Seattle’s strong support of women’s sports on display with reaction to the PWHL’s arrival

When the PWHL announced Seattle as the second city in its first wave of expansion (one week after announcing Pacific Northwest neighbor Vancouver), the decision felt less like a surprise and more like a long-awaited inevitability. With a deep-rooted culture of progressive sports fandom, a thriving women’s sports community, and a city-wide embrace of equity and innovation, Seattle didn’t just make sense—it made a statement.

This isn’t the first time Seattle has welcomed a pro women’s sports team with open arms. From the WNBA’s Seattle Storm to the NWSL’s Seattle Reign, the Emerald City has become one of North America’s most reliable strongholds for women’s sports. Now, with the addition of PWHL Seattle, the city is poised to further cement its reputation as a trailblazer in gender equity in sports.

As Amy Scheer, PWHL Executive Vice President of Business Operations, said in conjunction with the announcement, “The opportunity to start a new chapter of women’s hockey in the Pacific Northwest, combined with calling the world-class Climate Pledge Arena home has so much meaning for our league. The Kraken already have been unbelievably supportive, and it’s a joy to have PWHL Seattle join the WNBA’s Storm and the NWSL’s Reign, who are skyscrapers in the city’s towering sports landscape.”

At a jubilant press conference on April 30 at historic Climate Pledge, Scheer added another exciting and salient point: “I believe this will be the first time that two professional women’s sports teams will share an arena, and there’s no better place to hit that milestone than here in Seattle.”

The Storm, who play at the arena already, joined the WNBA ahead of the 2000 season and have qualified for the playoffs in 19 of their 25 seasons and won four league titles. Their tenure in Seattle has lasted long past their once-brother team, the NBA’s SuperSonics, departed for Oklahoma City and has been made possible in large part thanks to their ownership, a group of Seattle businesswomen.

Seattle Reign FC is one of eight inaugural members of the NWSL, founded in 2012. They have captured three NWSL Shields as the team with the best record in the regular season. As notable, and as inexorable, as the women’s sports history in Seattle is the fan support. The Storm regularly draw one of the highest average attendances in the W, while Reign FC has helped elevate the NWSL with big names (Megan Rapinoe!) and a dedicated fan base. And at the collegiate level, women’s sports at the University of Washington enjoy strong support.

What's more, there was a grassroots movement that helped push Seattle to the forefront of the PWHL’s expansion plans. Explained Kim Merriken to us after the April 30 press conference, “A woman named Zoe Harris started Women’s Pro Hockey Seattle, kind of a community movement to start pushing to bring women’s pro hockey to Seattle. I actually got involved a little over five years ago...We started having, like, rallying events and anytime there’s a women’s hockey event—the Rivalry Series, the Takeover Tour—that came through Seattle, they did a really big push to get people, to get butts in seats, for those games. So Zoe has been rallying the troops for five-plus years and really leading the charge to generate community excitement about women’s pro hockey in Seattle.”

Instagram @wphseattle / Via instagram.com

“We fought hard and it’s paying off in a really quick way and I think the people who are going to be fans right off the bat have worked really hard for it to be here,” said Brighid Donohue, captain and outgoing president of the U-Dub women’s hockey team.

As a 2023 story in Sports Travel Magazine put it, “There may be no city in the United States that supports women’s sports in the depth and breadth that Seattle does.”

Said Mel Harrow, coach of the women’s hockey team Donohue plays for, “All the women’s sports programs just support each other so much and that carries the fans over. So if you have fun at a Storm game you’re going to go to a Reign game and if you have fun that’s now going to carry over to ice hockey and we also have the Rough and Tumble, which was the second women’s sports bar in existence in the United States and which we know will be the hype spot for the PWHL games if you can’t get in the arena. It’s just going to be such a buzz for the whole city to have another team to support.”

The NHL’s Kraken, who launched in 2021, have shown a commitment to elevating women’s hockey. From hosting girls’ hockey clinics to spotlighting women’s achievements in the game, the Kraken’s arrival has helped accelerate hockey’s growth across genders in the Pacific Northwest, which was a trend local publication Seattle Met picked up on back in 2022.

The PWHL has been deliberate about choosing its early expansion markets—prioritizing areas that offer financial sustainability, accessible facilities and a solid fan base. Seattle checked all the boxes.

The city boasts a strong youth and amateur hockey scene, bolstered by the Kraken’s arrival and the opening of the Kraken Community Iceplex in Northgate—a state-of-the-art facility that serves as a hub for all levels of the sport. Just as importantly, the city’s media market is robust. Seattle-Tacoma is one of the top 15 television markets in the U.S., ensuring valuable visibility for the new franchise. Its tech-savvy population and digital fluency also make it an ideal environment for growing a team organically through online engagement and community-driven content.

By establishing a pro team in the region, the PWHL is creating new opportunities not just for fans, but for players, coaches, officials and aspiring hockey professionals across the board. “I’m excited that we will now have all the steps you can take in hockey here in Seattle,” added Harrow. “We have our youth leagues, we have the college club team, and now we have a professional team. The fact that we have everything right here, it’s just gonna influence more people to play. Hopefully, it’s also gonna influence more girls to coach.”

In many ways, Seattle is a model franchise before it even has a roster.

Seattle is a city that believes in parity, inclusivity and pushing the sports world forward. It’s a city where women’s teams aren’t treated as novelty acts—they’re celebrated as the main event. Now, with the PWHL’s arrival, Seattle sports fans are getting another reason to show up. And if history is any guide, they’ll do so in droves.