this season are split between TSN, Sportsnet, CBC and Prime Video. In the United States, games are generally available locally on regional sports networks — such as NESN in Boston and MSG Network in New York — and on YouTube nationwide. But, in its third season, the PWHL lacks a national media rights deal in the U.S.

That makes the March 28 game on ION a massive first at a time of unprecedented momentum for the PWHL after the Winter Olympics. According to the league, the PWHL is approaching an all-time in-arena attendance of two million and is seeing a 20 percent year-over-year increase in average attendance.

Since the Olympics ended last month, the PWHL has set a new U.S. arena attendance record with 17,335 fans at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, and seen two of its biggest home venue ticket sales days (Feb. 24 and 25). The league also said fans have driven a 101 percent increase in merchandise sales. Just last week, the Sirens played in front of their largest home crowd (8,264) in team history — a significant sign of growth for the league, which has struggled to get a strong foothold in the New York market.

All that increased interest in women’s hockey made now a “perfect” time for a nationally televised game, according to Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor.

“We don’t want these women who got so much interest three weeks ago to be forgotten,” Lawlor said in an interview with The Athletic. “We think there’s a great moment and a great opportunity to put them on national television now and build some energy around that and hopefully we all build from there.”

Lawlor said he’s hoping the game in Detroit will not be a “one-time only” event, and that the goal is to put the PWHL on ION on a more consistent basis, “so that the whole country gets to see the quality of play.”

“I wouldn’t qualify (the game) as a test run,” he added. “I would say it’s a first step; There’s mutual interest to continue to grow the relationship.”

According to the PWHL, the ION game will still be available to fans on YouTube, something Lawlor said the network did not want to disrupt, but rather help add to.

“I think our platform will bring in a ton of new fans,” he said. “And my expectation is that many of the fans who watch our game will probably then go and start to follow (the PWHL) on YouTube, where they can watch every game and pick their teams.”

Ally Financial is the presenting sponsor of both the telecast and the “Takeover Tour” game itself, contributing to the company’s 50/50 pledge to spend equally between men’s and women’s sports media.

“There was so much rabid fandom around the (U.S.) women’s team … that it was just something we felt like we wanted to be a part of and really make sure that that heat didn’t die down,” said Andrea Brimmer, Ally’s chief marketing and public relations officer. “It’s easy post-Olympics for everybody to just forget and to go back to real life. We didn’t want people to forget.”