The Ottawa Charge are staying in the city, with the PWHL “reaching an agreement to play” at the Senators’ Canadian Tire Centre next season, according to sources cited by John Wawrow of the AP. The deal was anticipated after PWHL and Senators officials in March said that the two sides were “having productive talks.” Wawrow notes the Charge played each of their four postseason games at the Canadian Tire Centre, where they averaged 13,416 fans per playoff outing. The Charge also drew a crowd of 17,114 for a regular-season game at the 18,655-capacity arena. The move to Ottawa’s suburbs was “prompted by the city going ahead with renovations that will reduce the seating capacity by about 2,000 seats at the Charge’s former home, TD Place.” The PWHL said that the cuts did “not meet fan demand, and made it financially unfeasible to stay at the arena.” Wawrow notes without the agreement, the team was “in jeopardy of leaving Canada’s capital altogether” (AP, 6/18).
