The Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) Ottawa Charge is being put in a difficult position as their home stadium is set to remove about 3,000 seats in a new renovation. The renovations will cut down the seating to about 5,500 seats, even though the Ottawa Charge has an average attendance of 8,348 on weekends and 5,775 on weekdays. With a fanbase that is steadily increasing with each year, the new stadium plans are simply not enough for the team and its fans. Although the greater PWHL is only in their third season, they are already greatly surpassing the growth models.
One of the major appeals of the PWHL is its accessibility. Tickets range from about twenty-five to one hundred dollars, and all games are streamed for free on YouTube. If Ottawa plays in a downsized stadium, tickets would be expected to become much more expensive. Because the league is still so new, it is pivotal that they do not lose a significant part of their audience due to people not being able to afford the tickets on a regular basis anymore.
The renovations were approved before the Charge were tenants there and are necessary since the building is extremely old, so the supports are starting to become brittle. The Ottawa Junior Senators (the main tenants of the stadium) fill a mere 3,000 seats on average, so the drastic cut of seating made sense at the time. With the Charge playing at the stadium now, the removal of seating makes little to no sense. However, the city stays stubborn in their previous plan, and has not been very cooperative with the team in finding new solutions. The senior vice-president of business operations of the PWHL said, “We chose Ottawa for a reason, and the fans have been wonderfully supportive of us there, and we’d like to find a solution that works for us to stay in Ottawa. But the city hasn’t made it easy for us, and it’s disappointing.”
Ottawa’s NHL team, the Senators, have said they are willing to host the Charge in their arena, however they are hesitant to get in trouble with the city and will not go against city orders. Although too big for the current fanbase, this stadium would be ideal for the Charge since they could close off the top half of the stadium and concentrate everyone in the bottom half. This would be beneficial because it would prevent the feeling of emptiness that can occur in too large stadiums but maintain space to grow. But with pressure from the city of Ottawa, there remains a chance that the team will have to move to a new city entirely.
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