It was yet another record-breaking night in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), but even as financial concerns linger, it seems there’s nothing the PWHL can do wrong in New York City. In the first-ever PWHL game at Madison Square Garden, the PWHL set a new US attendance record, yet again this year, with just over 18,000 fans watching on as the New York Sirens beat the Seattle Torrent 2-1. And despite projections of losses, the league doesn’t plan to slow down, as Stan Kasten has revealed bold plans for the future.

While not an owner of the PWHL, Kasten is an Advisory Board member and revealed at the pre-game press conference that everything is pointing toward an expansion of the league.

“We’re ready to expand,” Kasten said in a video on X. “There is a line of cities eager to have us there, whether it’s for a couple of takeover tour games or for a full-time team. We’re going to have news about that in the next few weeks.”

For context: the PWHL’s Takeover Tour has doubled as a test run for its next phase of expansion. Cities like Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Halifax, and Hamilton have all shown an appetite for hosting elite women’s hockey. South of the border, markets such as Denver, Detroit, Chicago, and Washington have proven just as promising, each one eager for a piece of the league’s rising momentum.

After adding the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent ahead of this season via an April 2025 expansion, the PWHL (now with eight teams evenly split between the U.S. and Canada) plans to grow by another two to four teams before 2026-27. The Seattle Torrent hosts home games at Climate Pledge Arena, the NHL Seattle Kraken’s home rink.

It’s rapid growth, but the league still sees itself as a startup until key goals like securing major sponsorships and a national U.S. broadcast deal are achieved. Those milestones will be crucial to turning fast-paced expansion into long-term strength.

Not only that, the Torrent joined Vancouver as the league’s first two expansion teams, as the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montreal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge, and Toronto Sceptres were the league’s first six teams.

“The list of cities that want us is as long as any list you could have,” Kasten explained. “The problem we have, particularly in American cities, is that the most appropriate venue for us is no longer the 5,000- or 6,000-seat arena; it’s the big venues, and they don’t have dates for us.

“I’ve talked to the NHL teams in those buildings, and the owners of those buildings, and finding dates is our biggest issue now in cities.”

Yet, all that comes with the league has been operating at a loss every night as they have been outperforming their expense projections every year. It does mean that the PWHL is in the red yet again, as per Kasten, but they fully expected that as the league is still in its “startup phase.” And yet they plan to keep pushing, as once the league hits the black, they plan to make improvements again.

“The revenue growth has been consistent, and next year it’s going to take another jump,” Kasted revealed. “We’re still in the red again, but that’s what we planned for, and the gap is closing.”

That includes increasing the amount the players are paid and lengthening their season, as the current PWHL season is 30 games. But the league is aiming for 40 or 50 in the future. That may take some time, given their financial situation, but the boom the Winter Olympics provided them has helped ease the pressure.

The hype surrounding the Milano Cortina Games, combined with Team USA women’s ice hockey’s success, transformed the hockey league as attendance skyrocketed. But all that happened only because the PWHL and its board fully expected it and prepared for it.

Stan Kasten reflects on preparing for the Olympic effect on the PWHL

And the numbers reflect that: attendance has been up 20% season-over-season with 616,795 total fans through 71 games (average 8,687), and since the Olympics, records have been falling. They set not one but three attendance records this season, as the April attendance record broke the February record, which in turn broke the record set in November.

In fact, even during the Olympics, the PWHL saw merchandise sales shoot up 101% from pre-event levels, and its YouTube channel experienced a 200% increase in traffic. All that was thanks to the PWHL’s pre-Olympics preparation, as they realized the moment the Olympic rosters were announced that the Milan Games could prove to be crucial for the PWHL.

“Right then, we talked about it: it’s going to require extra budget, it’s going to require extra people, let’s get a facility in Milan and prepare to take sponsors, investors, and a world of assembled media who are all seeing the foremost women’s hockey league in the world for the first time,” Kasten said.

“We thought about it as a launch pad for our next wave of interest. I have to tell you, like with a lot of things from the first day we started this league, I could not have predicted it would turn out this well.”

The PWHL is in a unique spot: Setting records on the ice while managing financial losses. Yet the league keeps pushing forward, with Stan Kasten and his team firmly focused on its growth and future.