The PWHL is making a power play in Hockeytown. The league officially announced Wednesday that Detroit will join the growing ranks of professional women's hockey with a new franchise set to debut in the 2026-27 season, marking the first of what could be up to four expansion teams on the horizon.
Welcome to the ice, PWHL Detroit. The Motor City's newest squad will call Little Caesars Arena home—sharing the rink with the NHL's Detroit Red Wings and the NBA's Detroit Pistons—and will train at the BELFOR Training Center, conveniently located inside the same arena complex. This powerhouse venue puts the team right in the heart of one of hockey's most passionate markets.
PWHL Detroit becomes the league's ninth franchise, joining the original six markets of Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, New York, and Minnesota, as well as recent expansion teams in Seattle and Vancouver. It's a bold step forward for a league that's been gaining serious momentum.
"This one's been a while in the making," said Amy Scheer, the PWHL's executive vice president of business operations, in an interview with The Athletic. "I think we all felt we could have come here last year, and so we're excited that this time is really here."
The expansion bid was spearheaded by Ilitch Sports and Entertainment, the same group behind the Red Wings and MLB's Detroit Tigers. Ryan Gustafson, president and CEO of Ilitch Sports and Entertainment, expressed his enthusiasm in a statement: "We're excited to welcome the PWHL to Little Caesars Arena and thankful for the partnership with the league to bring a team to Hockeytown. The energy Detroit fans have brought to Takeover Tour games over the past few years has been undeniable—it's clear this is a market ready to embrace professional women's hockey."
Detroit has already proven to be a hotbed for women's hockey. The PWHL has hosted four neutral-site games at Little Caesars Arena over the last three years, drawing a total of 53,586 fans. The most recent game on March 28 set a Detroit attendance record with 15,938 fans packing the stands—impressively, that same day the Red Wings played just hours later, proving that double-headers could be a winning formula for navigating a packed arena schedule. That game, between the Montreal Victoire and New York Sirens, also made history as the first PWHL contest to air on national television in the U.S., broadcast on ION.
"We feel very confident in how we can do here from a business perspective," Scheer added, praising Ilitch Sports as outstanding partners. "Whether it's a standalone date, whether it's a doubleheader with the Red Wings, we feel confident we can make it work."
With Hockeytown now officially in the PWHL lineup, the league is skating into an exciting new era—and fans are already lacing up their skates to be part of the action.