Some thoughts on a potential PWHL team in Detroit

At some point the league will expand, could Detroit be a fit?

As I posted about on Friday, I bought tickets this weekend and took the family to the PWHL neutral site game in Detroit between PWHL Ottawa and Boston.

It was a blast, and most importantly, my 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son had a great experience and got to witness high-level woman’s hockey in person. For my 5-year-old, who is starting to learn to play hockey herself, it was the most fun she’s ever had a hockey game.

It was also a damn good game.

Sometimes, often actually, the events on the ice don’t always live up to the event itself. You can have a good time at a bad game, but I believe to have a great time, the game itself must also be great.

Boston won 2-1 in a shootout, both teams had Grade-A chances throughout, and the goaltending was great. In the shootout my daughter fixated on cheering for Boston goalie Aerin Frankel, who may be her new favorite player.

The crowd also delivered.

The PWHL hasn’t been shy about this, they are testing markets for expansion. These neutral site games are being used to both gain momentum for the league and see if certain markets could handle a team.

Geographically Detroit makes sense, just look at the current map of the league and picture how Michigan would help bridge the midwestern gap to Minnesota.

From a customer base, because at the end of the day this is a business — Detroit fits well.

Michigan has the fourth-highest participation in the United States amongst girls hockey players behind Minnesota, New York, and Massachusetts. It also drew a crowd of 13,736 last night, an American record for the largest crowd at a women’s hockey game.

If we assume PWHL expansion is two years from now, we can also assume Detroit will be right near the top of the list. I’m far from a PWHL insider, and don’t claim to be, but having spoken to people from the league this week and attending Boston’s practice on Friday, that is close to a consensus feeling.

One key question and perhaps the most important logistic of all of this, is where would a PWHL Detroit team play regularly?

Little Caesars Arena and the Detroit Red Wings hosted the PWHL for one night, and it was great. But the building already has NHL and NBA tenants, it’s a packed schedule, so a third sports tenant would typically end up short-shifted on ideal event times.

The building is also too big. While the crowd of more than 13,000 was awesome on Saturday, it’s also a reminder that the PWHL at this point should probably regularly be playing in buildings between 5,000 and 10,000 capacity.

In theory USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth could be a good initial fit. But that building only holds 3,504, and doesn’t have many of the bells or whistles you’d want for a professional team. The United States National Development team also uses the building full-time, so there would be some logistical challenges with a heavy ice schedule for both the Under-17 and Under-18 teams.

There is also the 3,400 seat arena in Fraser, Big Boy Arena, currently home to the Federal Prospects Hockey League’s Motor City Rockers. That could also be explored as a potential venue, although I have long-term questions about whether that would work.

Ideally there is answer I’m missing here, and please let me know in the comments if so.

The PWHL is a good product and it gave my daughter one of those core memory moments last night. I want too see a team here, I just hope people smarter than me have solutions in place to make it work so I can keep taking my kids in the future.

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OK, some programming notes on a Sunday before I let you go and continue your day.

I’m on a flight to Vegas tonight, working a story for EP Rinkside this week, but plan to have pieces this week on…

• Systematically, what’s happened with the Red Wings lately?

• For Dallas folks, a look at pros and cons of the Nils Lundkvist vs. Jani Hakanpää debate.

• A follow up to my piece from a couple weeks back about why the NHL is now a dumber league.

We also should feature the return of Expected By Whom? this week. More details on that later, but I’m hoping in the future to have accompanying posts here for each pod episode that make hockey analytics better accessible.

Thanks for reading, enjoy your Sunday.