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FILE – A rainbow is shown as fans line up outside SAP Center at San Jose before an NHL hockey game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the San Jose Sharks in San Jose, Calif., March 23, 2024.<\/p>\n
Jeff Chiu\/AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu<\/p>\n
FILE – Fans gather to watch the Montreal Victoire and the Toronto Sceptres warm up before a PWHL hockey game in Vancouver, Jan. 8, 2025. (Ethan Cairns\/The Canadian Press via AP, File)<\/p>\n
Ethan Cairns\/AP<\/p>\n
Fans cheer on Montreal Victoire’s Maggie Flaherty (91) after she scored the winning goal against Ottawa Charge during overtime in Game 2 of the PWHL Walter Cup finals hockey series in Laval, Quebec, Saturday, May 16, 2026.(Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
Christopher Katsarov\/Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadia<\/p>\n
San Jose landed a pro women\u2019s hockey franchise on Tuesday with the PWHL completing its ambitious four-team expansion process with a first entry into California.<\/p>\n
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The league now has 12 teams entering its fourth season, and has doubled in size since the PWHL was established in June 2023. In selecting San Jose, the PWHL adds a region with a population of about 7.6 million, strengthens its geographic footprint with a third Pacific Coast-based franchise, and enters a market with a strong history of supporting women\u2019s sports and girls hockey development.<\/p>\n
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The team will play out of the NHL home of the San Jose Sharks, the SAP Center, with the bid to land the franchise led by the city and Sharks Sports & Entertainment.<\/p>\n
This will be the third major professional women’s team to come to the Bay Area in the last few years, following Bay FC of the National Women\u2019s Soccer League in 2024 and the Golden State Valkyries of the WNBA in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at where you want to be and you look at how this market has supported women\u2019s sports and how the Valkyries have just blossomed and now Bay FC, you want to part of that,\u201d said Amy Scheer, PWHL executive vice president of business operations. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool to see women celebrated and to see the stadiums full. It was definitely a factor in wanting to come here and be part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new team was officially announced at a news conference at the Shark Tank that featured former Sharks star and Hall of Famer Joe Thornton in attendance and two trailblazing women’s athletes with ties to the area on stage in 1992 Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi and World Cup and Olympic champion soccer star Brandi Chastain.<\/p>\n
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There were also several young girls in attendance who have been part of the Junior Sharks hockey program and were excited about the launch of a pro team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that women\u2019s sport is not a hiccup, it\u2019s not a charity, it\u2019s not just, \u2018OK, we\u2019ll try it one time,\u2019\u201d said Chastain, a co-founder of Bay FC. \u201cWe have believed in women\u2019s sports for a long time. I\u2019ve been screaming about women\u2019s sports for 50 or more years. The fact that we have this now, we have such a cadre of women\u2019s athletes in our community. … It is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Jose\u2019s selection closes the league\u2019s second expansion process, which began with the addition of Detroit two weeks ago followed by Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario, a week later. They join Seattle and Vancouver, who were added last year, and the PWHL’s original six markets of Boston, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Scheer has previously said league officials are exploring splitting in either two conferences or multiple divisions. All four newcomers help fill geographical voids in reducing travel time between markets.<\/p>\n
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San Jose has also become a hockey hotbed, ranking sixth in the nation in girls hockey participation.<\/p>\n
Sharks president Jonathan Becher said he has had serious interest in bringing professional women\u2019s hockey to San Jose since 2019 when U.S. star Kendall Coyne Schofield competed in the NHL All-Star skills competition at the Shark Tank. He said the city tried during the previous expansion process and didn\u2019t get a team but got the nod this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember I was here in the audience, and I turned and looked at the people I was sitting next to, our own Sharks owner and the former GM, and said, we\u2019ve got to get a women\u2019s hockey team here in San Jose,\u201d Becher said. \u201cWell, it took a few years, but now they\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The yet-to-be-named team\u2019s colors will be orange \u2014 in a nod to the Sharks \u2014 blue and white, representing the coastline and sky.<\/p>\n
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The success of Bay FC and the Valkyries helped make the league’s decision to make its first entry into California in San Jose.<\/p>\n
Bay FC ranked third in the NWSL in attendance last season and drew 40,091 fans to a game at Oracle Park in San Francisco for the third largest crowd in league history.<\/p>\n
The Valkyries made the playoffs as an expansion team when they led the league in attendance with more than 18,000 fans a game at Chase Center. The team was recently valued at a league-high $850 million by Sportico after the ownership paid an expansion fee of $50 million in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just an encouraging environment,\u201d Yamaguchi said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting. Finally we\u2019re seeing what the fan base can truly be for girls and women\u2019s sports. That\u2019s huge. It\u2019s a great day today to be a part of this announcement and to know that women\u2019s sports is just at the tip of the iceberg. It\u2019s just going to get more and more popular.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The PWHL controls all of its franchises, and is privately financed by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and his wife, Kimbra.<\/p>\n
The fast-paced growth represents the surge in attention the league anticipated women\u2019s hockey would enjoy following the Milan Cortina Olympics in February. Another factor is the league preparing for a bumper-crop of high-level talent declaring for this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n
The league said it has already gotten nearly 2,000 requests for season tickets in the hours after the announcement of the new team and is confident it will meet attendance projections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very pleased to see the number and that keeps going up,\u201d Scheer said.<\/p>\n
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The 235-player prospect class includes five collegians who won Olympic gold representing the United States, and headed by Wisconsin defender Caroline Harvey, as well as a growing number of Europeans making the jump to North America.<\/p>\n
By growing to 12 teams, including seven in the U.S., the PWHL is also in better position to secure a national broadcast partner. Scripps Sports is the likely candidate with the broadcaster taking the first step this season by airing PWHL playoff games on ION, which reaches 126 million American households.<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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