SEATTLE — Seattle makes history again, scoring a hat trick, becoming the first city in the United States to host all three professional women’s sports leagues: the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), and now the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).

The PWHL granted Seattle the 8th team in the league, after announcing Vancouver as the 7th.

The first game for Seattle’s team will come up sooner than many may realize, with the league’s second season starting in November.

“This is awesome, I mean honestly, this is such a triumphant moment for women’s sports in general, but specifically hockey. As a kid, I didn’t have this vision, didn’t see this possibility,” Shoreline native Kelly Stephens Tysland told KOMO News.

She is a U.S. Olympic medalist on the 2006 Team USA Women’s Hockey Team and is now the spokesperson for Professional Women’s Hockey Seattle.

“The game is a beautiful game of ice hockey. It’s fast and it’s furious and everyone’s going to love it,” Zoë Harris told KOMO News.

Harris has spent more than 30 years working to grow the sport of hockey, while coaching the University of Washington men’s team, plus many women’s and girl’s teams.

Harris, who also played hockey, founded the Women’s Pro Hockey Seattle group that pushed to get professional women’s hockey here. It took about 5 years for them to win that fight.

RELATED | PWHL Seattle to debut at Climate Pledge Arena with emerald green and cream colors

“Everybody on the outside wants to be Seattle,” Amy Scheer with the PWHL said during the league’s big announcement in Seattle.

“Seattle is such an amazing home base for the PWHL to come into,” Stephens Tysland said.

So, how did Seattle land this team?

“I think Seattle is pretty obvious. How cool for our players to be able to call Climate Pledge Arena home,” Sheer said.

Seattle hockey fans proved they are worthy when 12,600 of them packed into Climate Pledge during the PWHL Takeover Tour they brought in January.

“I was with my whole team, and it was just an awesome experience. I was just so inspired because they were pushing each other, and I was like, wait, boys are supposed to do that, but the girls are like so phenomenal at doing it,” 10-year-old Olivia O’Grady told KOMO News.

“I thought it was so fun to watch, and it’s really cool to see girls play hockey and being really competitive too. Really inspiring,” 12-year-old Elly Dudek told KOMO News.

O’Grady told KOMO News she started playing hockey at age 7, while Dudek started at age 4.

Both Jr Kraken players are now over the moon for professional women’s hockey to start here.

“It is really exciting because lots of people, including me, have been waiting for this for a long time,” Dudek said.

“We want more kids, boys and girls in the ice,” Scheer said.

Cheering on professional women in the same arena as the men is liking to give that goal an assist.

“And the community is so supportive of the youth of the players that will come here after the expansion draft, we can learn from each other so much,” Maealie Glanzer, the Youth Ambassador for Professional Women’s Hockey, told KOMO News.

Seattle has the infrastructure to support it all, with Climate Pledge Arena hosting home games for the new women’s hockey team and the Kraken Community Iceplex supporting their training

“This team isn’t just making history, they are raising the bar for women’s sports,” King County Executive Shannon Braddock said.

The players just secured an 8-year Collective Bargaining agreement with the league that will carry them through 2031. It spells out salaries for players plus health care costs, housing stipends, improved travel accommodations, and more.

So, what will this new team be called?

“The community’s already throwing up names. We did a poll and tsunami, go , tsunami is the number one pick,” Harris told KOMO News.

The new team announced their primary color will be emerald green with a cream accent color. Once the team name is chosen, the mascot and logo will follow.

The PWHL season will be about six months long, with each team playing 30 games. Half of the games will be at home for Seattle, playing at Climate Pledge Arena.

Players for the new Seattle team will be drafted the last week of June, in Ottawa, Canada.