PWHL adding expansion teams in Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario, with 1 more coming to reach 12

The Las Vegas team will be formally introduced at a news conference at the Vegas Golden Knights’ home arena later Wednesday, with Hamilton to follow on Thursday, the PWHL said.

“There’s a lot of excitement and adrenaline and a lot of 'Let’s go,'” league executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer told The Associated Press about an expansion process that began with the addition of Detroit last week.

“We’re stoked and we’re proud of how far we’ve come in a short time,” she added. “But, the work starts now, right? It’s wonderful to make announcements. But that’s really when the real work comes, and the proof is in the pudding.”

Las Vegas forges new ground by introducing the PWHL to America's Southwest, a year after the league expanded into the Pacific Northwest by adding Seattle and Vancouver.

“We do need to geographically expand past the northeast and the north in general,” Scheer said. “So that’s part of the plan as we start to branch out: What are the right markets that make sense to obviously become a little bit more geographically diverse.”

With San Jose, California, and Denver in the running to become the next expansion market, the PWHL would be in position to break off into either two six-team conferences or three four-team divisions based on geographical proximity. The league’s original six franchises are New York, Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Minnesota.

Hamilton becomes Ontario's third franchise, and further expands the PWHL’s reach across the province's densely populated "Golden Horseshoe" region, without drawing fans away from Toronto, located 42 miles (68 kilometers) to the east. A league neutral site outing in Hamilton in January drew 16,012 fans, with Scheer saying 70% of the turnout had never previously attended a PWHL game.

The Hamilton-Burlington region has a population of more than 785,000, and within an hour’s drive of other major centers such as London, Kitchener-Waterloo and the Niagara Region.

Though separated by roughly 2,200 miles (3,547 kilometers) and an international border, the two newest markets meet various league expansion criteria, including being hotbeds for female hockey development.

Since the Golden Knights began play in the NHL in 2017, girls' and women's hockey participation in Las Vegas has grown by 600%, the PWHL said.

And the PWHL brings another franchise to a growing sports market that includes the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces, who relocated to the city in 2018. The Aces have won three of the past four league titles and averaged more than 11,000 per outing over the past two seasons.

As for the Hamilton region, 15% of PWHL players are from there, including Vancouver’s Sarah Nurse, and Toronto teammates Renata Fast and Emma Maltais.

The markets feature arena partners eager to work with the league on availability to ensure there are open dates to fit in games into the facility's schedules. Arena availability factored into the PWHL’s decision-making with several markets ruled out because of scheduling conflicts.

The yet-to-be-named Las Vegas team will play out of the Golden Knights' home T-Mobile Arena, and feature a color scheme of green and gold.

Hamilton’s team colors will be gold, maroon and cream. The team will play out of the city’s newly renovated downtown TD Coliseum, where it will share the ice with the New York Islanders' minor-league affiliate, which is relocating from Bridgeport, Connecticut, this year.

The arena has a 16,400 capacity for hockey. It was formerly called the Copps Coliseum, which in 1987 hosted eight Canada Cup tournament games, including Canada’s two wins over the Soviet Union in the best-of-three final.

AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey