New York Sirens players reflect on growth of women’s hockey, fanbase
Two members of the New York Sirens share their feelings on the growth of women’s hockey and the PWHL.
The PWHL is growing rapidly, and doubling down on its meteoric growth is paying off.
On Thursday, Ally Financial and Scripps Sports announced they are partnering with the PWHL to broadcast the league’s first game on national television in the U.S. The collaboration will happen during the league’s PWHL Takeover Tour, a special initiative where regular-season games are played at neutral sites to test potential expansion markets, increase the league’s visibility and grow the sport.
Ally Financial, Scripps Sports and the PWHL selected a Saturday, March 28, game between the New York Sirens and the Montréal Victoire to be the first nationally broadcast matchup. The game will be shown live on ION at 1 p.m. ET from Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. It’s expected to be accessible to more than 126 million households.
“When you give women’s sports the platform they deserve, fans show up, players show out, and the entire ecosystem benefits,” said Andrea Brimmer, Ally’s chief marketing and public relations officer. “Our 50/50 pledge has always been about equal opportunities for women’s sports in media. Delivering this historic PWHL broadcast with Scripps is the next step in elevating world-class athletes and giving fans unprecedented access.”
“We’ve been talking with both Ally and Scripps for two years now, and we’ve talked about finding the right time, the right moment, being able to deliver on everything needed to do this, and I think that moment has come,” Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s executive vice president of business operations, told USA TODAY Sports. “We’re really excited to get our first game nationally broadcast to 120-plus million people across the U.S.”
The timing of the national broadcast is noteworthy as it capitalizes on the momentum following the 2026 Winter Olympics. Of the 23 players who won gold with the U.S. women’s hockey team in Italy, 16 were PWHL athletes. In total, 61 PWHL players participated in the Games, and 41 competed in the two medal games, showcasing the league’s global talent.
Following the Games, interest in pro women’s hockey tickets reportedly jumped 50%. On Feb. 28, the Seattle Torrent set a record for the largest attendance ever for a women’s hockey game in the U.S, with 17,335 fans at Climate Pledge Arena. On April 4, the league is expected to set another U.S. attendance record with a game between the Sirens and Torrent at Madison Square Garden. In just its third season, the PWHL is approaching 2 million fans and a 20% year-over-year increase in average attendance.
Scheer shared with USA TODAY that after two years of conversations, the support of Ally and Scripps has been paramount. According to the PWHL executive, from a distribution standpoint, having Ally as the presenting sponsor of the historic broadcast and the Takeover Tour game in Detroit, in addition to the Scripps network to promote the event, “validates” the PWHL as a league.
Scheer says it serves as another metric that indicates how much the league is growing and gets messaging out to people who don’t know about the PWHL. The PWHL executive explained that the ultimate goal is to increase visibility of the league, putting its games out there as often as possible and in front of as many people as possible.
“We feel confident, once you see our game, you’re going to come back,” Scheer said.
“I think it puts us in great company to have a game on ION, that also is the home of the WNBA, NWSL (and it) puts us in that company. … That’s really important for us and how we’re viewed as a league.”
